Hijacking oem hardware

[swagaero]

Webb wrote:
> 
> Greetings
> 
> I have been sorta "lurking" on the sidelines for a long time,
> evaluating the projects, and contemplating doing something
> myself.
> 
> I have a number of OEM units, and went as far as to lool at the
> 332 project closely. I also bought an 80552 board, and worked for
> a while at implimenting the algorythms I have encountered.
> 
> I'm an EE, with considerable experience with microcontrollers. It
> strikes me that the ultimate solution to the problem of cheap,
> reliable hardware platform to experiment with  is to "hijack"
> some newer OEM platform that is cheap and common at the
> boneyards.
> 
> The OEM stuff is not standard hardware - some of it anyway. It
> has been reworked for the intended purpose, and hardened for the
> hostile environment to a far greater degree than anything that
> could be cobbled together in my garage.
> 
> The problem is that the hardware is proprietary. No memory maps,
> no hardware configuration, no documentation for the I/O chips, no
> way of disassembling the code, and no assemblers, or compilers
> available. Furthermore, most units are potted, so you can't even
> get to the stuff without melting the potting.
> 
> If some industrious individual were to do a comprehensive job of
> reverse engineering one of these units, it would create a
> beautiful, cheap, rugged platform for any wierd idea anyone
> wanted to try.
> 
> If one wanted to do that, one would need to
> 
> 1) Identify a candidate platform
>         - as much known about it already as possible
>         - with the latest technology available
> 
> 2) Obtain one
>         - Melt the potting
>         - Copy the code in all the ROMS
>         - Attempt to identify all the hardware
>         - Trace out a schematic, and put it on a schematic
> capture package
>         - Connect a logic analyzer, and watch the operation in
> progress
>         - Using this info, attempt to devine the I/O memory map,
> and put
>            together a package of published documentation where
> possible
> 
> This strikes me as more of a project than any one person's
> talents, spare time, and energy are likely to take to fruition. I
> am equally certain that between us, we could carry off such a
> project.
> 
> Is anyone interested? Who can do what?


Been there done that. Look at my web site

Steve
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