# Bus Pirate as a USB-TTL Serial Converter



## balanga (Jun 26, 2018)

Just found this interesting link.... And to keep on topic it does work with `cu` on FreeBSD


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## Phishfry (Jun 26, 2018)

Sound like you have some in common with the author:
*"After killing my USB-TTL serial board I use to hook up to router serial ports, along with the USB ports of my laptop, I needed a way to connect again."*


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## balanga (Jun 26, 2018)

Not really, I'm just setting up a contingency for when the inevitable happens ...


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## Phishfry (Jun 26, 2018)

Your not learning if you don't fry some stuff.
Nobodys perfect.
The question is did you learn from your mistakes.


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## balanga (Jun 26, 2018)

Unfortunately not. The two things I broke over the last year were a ThinkPad X61 which never rebooted after a BIOS upgrade and a GoFlex Home dock which seemed to get bricked after I entered a 'saveenv' command at a uboot prompt. In both cases I was following instructions and am still not sure what I did wrong.


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## Phishfry (Jun 27, 2018)

I don't take kindly to bricked electronics. Strip them and chunk them in the trash.
My last  brick was a Kontron QM77 ITX board that was dreamy. It had 3 Intel LANS and 2 PCIe slots.(x1 and x16)
What I would give for that board back. Had riser bought, had big plans.
My bricking was during Intel Management Engine flashing stage..I don't know either what I could have done differently.
I still flash every board I buy straight out of the gate. You can't let it discourage you. That was an official BIOS.


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## Phishfry (Jun 27, 2018)

I recently upgraded my home switches from an old Linksys/Cisco SRW2008 to the updated Cisco SG300-10 and its POE cousins SG300-10MP. Well the first thing I did was update the router firmware. That is not as easy as a BIOS flash.
The devices have many years worth of updates and they have separate boot and application images they use. So I had to find the right recipe to upgrade as you can't go straight to the newest you need intermediate steps..
i now have a PHD in Cisco firmware after my third one. I know what to buy now as they are pretty unbrickable.
It needs a tftp server to upload the boot image and that is a good thing to learn, I had trouble getting going but prevailed.
Believe me i was on the edge of my seat a few times.

I did take my newfound talent of soldering to affix an 5.5x2.5mm Barrel jack to the device as they use a 4 Pin round power jack on the 48V POE models. I soldered a pigtail on the underside of the 4pin power din jack and pop'ed a hole in the back for my jack.
I also shrink wrapped and soldered everything..You would have to have a good eye to spot my mod.
The 4 pin obviously offers more amperage, but my little cameras draw very little. Millivolts. These MP models are for higher amperage devices.There is also SG300-10PP that is POE+ and 56V.
The SG300-10MP's were cheaper because of the power situation. The 48V-3.1A power adapters are rare.
I don't know why so many SG300 sell on ebay with no power adapters. The board has good power protection. Nice design.

Being a thrifty craftsman I loved it when, upon disassembly of the SG300-10, I saw the bottom metal casing had a stamping mark of SRW2008. They are still using the same stamping dies from the old Linksys SRW2008.
Hell Ya. That is one fine stamping die. I have made many dies and that one I really appreciated.
Plus they changed the front bezel to metal. Oh yea.
Usually everything new gets crappier. They did good on improving that design. Makes it look modern.
Bravo Cisco.
Plus the old SRW2008 web interface only worked on the Internet Exploder. Good Riddance.


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## balanga (Jun 29, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> I don't take kindly to bricked electronics. Strip them and chunk them in the trash.



I'm no expert on electronics, but my understanding is that 'bricked' does not necessarily mean 'dead', and that some bricked devices can be resurrected.  I suppose the difference is that bricked means the software has failed whereas dead means the hardware has failed.


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