WDTV Live Refurb Bricked

[happyantix]

Hey,

Thanks so much for the reply! would be great to get these units operational again.

Would this work?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/USB-TTL-Serial-Cable-/290513205869?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item43a3efba6d#ht_889wt_936

[recliq]

Hey guys,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Make sure you have exhausted all of the other reset options available before opening the unit. I can not be responsible for any damage, yada yada.

The way I interfaced with the unit was to open it up by carefully prying the lid off (almost all Western Digital products are a hard to open as was this unit) then I located the serial com port header. The port is the little white connector in this picture:

Code: Select all

  WDTV circuit board |     CN4 pinout
                     |    .---------.
                     |    | o o o o |
             CN4     |    '---------'
          .------.   |      ^ ^ ^ ^
          | .... |   |     /  | |  \
          '------' O |   +5V RX TX gnd
'--------------------'

Next you will need a TTL-Serial cable. I use an adapted Nokia CA-42 USB to TTL-Serial cable, but you can use whatever cable you want/have. These little serial cables come in handy when working on embedded boards like this. When I made mine, I just knew what to do, but here is some information on how to make a CA-42 into a USB to TTL-Serial cable. I seem to recall that my wire colors were not the same as the ones on this site, so be careful.

Then using my USB to TTL-serial converter (and the information onthis site, which I posted above), I was able to communicate with the unit’s console via PUTTY. You only need to connect the RX, TX, and Gnd. NOT THE 5Volt pin. CAREFUL!!

Once I was in, I attempted to play around and figure out how to get this darn thing back to defaults, but after extensive Googleing and whatnot, I broke down and started this thread. I simply dumped the entire console log here on the site and the people here were very helpful in getting me on my way. After getting the unit to boot and installing the latest firmware, this WDTV Live has served me well and hasn’t acted up at all.

Hope this helps, Let me know how it goes.

TDA-1541

Nice post, maybe you can put this on the wiki as well, i put the pinout there already, so you should be able to add content if you log in

[TDA-1541]

That will work great! The pin headers do not appear to be compatible (they are different sizes) and so you will need to take a razor blade out and pull the little tab back on that black plastic pin header on the cable side and remove the actual metal contact and attach it to the pin on the WDTV. In other words, it won't just plug into the board; you may have to modify it a little bit. KEEP THAT PIN HEADER THOUGH because that is the standard and I see it all the time. The wire and the contact crimped to it will just slide out if you pull back the little black retaining clip on the pin header. Once done, you should be able to just slide the wire back into the black clip and it will snap back into place making it ready to use for future projects.

Hook that sucker up to the WDTV (I didn't need the 5Volt, so you shouldn't need the 5Volt), fire up PUTTY, and aim it at whatever com port the computer assigns to the USB to TTL Serial Cable and then apply power to the WDTV. If you did it right, text similar to the text in my first post should start scrolling on the screen. If not, try reversing the TX and RX pins.

I do not recall the exact PUTTY settings. I think I used the standard 9600.8.N.1 (but you may need different settings if it doesn't work) and I enabled logging of the session to file so I could post the output to this site.

Good luck!

[TDA-1541]

Nice post, maybe you can put this on the wiki as well, i put the pinout there already, so you should be able to add content if you log in

Thanks, I will add it if people think its helpful.

TDA-1541

[b-rad.cc]

that cable says it is a 5V ttl adapter with 3.3V RX capability. The wdtvl is a 3.3V ttl system, TX & RX should be 3.3V--not 5V.

[TDA-1541]

Correct,

3v3/5v TTL - The cables use 5v TTL logic levels but can be made 3v3 TTL Levels (if the 3v3 circuit is not 5v tolerant) by adding a 2.2k ohms resistor between Tx (Red wire) and ground. Note that the power pin will still supply +5v (as do the 3v3 FTDI cables).

I was going to mention that, but it escaped my mind before I hit the post button. The CA-42 is 3.3 volt and this cable is not. Looks like a resistor will be needed, but that's not hard to add.

[happyantix]

Thanks, i will grab the CA-42 as it's much cheaper and local as well.

Will let you know how i go!

[xbladr]

I just got a Live box today and the same exact issue. This is ridiculous how can they screw this up so bad. Is it hard for them to plug it in and test it before it leaves? Either way what options do I have besides this? Any other choices besides doing the whole cable thing and exit?

[RMerlin]

To everyone saying they have the same issue, how can you tell if you haven't actually plugged a serial cable to it to confirm it was truly stuck in debug mode? A WDTV not showing anything on screen could mean quite a few different things. Make sure you did try a factory default reset, and that tried both the HDMI and the composite output to rule out an HDMI-related issue.

[happyantix]

yay! they are both fixed!

Putty wouldn't work in windows but managed to get an output with minicom on ubuntu, typed the exit command then once it loaded i updated the firmware via usb.

Thanks so much!!