Updating RNS315 maps for fun and profit

I have RNS315 radio/navigation/media system (I will call it unit) in my car. I bought it with maps from 2014 which are hugely outdated so I started to research how to update the maps.

The obvious way is to go to the dealer and buy map update but that costs some higher tens of Euros so I started researching other options.

The update comes on an SD card which is unreadable in PC – this is because the card is locked with CMD42 and most operating systems cannot deal with this lock. There is a very nice technical note where you can...

DIY WSON-8 socket

As I am dealing with flashing SPI NANDs in WSON-8 package, I wanted to make my life easier by using a socket. You can buy one for about $6 on ali but I also wanted to try a different approach with pogo pins.

So I designed some PCBs. They came today:

You can see there are three types of boards in the panel. First (topmost) – adapter with WSON8 on one side, 1.27mm pin header on the other.

And the rest two for assembling the pogo pin adapter:

The base:

The top:

Assembled with a 3D printed clip. The chip goes inside to the cavity.

It is...

Code Questions: CFAL4864A-071BW

Our customer support team is here to help! We have recently received some questions about our small 0.71″ OLED display. These questions and answers are also relevant to our 0.66″ OLED display, which shares the same pinout and controller (the SSD1306).

Kelsey: No you don’t need to put delays in

Brent: Generally. Some devices specifically need a chip select to cycle between bytes, some don’t

Производство печатных плат в NextPCB с доставкой и оплатой из России.

Постучались мне недавно товарищи из NextPcb, мол у нас клевая фабрика. А можете вы про нас рассказать? Рассказать, то я могу. Только вот без тестового образца, чтобы оценить сам процесс заказа-доставки, качества и прочего я ничего естественно писать не буду, ни за какие деньги. Сделайте мне небольшой тестовый заказ, а там видно будет стоит про вас что-то говорить, али нет. Ударили по рукам и я им скинул на изготовление один небольшой коммерческий заказик. Простенькая плата, ну очень простенькая. Просто заказывать бесполезную фиговину не хотелось, а из того, что было нужно только это. Но, в целом, оценить продукцию можно и...

CAN шина

Одним из популярных сетевых интерфейсов в промышленности является Controller Area Network. Его специально придумали в BOSCH, чтобы плодить сети из контроллеров. Особенно он прижился в автопроме, где часто по автомобилю идет одна CAN шина и все на нее повешано. Причем сам стандарт не подразумевает физическую реализацию протокола. Она может быть по витой паре, оптике, радиоканалу. На чем угодно. Лишь бы можно было реализовать систему из рецессивного и доминантного бита. Т.е. два состояния одно из которых всегда подавляет другое.

Например, оптоволокно, в которое светят передатчики. Доминантное состояние это свет. Потому, что мы не можем включить темноту. Если будет...

Fixing broken TP-Link TL-MR100

TL;DR: the problem is usually in corrupted data in SPI NAND flash, you need to download the original config data and flash back working modem firmware.

I noticed there is quite a lot of offers with used not working 4G router TL-MR100 in aukro.cz . I bought one with hope I can easily fix and use it. But the fix turned out to be not that easy.

The router boots, shows WiFi network, you can connect to it but the problem is that the web management doesn’t work. I’ve found out that the device consists of two interconnected systems:
– MT7628AN SoC providing...

New Products in 2022

Our team has been working hard this year to bring new products to the market and to ensure our parts are continually available.

This display was specially designed to have a matching form factor to our popular 128×64 graphic displays. We wanted a display with increased capabilities but without the price tag of a typical high density graphic display. This display met that mark. It has 240×128 pixels, 4-color grayscale, and is available with a backlight or as a purely reflective display.

We also offer this display with a breakout board and as a full graphic LCD development kit.

miniPCI-e dual USB card extender

Recently, I was looking for an affordable LoRaWAN gateway with 3G/LTE connectivity. I like Mikrotik products because they are easy to use and have many features (e.g. Wireguard VPN ) . I found RBwAPR-2nD which has a miniPCI-e slot which can be fitted with R11e-LR8 LoRaWAN gateway module or a card for mobile network connectivity (e.g. R11e-4G). The problem is you cannot have both because there is only one slot. Or can you?

As soon as I verified that LR8 use only USB connectivity through miniPCIe I’ve got an idea why couldn’t we fit in a USB hub to...

Getting Hired at Great Scott Gadgets

Once in a while, we get emails from people in the community who want to know what they can do to increase their chances of getting hired at Great Scott Gadgets (GSG) when we do happen to open up a position. We really appreciate this enthusiasm! Below we outline some of the skills and topics we assess when hiring someone to join our small, completely-remote team.

Know our products and projects. Our products are listed on our website. The Software and hardware details for our products and projects are in the repositories on our GitHub. When we interview we ask which...

Ubertooth Retirement

After 12 years and 17 production runs, Great Scott Gadgets is retiring our first product, Ubertooth One, from our hardware catalog.

GSG’s founder Michael Ossmann designed Ubertooth One because he wanted a device that could detect and monitor Bluetooth. At the time, such instruments existed but cost at least five figures—prohibitively expensive for most security researchers. His goal was to design an open-source, affordable-to-make tool that anyone in the security community with basic soldering skills could assemble. At the project’s inception, his intent was not to sell hardware but to provide a solution to a problem that no one else had...