Interacting with CC2510

[agathakazar]

Hi, I tried using your programmer to interact with theh MCU, but failed miserably.

Couldn't get a chip ID or anything, I'm beggining to think that the MCU might be debug-locked but I'm not sure, and I don't knwo how to check it.

Also, it seems that we have different revisions:

This one has 5 debug pads on both sides which connect to:

stuff on the front

1	2	3	4	5
2 - DVDD	31 RESET_N	9 P0_4	16 P2_2	GND

and on the back

1	2	3	4	5
7 P0_2	8 P0_3	11 P0_5	15 P2_1	AVDD

So if you could share some info, it might help:

• I noticed that you had some parts de-soldered, did you have any trouble talking to the MCU before that?
• Also, did you manage to dump the firmware from the MCU?

[andrei-tatar]

I noticed that you had some parts de-soldered, did you have any trouble talking to the MCU before that?

That's how mine was from the start.

Also, did you manage to dump the firmware from the MCU?

I don't think I even tried... I abandoned it for now but I did manage to get some graphics showing up on the display.

[ronbal]

@agathakazar die you get something working? I ve the same Tag.

[luuillu]

thank you for your useful info, I successfully connect the board to cc-debugger.
I can not dump the firmware, because it locked

[redfast00]

It's possible to dump the firmware, but it's not for the faint of heart: https://zeus.ugent.be/blog/22-23/reverse_engineering_epaper/

[BackMountainDevil]

I got one with 10 debug pads just like your picture. Its VUSION 2.6 BWR GL420. use Uno run code and get the Chip ID succ. How to use that code the upload a firmware to cc2510?

[fraintt]

I also would be interrested on more Info about this CHIP.
Have some tags, and would like to display custom HomeAssistant Information on it!
Couldn´t be something like OpenEpaperLink be used for this tag as well?

[andrei-tatar]

@fraintt As far as I can tell OpenEpaperLink uses zigbee based tags. CC2510 doesn't support zigbee. I guss a different integration/plugin could be made with it's own gateway device. I personally haven't looked into it too much, though it would be cool.

[skiphansen]

I can confirm programming issues with SOME programmers.

I have two CC-Debugger clones that I use on other projects. One is a pretty close copy of the original TI programmer and the other is a cost reduced version that omits the level converter/buffer chips which were in the original.

The close clone works fine. I was able to erase flash and program the hex file from this repo w/o a problem.
The code runs, clears the screen and then starts flashing the LED.

The clone w/o the buffers is unable to unlock flash and only occasionally even detects the chip.

For completeness my tag is a GL440 2.6 inch.

I can also confirm that the OEPL project is zigbee based and does not and will not support Imagotags for multiple reasons
not all of which are technical.

[andrei-tatar]

I think this is a good starting point for a custom, useful firmware:
https://github.com/fishpepper/OpenSky/tree/master

If anyone wants to have a go... I might take a chance in the next months. Would be cool to send an image over 2.4GHz and display it on the screen.

[redfast00]

I'm looking forwards to it; I stopped my approach of dumping the firmware and reverse engineering it when I saw that a page got corrupted and realized I'd have to rebuild my dumping approach with another board.

[katalin2003]

Hi @agathakazar
Did you get anywhere with yours ? I have a few with the same board revision.

[andrei-tatar]

Hi @katalin2003 , I had some progress, though I don't have as much time as I would like.

I need to get 2 separate firmwares:

1. gateway firmware - to facilitate communication with the tags, as I don't have any other way of sending radio messages to CC2510
2. node firmware - something simple like: sleep, periodic wake, check with gateway if there's an update (over radio), if there is display it, else go back to sleep.

Probably an ESP32 firmware would also be nice to make it easier to communicate with the gateway.

[Loryuwu]

I can confirm programming issues with SOME programmers.

I have two CC-Debugger clones that I use on other projects. One is a pretty close copy of the original TI programmer and the other is a cost reduced version that omits the level converter/buffer chips which were in the original.

The close clone works fine. I was able to erase flash and program the hex file from this repo w/o a problem. The code runs, clears the screen and then starts flashing the LED.

The clone w/o the buffers is unable to unlock flash and only occasionally even detects the chip.

For completeness my tag is a GL440 2.6 inch.

I can also confirm that the OEPL project is zigbee based and does not and will not support Imagotags for multiple reasons not all of which are technical.

@skiphansen Hello, I hope you have a great day. I saw in your comment that you tried to flash the cc2510 with your own script. I've been trying for a long time to create and compile my own script for this MCU, but I haven't been able to do it. Could you tell me how you did it? Could you share your bin file with me so I can flash it on my own cc2510 and run tests? Thanks.

[skiphansen]

Here you go: firmware.ihx.txt.
I renamed it so github would allow me to attach it.

I just compiled the source from this repo using SDCC version 4.2.0.

skip@Dell-5510:~/esl/imagotag-hack/firmware$ make
+ find . -type f -name *.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/time.rel src/hal/time.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/time.rel src/hal/time.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/clock.rel src/hal/clock.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/clock.rel src/hal/clock.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/uart.rel src/hal/uart.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/hal/uart.rel src/hal/uart.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/cobs/cobs.rel src/cobs/cobs.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/cobs/cobs.rel src/cobs/cobs.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/main.rel src/main.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/main.rel src/main.c
sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/display/epd.rel src/display/epd.c
+ sdcc -c --model-small --opt-code-speed -DBUILD -c -o src/display/epd.rel src/display/epd.c
+ find . -type f -name *.c
sdcc --out-fmt-ihx --code-loc 0x000 --code-size 0x7FFF  --xram-loc 0xF000 --xram-size 0xF00  --iram-size 0x100  --model-small --opt-code-speed -o firmware.ihx  ./src/hal/time.rel  ./src/hal/clock.rel  ./src/hal/uart.rel  ./src/cobs/cobs.rel  ./src/main.rel  ./src/display/epd.rel  
+ sdcc --out-fmt-ihx --code-loc 0x000 --code-size 0x7FFF --xram-loc 0xF000 --xram-size 0xF00 --iram-size 0x100 --model-small --opt-code-speed -o firmware.ihx ./src/hal/time.rel ./src/hal/clock.rel ./src/hal/uart.rel ./src/cobs/cobs.rel ./src/main.rel ./src/display/epd.rel
packihx firmware.ihx > firmware.hex
+ packihx firmware.ihx
packihx: read 91 lines, wrote 151: OK.
skip@Dell-5510:~/esl/imagotag-hack/firmware$ 

[Loryuwu]

Hello @skiphansen I come to say hello again and thank you for your help, I think I've learned how to compile the script, I've been fighting against IAR EW for a long time trying to install and compile it there, but it's a paid program and I've never been able to use its compiler either, now I'm learning the logic to program this chip, and I'm making quite a bit of progress, I just got the LED to blink in white, red, green and blue, it may not be much, but for me this is incredible progress