Augen e-Go netbook - synchronizable

Greetings all...

I have an Augen Ego (the 248MHz model)... that does not seem to have the mini-usb connector.
I've taken this thing apart several times trying to figure out where the mini-usb port's pads are... but no luck so far.

Have any of ya'll taken this gadget apart?

I'd be very interested in pictures of the board.

I think this gadget could be easily updated/upgraded (ie., possible ram upgrades, and even possible flash upgrades).

Anyone here up for a bit of gadget hacking?

Lyos Gemini Norezel

Alright... I'll attempt to get the ball rolling on this...

Note: This is about hardware hacking... NOT firmware/software hacking.
WARNING: these links go to photos taken on a 7 megapixel camera. The pictures are 3074 x 2304. NOT dial-up friendly.

Augen Ego OE-A736 (248MHz version)
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0733.JPG

Undercarriage - clearly shows the battery cover and the locations of the majority of the screws
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0734.JPG

Battery cover removed - connecting cable shown
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0735.JPG

Battery removed - BE CAREFUL! Double sided tape holds battery in place.
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0736.JPG

Battery bay - no hidden screws
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0737.JPG

Start at the front of the netbook and separate the halfs - cables connect to keyboard and mouse - ribbons and connectors are very fragile... so be gentle here.
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0738.JPG

Mouse (touchpad) ribbon disconnected
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0739.JPG

Keyboard/Mouse section disconnected and shown laying on top of LCD - LCD cable can also be seen on the left side.
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0740.JPG

LCD cable disconnected
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0741.JPG

LCD hinges unscrewed from board (DO NOT try to separate entirely... the other, smaller cable on the right is soldered in place on underside of board)
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0743.JPG

Ribbon cable to be disconnected and on remaining screw holding board in place
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0744.JPG

Ribbon disconnected
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0745.JPG

IC side of board
Square board in lower left with "blob" chip... NFC as to what this is... it's NOT USB, or WIFI as both of these are built into the SoC.
Above this are two crystals... and then a chip (I think) is marked ICH3740
To the right of the crystals... is the sole flash chip soldered in place... a Samsung K9GAG08U0M
There's a vacant flash chip location just to the right of the populated spot
The RAM chip is a PSC P3S12D40ETP
The Processor is an ANYKA AK7802TQ21605 (ARM926 based SoC)
Above that you have a Davicom DM9008AEP ethernet chip
In the upper left corner of the board... you can see an entire missing circuit. This looks like it might be an alternative power circuit.
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0746.JPG

Another view of the board
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0747.JPG

Angle showing V5 and V6 solder locations, just above the power connector... that *might* be usb... but are not like any USB solder points I've seen before
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0750.JPG

Another angle showing V5 and V6
http://www.oslb.net/GEDC0753.JPG

I'm not sure of the potential for this board... but I'm fairly certain that an upgrade to 128MB (or even 256MB) RAM, and up to 8GB of NAND Flash would be fairly easy for those who know how.

Not sure if the SoC can be overclocked or clocked differently... or simply replaced replaced.

I would really like to see pictures of other boards to see why mine is lacking the miniusb port.

Anyone willing to do some deconstruction and picture taking?

Lyos Gemini Norezel

LyosNorezel, of course you don't have a mini-USB. You have a full size USB along the back side by the ethernet connector. The older machines had 3 full size, while the newer ones substituted a min-USB on the back side to differentiate it from the standard USBs on the ends.

Try plugging a mouse into the back side and see if it works. Maybe it is for Activesyncing your handheld.

My Chinese no-name cheapo netbook is the same way...runs at 248mHz, 3 full-size usbs, but the one on the back is sync only. My other no-name netbook also has 3 full-size USB ports, but none of them will sync. But the port on the back reads and writes USB flash drives just fine while the ones on the end work only with keyboards and mice.

The only thing I know for sure is that there is no standard for these things...none whatsoever!

Ah... alright... I'll have to see if I can dig up one of my old, oddball A to A USB Cables.



Lovely.

What are your thoughts regarding upgradibility of these netbooks?

I still think the RAM and ROM can be replaced/upgraded.

Personally... I'd love to see this little gadget running Android.

Lyos Gemini Norezel

I saw a vendor selling the 533 MHz version of the eGo at a local computer show. It got a lot of attention, though a lot of people were asking if Linux could be installed on it.

Any progress on this? I'm thinking of getting one but like you would love to be able to get android to run on it. What would that take?

Why not get one with android already installed?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Android-7-WiFi-mini-notebook-Netbook-450MHz-2GB-BLACK-/110537858900?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item19bc91df54

Cheers.

CE Geek, do you know where can I get the battery for this thing?

One of these should do the job:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Replacement-Battery-EPC-WinCE-Mini-Netbook-/270613526081?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Laptop_Batteries&hash=item3f01d2b641

Thanks!

But this one is 7.4v. I looked at the one in my augen , which says 8.4V. Will it fit?

Let me know if anyone figures out how to upgrade these.

Note that the reason for only one USB that can upgrade is probably because 2 of 3 USB ports are 1.1 standard

The "blob" chip "Holtek H95a-1" is just a USB/PS2 keyboard controller. And the LCD controller is embedded in anyka chip.

Wifi is not built into soc for Augen it is wired and placed into LCD screen(and it is the infaumous hotspot for this model). The 4 USB wires can be clearly seen right close to USB port in the back

Holtek H95a-1

Edited by otoluk 2010-08-27 12:38 PM

They are already upgraded according to some sites RAM chip P3S12D40-ETP is 32Mb*16 so 512MB of RAM

512Mb DDR ram: P3S12D40ETP 32M*16 G5 200 MHz 2.5V a0.2V TSOP II 66-pin
P3s12d40etp datasheet


...sorry 512 is Megabits and not bytes so only 64MB of RAM. There seems to be no larger chips from PSC(Powerchip) factory so no easy upgrade.

Edited by otoluk 2010-08-27 1:18 PM

Hey ya'll...

Sorry I haven't responded... it's been crazy here.

Anyway... with a program called DiskRW I was able to grab a copy of the OS from the flash.

Not sure if the image could be used as a backup/restore image... but I'll link a copy of it below.

Unfortunately on this netbook... the rear USB port is only good for usb flash drives, etc. The two on the side are only good for Keyboards and Mice... and none of them will sync.

Thanks otoluk for letting us know what that blob chip was.

The NAND Flash chip conforms to the JEDEC standard... so we should be able to drop in replace it with any chip that uses the JEDEC x8 format.

The DDR RAM chip is also fairly standard... and should be easily upgradable.

I need to reopen the Augen netbook... to see if I can identify a NOR Flash/EEPROM chip onboard that I can dump to retrieve the BIOS/Firmware.

This board should, in theory, be relatively easy to upgrade and install linux on, provided we have a kernel target for that CPU.

I am, currently, searching for a DDR memory chip that has the same pinout as the one on the netbook, that also has more internal RAM.

I will let ya'll know what I find.

Lyos Gemini Norezel

Link to the Image File
Warning file is approximately 116MB!!

There is no RAM with more than 64MB on one chip, maybe there is a way how to attach another 64MB on top of previous chip(max supported RAM is 128MB).
The flash is one for WinCE/BIOS/boot. And there is a 32Kb ROM on CPU which holds the bootcore(no need to change it).

The boot process seems as follows:
1. Reset. The onchip ROM bootcore checks if to boot from USB or NAND flash.
2. If booting from NAND then the first block of NAND flash is read and copied to onchip RAM(12KB) and executed. On our netbooks this file is called nboot64_ddr_V5.0.bin (size 6KB) for 1.9 ROM.
3. NANDboot code initializes RAM, sets the registers and then copies eboot.nb0(BIOS) from flash to RAM and boots. The producer eboot seems not needed at all, guess it is used at factory.
4. Eboot (BIOS) allows to enter setup(F1) or boots the NK(Native Kernel) image - XIP.nbo from flash
5. Windows CE starts

Specifications:http://tails92.sepwich.com/files/Anyka/

And the anyka CPU now is overclockable.


Edited by otoluk 2010-11-06 8:52 PM