400 Mini teardown video

[PowerDubs]

 

[r_chase]

I'm sorry, what the fuck is a teardown exactly?

[+x=usr(1536)]

It's when the machine is opened up and its internals are investigated.

 

And don't call me Shirley.

[r_chase]

19 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

It's when the machine is opened up and its internals are investigated.

Ah. I thought it was something else. My apologies.

[mozzwald]

I see a UART port on the PCB and some other interesting pins (UBOOT, RECOVER)

Whose gunna dump the NAND?  

[the antithesis]

Also appears to be an unused USB connection on the main board. Aside from the the two unpopulated USB sockets, there are pinout headers in various locations, but each seems to be directly connected to a socket. The header directly below populated plug in the back appears to be directly connected. One of the unpopulated plugs on the side looks like it connects to the USB hub. Which leaves one unused. Have to wait until mine gets here to beep it out for sure.

[Bee]

Yea - I'm hoping to add a extra usb port by populating one of the unused sockets and putting a preloaded low profile USB stick inside.

 

We'll see how it goes.

 

 

[Zonie]

Can you teardown the CX stick please?

[mcable]

44 minutes ago, Zonie said:

Can you teardown the CX stick please?

 

[PowerDubs]

56 minutes ago, Zonie said:

Can you teardown the CX stick please?

 

[MikeM_]

13 minutes ago, PowerDubs said:

 

At first glance, it seems to share some design similarities with the CX40+. I really wonder why the cxstick is having issues when the plus isn’t?

[Preppie]

3 hours ago, Bee said:

Yea - I'm hoping to add a extra usb port by populating one of the unused sockets and putting a preloaded low profile USB stick inside.

 

We'll see how it goes.

 

 

Please update if you do this.

[the antithesis]

 

Okay, so mine arrived and I beeped out and confirmed most of what I said above. The upper unpopulated USB port connects to the ribbon cable and, therefore, the USB hub for the four ports. The lower unpopulated port by the lower left corner of the board appears to be free. So, if it's still connected, it should be usable. Internal storage or whatever. The pins for it are duplicated on the bottom edge of the PCB between the screw and the ribbon cable connector. The back USB is similarly duplicated on the pinouts just below it. I have not had time to test any of these this to see if they function as expected. Has anyone tried plugging a USB stick in one of the front jacks? I could be it'll only read a USB stick in the back?

 

One thing I also wanted to check was the USB hub and if you could support more that four. Sadly, no. I found a datasheet for the FE1.1s chip on Adafruit, of all places, and it only supports four.

 

One additional thing I notice is a tiny button in the lower right. It is not pressable when the case is on and it connects to the "UBOOT" pin on the header on the lower right edge. This header has the following pins: GND UBOOT RECOVER VCC-10 or VCC-IO I don't know what these things are, but I'm noting them here for those that do.

 

So, there's a start for people who like to hack these things.

[mozzwald]

5 hours ago, the antithesis said:

One additional thing I notice is a tiny button in the lower right. It is not pressable when the case is on and it connects to the "UBOOT" pin on the header on the lower right edge. This header has the following pins: GND UBOOT RECOVER VCC-10 or VCC-IO I don't know what these things are, but I'm noting them here for those that do.

U-Boot is the bootloader and I suspect the button puts the device into FEL mode.

 

Would be cool if someone could hookup UART serial and grab a log of the boot process. If kernel output is sent to the serial port, it could provide some useful info.

[the antithesis]

2 hours ago, mozzwald said:

U-Boot is the bootloader and I suspect the button puts the device into FEL mode.

 

Would be cool if someone could hookup UART serial and grab a log of the boot process. If kernel output is sent to the serial port, it could provide some useful info.

That would be a bit above my pay grade, unfortunately. Most I plan to do to this thing is tho make a functional keyboard on it. This will be difficult because the keyboard sticker is under a bezel that is glued into place and removing it risks breaking it or damaging the sticker. So I may not even do that much.

Edited April 7 by the antithesis
change content to be suitable.

[Spanner]

It runs FEL and the button is a FEL button, you can run THEC64 FEL Mode on it so you can copy its nandb, it blueprint is THEC64 Mini main board, thats why it has marks for the USB ports at the side of it, its basically THEC64 Main Board but has been modified so like the USB 4 port hub socket has been added.

I have already added PCUAE to it now but you have to flash it nandb over to THE400 Mini so it boots PCUAE, no way of doing it like on THEC64/THEA500 yet.

So if you want too you can turn THE400 Mini into THEC64 or THEC64 into THE400 Mini by flashing its nanda and nandb, this is the problem when you decide to use or recycle old hardware and not really that bothered about the device your making, money destroys everything it touches in the end if thats all your thinking about....
That why things are made better without any money at all(PCUAE) you put more time in to it and doing it because you want too not have too, do not make consoles for your bread and butter, it never works.

Edited April 7 by Spanner

[jj_0]

On 4/7/2024 at 2:36 AM, mozzwald said:

U-Boot is the bootloader and I suspect the button puts the device into FEL mode.

 

Would be cool if someone could hookup UART serial and grab a log of the boot process. If kernel output is sent to the serial port, it could provide some useful info.

You can use this to explore the device in FEL mode. While I originally created this for THE64 Maxi, THE400 Mini is 99% the same.

Edited April 8 by jj_0
Typo

[Sean_1970]

Great video mate - very slick 👍

[Spanner]

I do not watch reviews on the machines, some can be biased because they got them free from the company that made them so will not say its flaws and will say its great anyway.

And like to see what its like when I get it...  I do not look at reviews on PlayStation 5 games too.

Edited April 9 by Spanner

[Sean_1970]

1 hour ago, Spanner said:

I do not watch reviews on the machines, some can be biased because they got them free from the company that made them so will not say its flaws and will say its great anyway.

And like to see what its like when I get it...  I do not look at reviews on PlayStation 5 games too.

True, but this was published before the embargo ended so not a review 😉

[Spanner]

2 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

True, but this was published before the embargo ended so not a review 😉

I know, I was just say thats all...

[fant3]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:32 PM, the antithesis said:

That would be a bit above my pay grade, unfortunately. Most I plan to do to this thing is tho make a functional keyboard on it. This will be difficult because the keyboard sticker is under a bezel that is glued into place and removing it risks breaking it or damaging the sticker. So I may not even do that much.

A heat gun or maybe even better, a blow dryer is a great way to loosen lots of adhesives. We use them to remove labels often. Be very careful not to overheat the plastic because it can warp or oterwise deform. Practice removing labels from Coke (or other beverage) bottles first until you get a feel for it. Good luck. I have not tryed it on my Mini and I don't expect I will. I have a real 400, 800, and 800xl somewhere around here.