minitar

Minitar Access Point

Minitar Access Point
News
Where to Buy
Hardware

Minitar Specifications
Peripherals
Images
Firmware
Memory
EJTAG

Software
Serial Console

Boot
Reboot

Root console
Questions

Does somebody has the BDSL def file?
Can somebody gave the FCC-ID of this AP?
Does the binary wireless driver supports ad-hoc mode? Can you double check?

As with Linksys WRT54G, the Minitar's firmware is based around linux.

News

I have posted my chaining bootloader, frottle for Minitar and a test image that can be booted from RAM for those that are feeling kind of bored. go down to software
Some notes about the software after spending about a month with the source are in MinitarHacking. (2004-09-28)
The older firmware source code is available on this website. (2004-03-04)
Minitar's OEM appears to be Edimax. Product Link. (2003-11-08)
Mitch from perthwireless has discovered a working password for the busybox login prompt (6-11-03)
Minitar say they will now produce source for the GPL'd code in these units. (23-10-03)
Minitar has now released the source that they recieved from realtek. (25-10-03)
The kernel archive they've releasead seems to be missing a number of important .c files the drivers for the CPU, wifi, and rom chips particularly
A new Linux RTL8181 Sourceforge project has started here. This has a good table of RTL8181 based products. (2-3-04)

Where to Buy

EYO (Sydney)
External link

Warcom (Melbourne)
External link

PCRange (Adelaide)
External link

Buy essays (Australia)
External link

Freenet Antennas (Perth, Ship anywhere)
External link

Jamie Moir - not always
External link

Web hosting Wiki services
External link

writing services
Add others please.

You probably won't find these anywhere now. They are now EOL by Minitar, the replacement will not run Linux OS (don't those guys get it? ).

Hardware

Minitar Specifications

CPU Realtek RTL8181 (200MHz MIPS)
Flash 2 MB NOR Flash
RAM ICSI IC42S164007T  8 MB SDRAM
Antenna RP-SMA Detachable Antenna x 1
Transmit Power 18 dBm
Power 12V DC, 0.5A Linear Power Adaptor
Dimension 30(H)*127(W)*96(D) mm

Actually there is 2Meg of flash but as far as I can tell the first 64K is taken up with the bootloader and the HS (hardware settings),DS (default setings) and CS (current settings).

You can get the Realtek RTL8181 pinout and register data sheet by asking djongdjong_goh@winedge.com.sg nicely.

You can now find the RTL8181 datasheet External link

here (thanks to andrewg, nevyn, RokLobsta and External link

web design services) (This link is now fixed.)

Peripherals

CPU  Realtek RTL8181 (200MHz MIPS, Supports; JTAG, dual PCI,Term Paper 16 digital I/O, 32MB SDRAM)
Flash  MX29LV160AB 2 MB NOR Flash
RAM  ICSI IC42S164007T  8 MB SDRAM (room for more, see U8)
Ethernet 2 x RTL3129 internal MACs (eth0 only, missing PHY and isolation transformer for eth1 but it could be manually added on.)
JTAG   JP1 (pin layout soon)
Serial  J1 (see below)
Radio  SA2400 The data sheet is hard to get so please post a link to a PDF if you find one.

You can now download the External link

SA2400A datasheet.

SAW Filter       (G W22 B004D) Unknown brand.  2.4GHz Bandpass filter.

This is not a filter, but actually the RF power amplifier External link

GA2P4W22 datasheet.

Images

(Some

higher resolution pictures are available.)
Top view of PCB

Firmware

New firmware External link

(2.20) was released with some additional features. One can unpack the contents with this script (thanks to Mihnea)

#!/bin/bash
#-- START
wget http://www.minitar.com/downloads/MIN2APB_2.20.zip
unzip -jo MIN2APB_2.20.zip
dd if=general-ap_upg_2.20.bin bs=1 skip=12 count=$((0x18000)) | \
zcat ->webpages-ap.bin
dd if=general-ap_upg_2.20.bin bs=1 skip=$((12+0x18000)) | \
zcat ->vmlinux_img
dd if=vmlinux_img bs=1 count=$((0x166000)) >kcoff
dd if=vmlinux_img bs=1 skip=$((0x166000)) |zcat ->tmpimg.img
rm -f vmlinux_img
#-- END

Script modified for version 2.32 of the firmware.

#!/bin/bash
ZIPFILE=Minitar_AP_Firmware_2.32.zip
FIRMWARE=general-ap_upg_2.32_8m.bin
DOWNLOADSITE="http://www.minitar.com/downloads/"
#-- START
wget "$DOWNLOADSITE$ZIPFILE"
unzip -jo $ZIPFILE
dd if=$FIRMWARE bs=1 skip=12 count=$((0x18000)) | \
zcat ->webpages-ap.bin
dd if=$FIRMWARE bs=1 skip=$((12+0x18000)) | \
zcat ->vmlinux_img
dd if=vmlinux_img bs=1 count=$((0x16d000)) >kcoff
dd if=vmlinux_img bs=1 skip=$((0x16d000)) |zcat ->tmpimg.img
rm -f vmlinux_img
#-- END

"You will get 3 files: webpages-ap.bin (the web pages), kcoff (the kernel binary, probably in ECOFF format) and tmpimg.img (the initrd). "

I have some doubt about the kernel binary that this procedure returns. it has far too many 0's at the start for my liking.

Mount it:

mount -t ext2 -o loop tmpimg.img /mnt/floppy -o ro,nodev,nosuid,noexec

directory listing MinitarLs

Memory

Unpopulated component U8 looks to be space for a second SDRAM IC. Related components around U8 seem to be populated, so it wont be too hard to add more ram to your minitar.

I will try this out when I get mine running again.

The RTL8181 supports 1 bank of 32bit ram or 2 banks of 16bit ram. The IC42S164007T is a 64Mbit / 16bit device, adding another to U8 would be very straight forward.

EJTAG

With the help of the late release of the RTL8181 datasheet, we noticed the controller supports EJTAG, the interface seems to be wired to JP1.

The JTAG interface is not normally active, JTAG CLK doubles as the WLAN activity led indicator (LED2?) - some jumpers need to be set to disable WLAN activity & enable JTAG, see the datasheet for more info. These instructions can be applied in External link

research paper writing.

A pin map for JP1 will be provided when figured out.
Also schematics for JTAG devices should be here sometime too..

Here is a start..

GPIOB Pin	Package Pin	Description
11	205	JTAG Mode enable
10	206	Not used(?)
9	207
8	2
7	3
6	5
5	6	JTAG_TDO(JTAG test data output)
4	8	JTAG_TRSTN(JTAG reset)
3	9	JTAG_TMS(JTAG test mode select)
2	11	JTAG_TDI(JTAG test data input)
1	12
0	13
	65	JTAG Reset (alternative reset?)
	64	JTAG Clock

The Minitar board has no apparent breakout to a header for the JTAG. Metering out the JTAG pins to various points on the PCB resulted in not much. Pin 205 connects to a pad on R28 so this pad will need to be pulled to ground to enable JTAG. Pin 64 connects to a pad on R15 and pin 65 to a pad on R16. External link

Assignments It would seem that in order to hook up JTAG that very fine wire will have to be directly soldered onto the pins of the chip. Make sure the JTAG unit you use is 3.3V compatible. Read more External link

term papers about these External link

hosting tips.

---

Here's a link to an Open Source JTAG project that might be of use. It contains links to compatible JTAG interfaces you can make yourself. All that needs to be done is BDSL definitions for the RTL8181 and relevant FLASH MX29LV160AB programming algorithm. External link

JTAG.

Here's a link to MIP's specification for External link

EJTAG. Now this info and the Sourceforge JTAG project above need to be combined and something magical could happen.... External link

Essays

---
JTAG sort of works now. See External link

here for details.

Software

As mentioned in News above, MinitarHacking contains some (comprehensive) notes on the software. External link

Theses

There are a few binary images starting to be available based on the RTL8181 Sourceforge project:

Serial Console

With a max232 hooked up to pins 1 (RX) and 7 (TX) of J1, one can get a serial
console on the device.

Username: super
Password: lance@edimax.com.tw

Schematic (note you will need a external 5V power source)

BOM:
4 - 1uF Tantalum 35V Capacitors
1 - MAX232 IC
1 - DB9 Female connector
1 - 8 Pin dim female connector

Schematic diagram

If an ADM3202 is used instead of the MAX232, you only need 100nF caps AND you
can get the 3.3V power from the board.

or

Using a Nokia Data Cable.
1.Cut the head off an old Nokia phone serial cable crimp on an RJ45 Head
Nokia Cable

2.Make the header for the device you want to connect to with an RJ45 head
The one on the left and the harness at the top is for the Minitar then any un known devices can use the loose pins, External link

Dissertations the one on the right is configured for my router.
Different Headers

3.Then use a RJ45 joiner to join everything together
All Together

4.In Action

Bigger Pictures External link

Emo

make money online
The beautiful thing about this is you can quickly swap between devices with different pin configurations as easily as plugging in a network cable. External link

GCSE Coursework

Hit escape when booting to access the Realtek bootloader.

Boot

UART1 output test ok
Uart init
Found 1 x 2M flash memory

---RealTek(RTL8181)at .... ... 7 11:22:57 CST 2003 version 1.0
no sys signature at 00010000!
Jump to image start=0x80300000...
display on
entering boot loader, turning on display
decompressing kernel:
Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.
done decompressing kernel.
Linux version 2.4.18-MIPS-01.00 (root@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 3.0.3) #2 Fri Aug 22 00:02:09 CST 2003
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 00800000 @ 00000000 (usable)
Initial ramdisk at: 0x80166000 (405253 bytes)
On node 0 totalpages: 2048
zone(0): 2048 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/ram console=0 ramdisk_start=0 single
Calibrating delay loop... 204.39 BogoMIPS
Memory: 6104k/8192k available (1295k kernel code, 2088k reserved, 476k data, 44k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
block: 64 slots per queue, batch=16
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Serial driver version 6.02 (2003-03-12) with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0x00c3 (irq = 3) is a rtl_uart1
state->flags=00000000
RealTek E-Flash System Driver. (C) 2002 RealTek Corp.
Found 1 x 2MiB MXIC MX29LV160AB at 0xbfc00000
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
order=00000000 in rt_init
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 512 bind 1024)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
NET4: Ethernet Bridge 008 for NET4.0
Starting kswapd
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 395k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Freeing unused kernel memory: 44k freed
mount /proc file system ok!
serial console detected.  Disabling virtual terminals.

console=/dev/ttyS0
init started:  BusyBox v0.60.1 (2003.09.16-11:50+0000) multi-call binary



BusyBox v0.60.1 (2003.09.16-11:50+0000) Built-in shell (msh)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

Initialize WLAN interface
length=0?
length=0?
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
bridge br0 doesn't exist!
bridge br0 doesn't exist; can't delete it
Setup bridge...
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
This is 8305SB
eth1: Promiscuous mode enabled.
eth1: Promiscuous mode enabled.
eth1: Promiscuous mode enabled.
eth1: Promiscuous mode enabled.
SIOCDELRT: No such process
SIOCDELRT: No such process
br0: port 2(wlan0) entering listening state
br0: port 1(eth1) entering listening state
br0: port 2(wlan0) entering learning state
br0: port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 1(eth1) entering learning state
br0: port 1(eth1) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
SIOCDELRT: No such process
SIOCDELRT: No such process
udhcp server (v0.9.9-pre) started
iappauth.sh: not found
********** run Diagd **********
setting: port: 31727
running in daemon mode
251
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------
<TAB>
Select                     <ESC>
Exit                     <Enter> Enter
Please enter your Name and Password
User Name :

Reboot

The system is going down NOW !!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes.
Terminated
# Sending Please stand by while rebooting the system.
Restarting system.
Enable Watch Dog to Reset whole system

Root console

# cat cpuinfo
system type             : Philips Nino
processor               : 0
cpu model               : R3000 V0.0
BogoMIPS                : 204.39
wait instruction        : no
microsecond timers      : no
tlb_entries             : 64
extra interrupt vector  : no
hardware watchpoint     : no
VCED exceptions         : not available
VCEI exceptions         : not available
ll emulations           : 0
sc emulations           : 0

# cat meminfo
        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:   6651904  4444160  2207744        0    61440  2338816
Swap:        0        0        0
MemTotal:         6496 kB
MemFree:          2156 kB
MemShared:           0 kB
Buffers:            60 kB
Cached:           2284 kB
SwapCached:          0 kB
Active:            636 kB
Inactive:         2140 kB
HighTotal:           0 kB
HighFree:            0 kB
LowTotal:         6496 kB
LowFree:          2156 kB
SwapTotal:           0 kB
SwapFree:            0 kB

# df
Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                 1373      1317        56  96% /

# cd /proc/rtl8180/
# echo *
PCI_IO ap_status bssdb rxdesc stats status txdesc

# cat ap_status
************ wlan_sta_tbl ************
There are 0 stations in table.
************ wlan_wep_KM_tbl ************
************ wlan_macaddr_filter ************
macaddr_filter_num = 0
deny_macaddr_filter_num = 0
************ Broadcase skb tx queue ************
wCtx->ps_brstQ.qnum = 0

# cat status
************ Current driver status ************
 rtl8180_pci_driver loaded.
 MacAddr = 00:50:fc:d4:b1:dd
 ioaddr = 0xbd400000
 irq = 2

-- RTL8180 Link status --

  Channel number = 11
  beacon period = 100
  BSSID = 0x00 0x50 0xfc 0xd4 0xb1 0xdd
  SSID = 0x66(f) 0x7a(z) 0x6a(j) 0x2d(-) 0x77(w) 0x69(i) 0x72(r) 0x65(e)
0x6c(l) 0x65(e) 0x73(s) 0x73(s) 0x2d(-) 0x6f(o) 0
  Capability = 0x00
  AID = 0x00
  Operational rate = <1><2><5.5><11>Mbps

Questions

Does somebody has the BDSL def file?

The BSDL file hasn't been as forthcoming as the data sheet from the rep (I have asked for it) and may never will. It's not always one of those things that get given out without an NDA. Keep hassling Realtek.

Can somebody gave the FCC-ID of this AP?

Apparently it's being approved and will get one for sale in the US of A.
FWIW, there is a RTL8181-based design for a Network Everywhere product under the FCCID of Q87-NWR11B --JerrittCollord
Also, see the linked Sourceforge project (above) for a table of products and FCCIDs.

Does the binary wireless driver supports ad-hoc mode? Can you double check?

Yes, it supports BSS AP, BSS Client, IBBS and WDS modes.

Version 62 (old) modified Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:49:29 +0000

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