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[coolhp]

Angry pirate,

There is something you can try... Have you installed the headerpins yet ?
If so, this is what you should try... but its going to be a little tricky (I just tested it and it works !!!)

1) Repair your matrix if you have already cut the tracks.

2) With a little electrical tape, attach your D0 wire to the D0 pins.

3) Attache a wire to a ground point and with a little more tape, attach it to the matrix groung point.

4) Hold the matrix on top of the headerpins so that each pogo ping makes contact with its correspond pin.

5) Boot your box. If all goes well, you should be able to boot Evox.

6) Once evox is booted, remove the matrix and install the chameleon on the header pins (you dont need to put D0 yet... its not mandatory)

7) Go to the flash bios menu in evox and flash with a 256k evox d.6. That will flash it onto your Chameleon's bank 0.

Once the box has shut off... Attache D0 if you haven't done so...

9) Restart your box.


If while flashing, you get a Manufacturer ID of 09 or something like that and evox says "Flash not writable" it means your chameleon is busted and you'd need to call your provider for an exchange or a refund.

Hope that helps.

[explicitlyrics100]

Good post Coolhp, that was what i was trying to say, in my somewhat slurred english . anyway i think that covers many of the issues that need referral.

It's ready to be made sticky

About e/p using twisting wires, just so long as you put a tiny bit of sellotape around it there are no problems... trust me but of course header pins would be ideal, this was just an alternative as i didnt have any at that point in time.

Anyway on another note I just flashed the onboard tsop with chameleon and then back again just so I knew how it was possible and to tell you all: here goes.  Boot into evox or cromwell, flash onto the chip the matrix_tsop_flash bios, as per normal in chameleon (ideally use a bank other than 0 (otherwise if you screw up its a hell of a lot harder to go back).  The switch to this bank, boot the evox dash and you should now have the option to flash the tsop (if you attatched a15), just flash it and it will power off.  Upon restarting it will boot into your chameleon bank 0 again and the chameleon needs to be removed to check to see if it is working.  Hopefully you will see the bios you just flashed into the tsop and you have just successfully flashed your tsop.  You can leave it without a chip or just keep the chip to flash a friends.  Hope nobody has any problems with this, if you do just add it on here and it should help cover everything in the near future.

Chameleon rocks!

[matic]

Hey Chris.  Regarding the xbox problem i have above, do you know how I can troubleshoot it?  Is there a way I can test whether the diode got fried?  I have a multimeter, but I'm no electrical engineer.  I was hoping you could give me some tips on how I can see whether the diode needs to be replaced.

Thanks.

[explicitlyrics100]

oh, nor i really . I presume you followed the few steps I gave you above.  You will have to check what voltage the multimeter uses because if it went the wrong way through the circuit board you could end up messing up the whole thing.  look for signes of burning, signs of molten plastic, loose connection, darkened solder, burnt motherboard, small chippings/splashes of solder.  Those are justa few that come to mind, if you can see nothing wrong then I would assume it is your soldering for the header pin/d0.  I can tell from the fact that it is fairly random and that the chip and xbox does still work that it is a hardware problem.  Thus i guess just checking and rechecking all connections/areas where you touched, with anything that may conduct electricity for shorts.  Other than that you will have to check with a more senior electrician.  Chris

[asgaffney]

I am having the same problem as Matic with my chameleon.  The Chip is now out, but the power button doesn't work.  It also turns off after about 45 seconds.  I  wonder if anyone knows where I can get a replacement diode (or the values for such a diode), or if this is repairable another way?  

Thanks in Advance,
Adam

[explicitlyrics100]

Would you consider yourself an able solderer?  I cant believe 2 people would have the same problem from the chameleon yet I havnt seen anybody with this problem on an x2. Any1 out there with advice?  Chris

[explicitlyrics100]

can somebody pin this or something!!!! Ive answered most of the question here so many times already!

EDIT: Thanks!

This post has been edited by explicitlyrics100: May 29 2003, 05:09 PM

[angry pirate]

How to check the condition of a diode... Note that always check diodes with power off (make ALL resistance measurements with power off).

With a digital multimeter:
Most dmm have a diode check mode.  Looks like this:   --|<--
Anywho select this mode, place your leads on either side of the diode.  You may or may not hear a beep from the dmm.  Reverse the leads.  You may or may not hear a beep.

- If you hear a beep both ways, your diode has shorted out.

- If you don't hear a beep either way, your diode has opened.

- If you hear a beep one way only, your diode is fine.


With an analog multimeter:
Select the most sensitive ohmmeter mode you have.  Place leads on either side of the diode.  The resistance should either be next to nothing or very high.  Reverse and note the resistance again.

- If the resistance is low both ways, you've got a short.

- High both ways you've got an open.

- Low one way and high the other, your diode is fine.

- Angry Pirate -

[coolhp]

Hey all ! ...

With explicitlyrics100's authorisation, I'm transfering some of the information I had originally posted in another post hoping that it might help you guys a little. I've also included the pin header pics for A15/D0 and E/P for thoses who were wondering what I was talking about.

Enjoy :

After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on 2 Chameleon chips last night... and I started playing around with them. Here is a little log of what I had to go through... might help some of you :-)

Let me start by a few facts :

1) Altough the chameleon can be plugged into your matrix programmer... it is not a good idea to do so... I'm not sure if its a WinLPC issue or just the fact that the connector is only meant to be used for the Matrix Addon installation procedure. Still, WinLPC will not detect the device and you wont be able to flash it. Furthermore, you might end up erasing the content of your chip so don't bother for now.

2) You REALLY dont wand to solder your D0, A15, E an P wires to the chip itself. Solder the mobo side but install some sort of header pins (or other solution that might come through your mind) so that you can unplug them easily... you never know what might happen, you might need to swap chips at some point (like I had to do :-) )

3) Although they say the chip comes preflashed with a cromwell bios, some of them come unflashed (I had one of these).. This can proove to be a pain when you start asking yourself why your box isnt booting.


Anyhow...

I started by attempting the Matrix Addon installation... just out of curiosity.
1 st issue... you actually have to cut 3 tracks on your good'old matrix... and that really sucks... but I can understand XODUS's Team's position (read the addon instructions for more details)... the chameleon should really be used as a full blown chip... not some backpack.
Still, I followed the instructions... and ended up with a Red/Green flash....
Since the TSOP on my mobo is busted, I'm kind of used to that... so I started looking for issues around the LPC connector or around D0... but NADA... ZIP... everything is connected properly.

Alright.. Maybe its the matrix addon part that doesnt work to good... Lets try it the right way.
I installed the header pins on the bus, soldered my D0, E and P (dont really need A15 if you dont want to flash your TSOP) onto the mobo, attached the chip and connected the 3 wires.
Again... Red/Green flash....

Hmmmm.... Is the chip functionning ?

I then tried to connect the chip to the Matrix programmer... see if winLPC would see it and let me read the chips content. Nothing... Device Not Found... again and again...

I ended up installing the other chameleon I had... and at last... it booted the Cromwell bios.

Now here's something else... THE CROMWELL BIOS WILL NOT BOOT EVOX.... it is not meant to do so.

Conclusion :

Ended up copying a 256k Evox d.6 file into a CDRW (rename as LINUXBIO.BIN and burn as ISO9660) and thanks to the cool flash feature included with this version of the Cromwell bios, I was able to flash my bank 0 with that evox bios.

Once evox booted. I hotswapped the chameleons in order the flash the unprogrammed one. It worked like a charm. (Thats where all the header pins come in handy).


Installation of the PIN Headers :

Alright... I finally got to take some shots of the pins I installed.
Sorry about the quality of the pics. My digital camera is dead... I had to take them with an old crappy webcam.


Here's the chip :



and the pins :



Here is how I hold the stuff together :



Now what you have to do is this :



Then solder :



Same thing for E/P



Then solder :





Here's a pic of the headerpins on the mobo :



The chip mounted :



And the chip wired :




Hope that helps.



Side note :

I had a few other minor issues along the way that you migh encouter so if any of you have issues with installing your matrix, let me know... I might be able to assist.

I also recommend using Mode4 with the following setup :

   0k->256k   : Evox d.6 or any other bios 256k bios of your choice
256k->512k   : Chameleon Cromwell (Keep it in case something goes bad)
512k->1024k : A 512k debug bios (TATX Dual Debug -> 1st 2 banks)

Best luck to you all...

[_300zx_TT]

QUOTE

I also recommend using Mode4 with the following setup : 0k->256k : Evox d.6 or any other bios 256k bios of your choice 256k->512k : Chameleon Cromwell (Keep it in case something goes bad) 512k->1024k : A 512k debug bios (TATX Dual Debug -> 1st 2 banks)

since i dont need the debug bios, since i have no use for it cause im not a developer or anything..
would it be safe to run these bioses?

0-256 : Evox d.6
256-512 : Xecuter2 4976.02
512-1024: Chameleon Cromwell

i guess the main question is, can i run this setup and can i use 256k bios in a 512k slot and leave 256k blank in the same slot.. would that work? or does it have to be exact. will i have to get the 1024 and cut it to 512 using some program?

[explicitlyrics100]

you can have it like that,,, but just use 4 x 256 - that will allow you to have a second copy of either evox or xecuter..  alternatively you can leave two copies of cromwell in the last two banks and then have two backups of cromwell. its totally up to you

[explicitlyrics100]

nope but why have three when you could have 4! - you could have one bios that boots an xboxdash.xbe (whatever one) froma different partition - thus u could make it automatically start xbmp when you boot a certain bios - etc... lots of choices

[asgaffney]

I took my chameleon out and fixed the diode that connects to (P).  I had to make a small (2mm) jumper that would go from the top of that diode to the motherboard, but it worked.  However, I am still unable to use the Chameleon.  I tried booting it from each bank, but every time, It begins to flash green/red.  Does this likely indicate that I received an unflashed Chameleon?  If so, is there a way that I might be able to flash it on my own?  I sent an email to Xodus-chip.com, but they haven't replied in several days.

Thanks in advance for your expertise,

Adam

[PlastiKK_]

QUOTE

Anyway on another note I just flashed the onboard tsop with chameleon and then back again just so I knew how it was possible and to tell you all: here goes. Boot into evox or cromwell, flash onto the chip the matrix_tsop_flash bios, as per normal in chameleon (ideally use a bank other than 0 (otherwise if you screw up its a hell of a lot harder to go back). The switch to this bank, boot the evox dash and you should now have the option to flash the tsop (if you attatched a15), just flash it and it will power off. Upon restarting it will boot into your chameleon bank 0 again and the chameleon needs to be removed to check to see if it is working. Hopefully  you will see the bios you just flashed into the tsop and you have just successfully flashed your tsop. You can leave it without a chip or just keep the chip to flash a friends.

OK, before I flash the TSOP, do I have to solder any jumpers?  And do I have to do anything else, like edit the evox.ini or solder anything else?

[explicitlyrics100]

ok - if youve tried flashing a million times and it still flashes red/gree but youca n boot cromwell then try a different copy of the evox bios.  there are some duds floating around and you should be fine if you try another.
perhpas as a notice for the future it is a good idea to solder e/p on the back of the board - that way you should eliminate the problem of frying the diode or removing its contact points.
as for the restarting - you have desoldered a connection slightly and thus it may be worth checking your other connections as it is likely this may have happened on another point, check everything is secure, then try booting bank0, then bank 1 then bank 2 just incase there was a bad copy of cromwell.  then make sure you have a good copy of evox or whatever bios you may use - you can only tell by checking with the person you are gettig it off....
finally for the bios flash this depends on which xbox verion you have and whether you intend to remove the chip again at the end.
Chris