Info

HI, I know this might be a noob question but Im trying to setup for flashing
different kind of rom files and I need to purchase the hardware to do so. I
am looking to flashing motherboards and other rom devices. Can you please
guide me into buying the proper hardware or if you sell it I would gladly
buy it from you. Thank you.

Ray Alemozafar

The Computer Shop

22750 Roscoe Blvd. Unit A

West Hills, CA 91304

www.ineedageek.us http://www.ineedageek.us

[Patrick Rogers]

Hello Ray,

The hardware that you would need is something called a BIOS programmer.
Usually they use a USB port and might be found cheaply online. Flashrom
has a list of supported programmers:

https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#External_flashers.2Fprogrammers

My suggestion would be to purchase a Raspberry Pi, which is a cheap
Linux computer that has builtin hardware support needed to flash ROMs.
It might be less trouble and more easier to get. The Pi, microSD card,
case, breadboard jumper cables and breadboard (for easier seating of
BIOS chip) may cost around $50 USD.

On 2019-10-05 2:40 p.m., [e-mail] wrote:
> HI, I know this might be a noob question but Im trying to setup for
> flashing different kind of rom files and I need to purchase the hardware
> to do so. I am looking to flashing motherboards and other rom devices.
> Can you please guide me into buying the proper hardware or if you sell
> it I would gladly buy it from you. Thank you.
>
> Ray Alemozafar
>
> The Computer Shop
>
> 22750 Roscoe Blvd. Unit A
>
> West Hills, CA 91304
>
> www.ineedageek.us http://www.ineedageek.us
>
> flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[David Hendricks]

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 8:31 PM Patrick Rogers
 wrote:
> Hello Ray,
>
> The hardware that you would need is something called a BIOS programmer.
> Usually they use a USB port and might be found cheaply online. Flashrom
> has a list of supported programmers:
>
> https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#External_flashers.2Fprogrammers
>
> My suggestion would be to purchase a Raspberry Pi, which is a cheap
> Linux computer that has builtin hardware support needed to flash ROMs.
> It might be less trouble and more easier to get. The Pi, microSD card,
> case, breadboard jumper cables and breadboard (for easier seating of
> BIOS chip) may cost around $50 USD.

The Raspberry Pi certainly makes a nice, fast flasher, however the IO
pins are connected to 3.3V rails so you'll need to be careful to use
it with 3.3V flash chips only (not 1.8V).

[Patrick Rogers]

On 2019-10-06 10:18 a.m., David Hendricks wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 8:31 PM Patrick Rogers
>  wrote:
> > Hello Ray,
> >
> > The hardware that you would need is something called a BIOS programmer.
> > Usually they use a USB port and might be found cheaply online. Flashrom
> > has a list of supported programmers:
> >
> > https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#External_flashers.2Fprogrammers
> >
> > My suggestion would be to purchase a Raspberry Pi, which is a cheap
> > Linux computer that has builtin hardware support needed to flash ROMs.
> > It might be less trouble and more easier to get. The Pi, microSD card,
> > case, breadboard jumper cables and breadboard (for easier seating of
> > BIOS chip) may cost around $50 USD.
>
> The Raspberry Pi certainly makes a nice, fast flasher, however the IO
> pins are connected to 3.3V rails so you'll need to be careful to use
> it with 3.3V flash chips only (not 1.8V).

I didn't know that there are chips that use 1.8 volts, I don't know much
about electric devices, but could you just connect a resistor or
something to reduce the voltage?

[Andrew Luke Nesbit]

On 06/10/2019 18:55, Patrick Rogers wrote:
> On 2019-10-06 10:18 a.m., David Hendricks wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 8:31 PM Patrick Rogers
> >  wrote:
> > > My suggestion would be to purchase a Raspberry Pi, which is a cheap
> > > Linux computer that has builtin hardware support needed to flash ROMs.
> > > It might be less trouble and more easier to get. The Pi, microSD card,
> > > case, breadboard jumper cables and breadboard (for easier seating of
> > > BIOS chip) may cost around $50 USD.
> >
> > The Raspberry Pi certainly makes a nice, fast flasher, however the IO
> > pins are connected to 3.3V rails so you'll need to be careful to use
> > it with 3.3V flash chips only (not 1.8V).

One of the good things about the RPi is that it is popular.  You should
be able to find answers to your issues without too much difficulty.

I *highly* recommend that when using any cheap SBC as a flashing device
that you power it from the mains electricity.  This means a transformer
that plugs into the wall and gives 5V on the other side.  Trying to
power it using the "5V" that a USB cable carries from the USB port on a
computer is not as reliable.

Aside from necessities such as SD cards to carry the OS, try to minimize
the amount of peripherals attached to the SBC.  This will increase the
power available for the flashing process.
> I didn't know that there are chips that use 1.8 volts, I don't know much
> about electric devices, but could you just connect a resistor or
> something to reduce the voltage?

This is the first I've heard of this too.  If anybody has any examples I
would be greatly appreciative.

Andrew

[Antonio Ospite]

On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 19:28:55 +0100
Andrew Luke Nesbit  wrote:
> On 06/10/2019 18:55, Patrick Rogers wrote:
> >

[...]
> > I didn't know that there are chips that use 1.8 volts, I don't know much
> > about electric devices, but could you just connect a resistor or
> > something to reduce the voltage?
>
> This is the first I've heard of this too.  If anybody has any examples I
> would be greatly appreciative.

See https://ao2.it/111

The interesting bits are from "In order to flash at 1.8V [...]".

Ciao,
   Antonio

[Daniel Thompson]

On Sat, Oct 05, 2019 at 09:31:08PM -0600, Patrick Rogers wrote:
> Hello Ray,
>
> The hardware that you would need is something called a BIOS programmer.
> Usually they use a USB port and might be found cheaply online. Flashrom
> has a list of supported programmers:
>
> https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#External_flashers.2Fprogrammers
>
> My suggestion would be to purchase a Raspberry Pi, which is a cheap
> Linux computer that has builtin hardware support needed to flash ROMs.
> It might be less trouble and more easier to get. The Pi, microSD card,
> case, breadboard jumper cables and breadboard (for easier seating of
> BIOS chip) may cost around $50 USD.

I'm going to be doing to BIOS work with a high risk of bricking the
device I am working on. In the end I decided to grab one of the cheap
CH341A programmers of eBay, partly because the various tutorial videos
on YouTube were confidence inspiring and partly because it looked much
easier to set up physically then doing a bunch of work with hook up
wire.

I can't offer any real world experience about its performance at this
stage since I'm still waiting for the brickable device to arrive but, as
I said, the YouTube tutorials were useful here.

Daniel.
> On 2019-10-05 2:40 p.m., [e-mail] wrote:
> > HI, I know this might be a noob question but Im trying to setup for
> > flashing different kind of rom files and I need to purchase the hardware
> > to do so. I am looking to flashing motherboards and other rom devices.
> > Can you please guide me into buying the proper hardware or if you sell
> > it I would gladly buy it from you. Thank you.
> >
> > Ray Alemozafar
> >
> > The Computer Shop
> >
> > 22750 Roscoe Blvd. Unit A
> >
> > West Hills, CA 91304
> >
> > www.ineedageek.us http://www.ineedageek.us
> >
> > flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> flashrom mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]