I-Appliance BBS The Official Source for Internet Appliance Upgrades and Mods BBS Main List | Sign In | Sign Up | Search | Help | Linux-Hacker.net Reply to Thread | Printer |

Home / Other I-Appliances / MailStation Real Z80 hackers only Assembly experience required

Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) hamilton Profile For those how do not need explaination.... free drive..... mailstation mailstation first 32k for code flash 06-09-2001 14:40:02

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile Years ago I had a fair beginner's hobbist knowledge of such things, but its all forgotten now. So although I can't do anything with that code, I'm impressed by what you've done. That was a big step in being able to hack this machine. If there are others reading who do understand such assembler code, take a look at what Hamilton found. Did you get the assembler code by physically removing a chip, or was it accessible through the "printer" port. 06-26-2001 22:32:33

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) hamilton Profile Thanks, I removed the chip from the board. The larger chip is for code the smaller chip is for some configuration info. I have not touched this code since early June. I hope to get back to it this fall. Did you notice the ASCII text around $004320. hamilton 06-27-2001 20:35:31

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile Yes. Couldn't miss text saying please wait while the software is being updated. Etc. 06-28-2001 21:40:25

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) RogBlake Profile | Email Can I get a copy of the ROM? I have both the retail and white box versions of the mailstation, but lack a proper socket for reading out the ROM. I'd love to port CP/M to the thing... Rog 07-15-2001 17:24:12

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) hamilton Profile CP/M ??? Ok, Where would you put storage ??? Anyway, I have uploaded most of the files I found about the chips in the mailstation. There is a ZIP file with the ROM from the black version. The 32K segments are from my chip reader. ( FYI 8032, external memory decode 32K segments ) The 28f080 is 16 64KB segments, or 32 32KB segments. Enjoy. hamilton 07-18-2001 10:11:50

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) davidi Profile I would assume that the chip with the program in it is non-writeable? Would it be possible to replace it with a re-writeable version? I don't have a mailstation to lay my hands on, but.....the LCD-LCD driver-case-Keyboard-etc.. alone are worth more than $50. It has an extremely low power requirement and a reasonable footprint too. It should be possible to convert it to a dumb-serial terminal with little more than a single chip replacement--and more importantly code replacement. (PLC based VT-100...there's got to be code around somewhere for that....) Once that is done, all of the programming and processing would be off-loaded to the host PC. Much easier to reconfigure than the vt-100 mailstation. The uses for such a device coupled to a remote linux PC--or even DOS would be endless: Data Entry, Point of Sale, MP3 player controls, DVD player controls, X10 (home automation), Data acquisition and display, Digital controlpanels, test equipment display and controls. Granted the link speed would be <33.6kbps--but for text-only you'd only need 1200bps anyway... The only limitation would be the phone cord for the thing to talk to the server. It wouldn't be practical to use the thing wireless anyway. 07-28-2001 09:46:03

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) beeblebrox87 Profile Would such a chip replacment work on one of the Mivo 150 units too, if it were possible on the mailstation? /http://cidco.com/products/mivo100.html 07-28-2001 11:05:30

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) hamilton Profile Before your imagination gets carried away. The CPU is a z80 ( 8 bit processor ) LINUX _CAN NOT_ run on a z80. The only DOS that could run is CP/M , even tho some has mentioned it, it won't happen. ( why, cuse no one here is willing to put in that much work for a dead end device) Davidi list of applications sounds good, but it will never get done without real documentation. So if anyone whats to do some real work, contact whomever you need to and get the docs. Then real development can start. 07-28-2001 20:27:42

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) Suppafly Profile | Email how possible would it be to play mp3's on this beast.. im guessing not at all but someone mentioned it so i thought I'd ask and see if anyone knew. 08-06-2001 21:36:07

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) yikesman Profile www.freecell.com is a website that was intended provide email, news, ICQ, even telnet service for portable devices (cellphones, wireless PDAs) - maybe these would work with the MailStation. You send commands via email, or set up a schedule to send you email, and receive email messages back. Haven't tried the telnet on my cellphone but they say it works. 08-17-2001 09:33:12

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile Although I hesitate to respond to the last "freecell" post in this thread because a description of "website that was intended provide email, news, ICQ, even telnet service for portable devices (cellphones, wireless PDAs)" is off-topic from the topic of real Z80 hacker, and the guts of the mailstations software that was reported in this thread ... ... but when I open http://www.freecell.com , I'm taken to webpage about playing card games. If the URL was posted wrong, it seems to belong in a differnt thread. 08-17-2001 11:41:09

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) yikesman Profile Er, sorry, that was supposed to be www.trancell.com. and I posted it here because there was a post above talking about making the MailStation into a VT-100 term. Thus, I thought a possible Telnet solution might not be too O/T. 08-17-2001 20:32:20

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile With Hamilton's demonstration of his accomplishment's at freedrive.com that start this thread, he shows that he knows what he is talking about, so I wouldn't even doubt what he says. Hamilton also wrote that: >The CPU is a z80 ( 8 bit processor ) LINUX _CAN NOT_ run on a z80. >The only DOS that could run is CP/M , But after doing alot of searching, including http://www.freetradezone.com/ I can't find any information about the Chip labelled RSDRD. This is what is written on the chip I understand is the processor: RSDRD 3SI 176 0A F993800316 Another article stated also stated that the chip is a z80. ( http://www.zilog.com/about/relatednews/022100.html )Stating: Eliminating the Web can eliminate cost. Cidco's new MailStation is designed around an ancient 27-MHz, 16-bit Z80 microprocessor from Zilog Inc., and is paired with a monochrome display optimized for text, an embedded OS running on 512 Kbytes of RAM, 512 Kbytes of flash, and a 28-Kbit modem-all integrated by Taiwan contract manufacturer Inventek. The Z80 was designed-in because of its familiar code base and design, Cidco's L'Heureux said. So, two thoughts/questions. 1) Any ideas what is the name of the embedded OS, 2) Is there something particular about this Z80 chip that it is not referrenced anywhere else? 09-01-2001 10:04:59

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) ygator Profile Can I possibly get the rom code for the mailstation from someone? Hey rogblake7 did you ever dump the entire ROM? 04-02-2002 23:15:12

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) rogblake7 Profile | Email I'm still working on getting the ROM read out. I can't locate any TSOP48 adaptors around here, so I guess I'll have to build something up. I have the original dump from Hamilton, but only the first 32K is valid. It looks like one of the address lines was floating or shorted throughout the rest of the dump. I can send you what I have if you give me an email address or send email to rogblake2000@yahoo.com 04-03-2002 08:29:25

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) ygator Profile Rogblake2000, Let me know if the file is too big to email to my yahoo account and I can give you place to ftp it to. 04-04-2002 10:52:14

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) jotramis Profile | Email Hello, I am new to this BBS, but have found your info on the mail station to be extremely helpful. I recently purchased a mailstation from JustDeals for my mom for Xmas. Set it up per your instructions with my earthlink account and up until now everything has been hunky-dory. But suddenly the mailstation is experiencing key board errors, i.e. the "t" key is pressed and the LCD displays "tr". Delete key ( or backspace ) does not respond at all, and the power button no longer will shut off the power. I went into the diagnostics test on the shift,function,T menu and ran the keybord test and found that after pressing the keys several times that all is normal and all keys work except for the get mail key and the power button. My question is this. Is this a software issue and if so is there a flash for the firmware or the ROM where this keyboard info is kept. I have not opened up the mailstation at all as of yet. Any information you can give me or assistance you can lend is much apprieciated. Thanx, jotramis@earthlink.net 05-19-2002 14:34:19

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) badcluster Profile | Email Hi! I'm putting all the information/datasheets at http://www.badcluster.com.ar/mailstation If someone send me a dump at mailstation @ badcluster.com.ar, I will add it to the page. tnx 12-09-2002 10:38:33

Terminal emulation easy / VT-100 hard (modified 0 times) mirth Profile For unix (as I recall) all a terminal would have to support is: addressable cursor, and bell The host (using termcap etc) can handle the rest (doing erases with spaces etc. - slow but it works) You do not want to try 100% VT-100 emulation - a very ugly beast, with different modes and what not. With just: 1)address cursor (enought itself) 2)erase screen (for speed) 3)highlight(any one of inverse, underline etc) 4)bell (whatever you do with ctrl-G to get someone's attension, which need not be making sound) You are rolling. Really easy to code that up. - says the guy who hasn't written assembler since 1990. But I did write a commerial terminal emulator in 8088 assembler for a weird-ass M/A/I terminal way back then. AVOID full VT-100 emualtion - it is evil 12-29-2002 17:11:35

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) dan4l Profile | Email OS for z80.. If a forth for z80 could be used on the mailstation, we'd have os and development language on the mailstation itself. Possibly some of the routines could be called and used from forth. 01-04-2003 11:57:43

RE:Real Z80 hackers only (modified 0 times) hamilton Profile Hello All, I have come back to playing with my MS device. All the great ideas here depend on someone decoding enough code in the existing FLASH ROM to load new code into the MS, without tearing apart their MS as I have. I seem to have been the only one how has ever put a soldering iron to an MS. If anyone else has, I hope they would donate new information to badcluster to post on his web site. Rog has looked over my old hex files and has found a bug in my hardware. Thank you very much. I have rebuilt my hardware ( can be seen at badcluster ) and I will be uploading a new hex file soon. I am looking for a white MS device. If anyone knows where I can buy a white MS, please let me know. ( $15 is the max I would go. Hey, this is just a hobby ) hamilton PS: I will start a new thread on MS/Z80 hacking. This one is just to long. 01-05-2003 21:51:26

Reply to Thread | Printer | All times are PST Powered by UltraBoard v1.62

I-Appliance BBS General - NEWS, Breaking NEWS - linux-hacker.net BBS on CD Questions - User Groups in Your Town - E-Bay, Yahoo Auction LINKS ONLY (MODERATED) - Jokes & Humor - usdtv box I-Opener Areas - I-Opener General Posts - I-Opener Technical Stuff - I-Opener Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) WebSurfer Areas - WebSurfer General Posts - WebSurfer Technical Stuff - WebSurfer Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) Other I-Appliances - Virgin Webplayer - WebPal - MailStation - 3Com Audrey - ThinkNIC / Oracle NIC - Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad - Philips/AOL-TV - ACER NT-150 STB - MSN Companion - Compaq IA - Emachines IA - IBM NetVista IA - Intel dot.station - MSNTV2 Network Computers - Fujitsu-Siemens Scovery Linux Net Computers - GallantWeb Server Consoles - Dreamcast - xbox hacking Web Pads - Epods One General Post - Panasonic CF-01 - Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 - Cybiko Thin Clients - Thin Clients DigitalVideoRecorders - DTV Recorders, Replay, TiVo, Etc... - Tivo Hacks Linux - Midori Linux General Board - ITX MotherBoards Single Board Computers - Earth Computers mARMalade Elite Member Area MISC Areas - The Swap Meet WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY TRANSACTION HERE AND NO COMMERCIAL POST PERIOD !!! - Wireless Net - Cameras - Robotics - Routers/Gateways - Mattel JuiceBox