To do that a tftp server on the local network is needed. This can be done by telling U-Boot to first load a kernel over tftp and then tell U-Boot to write it to the NAND flash. To fix that a working Linux kernel needs to be written to the flash. The Linux kernel on the Dockstar's NAND flash had a checksum error preventing U-Boot from booting the kernel. This immediately revealed the reason why my Dockstar was unable to boot.
#Dockstar nas serial#
When powering on the Dockstar the U-Boot bootloader immediately writes some messages to the serial port which should appear in the screen session. On Linux minicom or screen can be used for that. Now that the serial cable is connected to the Dockstar, a program to communicate with the Dockstar over the serial connection is needed. Either use the same cable as I did, so you already know the wiring or open the USB connector and have a look at the PCB inside.
You cannot as easily figure out which of the remaining wires is the RX wire and which is the TX wire, though. Only the wire connected to ground will have a resistance close to zero ohms. If you have got another serial cable and you got a multimeter you can easily find out which of the wires is connected to ground by measuring the resistance between each wire and the outer metal shield of the usb connector of the cable. When using the serial cable mentioned above, the blue wire is the ground wire (GND), the green wire is the receive wire (RX) and the white wire is the send wire (TX). To build a universal serial cable that can easily be used on different devices I decided to use test hooks for the serial connection instead of a connector suitable only for the Dockstar's serial connector.
#Dockstar nas driver#
Pl2303: Prolific PL2303 USB to serial adaptor driver Usbcore: registered new interface driver pl2303 Usb 4-5: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0 This cable comes with the very common PL2303 usb serial converter. Lots older mobile phones have a serial port built-in instead of the now common USB device ports.Ī suitable cable for this purpose is a DKU-5 data cable. While such a circuit is rather easy to build, there is an even simpler solution which has the advantage of also being usable on computers without a serial port.Īll that is needed is a data cable used for certain older mobile phones.
#Dockstar nas Pc#
To connect such a device to a PC and its standard serial port, a level shifter (e.g. Most serial ports on such embedded devices do not use 12 V, but either use 5 or 3.3 V where 3.3 V is becoming more and more common. It also comes without any handshaking lines, which is why there are only three pins (RX, TX, GND) neccessary for the serial port. This serial port is basically a standard RS232 serial port with the exception that it uses only 3.3 V instead of the up to 12 V of a normal serial port found on desktop computers. Three of the pins are assigned to a serial port. (Blatant self-promotion.Opening the device revealed that there is a small connector on the PCB. I sleep in the same room where most of the kit is a couple of nights a week and quiet is good. power consumption, the dockstar draws less than 5W, and I'd expect the external HDD to be the same or less.Reasons for replacing the lappy with a plug:
It has replace an old XP laptop that was doing the same, prior to that had a cheapo Chinese made USB-NAS box from dealextremet but it proved unreliable. Instaledl PlugApps Linux and is running Samba for filesharing (NAS functionality), CUPS to share a the printer and a Torrent client. +1 for plug computing (the Dockstar is based on the Sheevaplug).
#Dockstar nas android#
I've accessed the data remotely using the Android Pogoplug client as well and it works surprisingly well. Seems to work really well and means you can use off the shelf external hard drives. 3g: I wanted something basic so I went with this:
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