Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#1

Post by zdw » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 6:29 PM UTC

Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2
tindie.com

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#2

Post by itomato » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 8:27 PM UTC

Cool. I saw this in use in one of the recent Asahi streams and of course I read it as Frank Zappa; through a mic’ed megaphone with panning.

It was on my list to revisit, glad to see the low level hardware extension of a low level software project!

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#3

Post by ad-astra » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:12 PM UTC

Neat!

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#4

Post by johndoe0815 » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:29 PM UTC

"This item does not ship to Germany" :(

Not sure if this is a configuration problem on Tindie or a consequence of a missing CE logo...

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#5

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:33 PM UTC

johndoe0815 wrote: post #4

"This item does not ship to Germany" :( Not sure if this is a configuration problem on Tindie or a consequence of a missing CE logo...

[deleted]

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#6

Post by going_to_work » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:35 PM UTC

The "Central Scrutinizer" reference isn't lost on me.

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#7

Post by solarkraft » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:38 PM UTC

Providing tooling for entry is important if you want to grow an ecosystem (developers, developers, developers, developers!). This will probably significantly help people get into low level M-chip development.

It's a small number of people, but with huge multiplying force. Selling these is likely well worth the effort if you want the ecosystem to expand.

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#8

Post by mmastrac » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:40 PM UTC

Does the m1/m2 expose a serial port on the USB-C connector? I haven't seen that outside of mobile phones that require special debugging jigs (most requiring a secret resistor values between various pins to turn it on).

More info in the README: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/maz/cs-hw.gi...

This actually looks like something I needed to build for some low-level bootloader work, and I had exactly the same sort of poor failure rate for my USB switches. I chalked it up to my inexperience in board design at the time, but I guess the board production house might have just been pretty poor.

EDIT: I used a TS3USB30ERSWR in my design.

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#9

Post by delroth » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:47 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #8

Does the m1/m2 expose a serial port on the USB-C connector? I haven't seen that outside of mobile phones that require special debugging jigs (most requiring a secret resistor values between various pins to turn it on). More info in the README: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/maz/cs-hw.gi... This actually looks like something I needed to build for some low-level bootloader work, and I had exactly the s…

See https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/HW%3AUSB-PD - some of the USB-C ports respond to USB PD Vendor-Defined Messages to trigger a bunch of debug features, including rebooting the SoC or configuring one of the internal UARTs to output to two pins on the USB-C connector.

Re: Serial adapter/reboot controller for Apple M1/M2

#10

Post by bombcar » Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 9:48 PM UTC

going_to_work wrote: post #6

The "Central Scrutinizer" reference isn't lost on me.

Elucidate us.