long shot — Ancot SCSI analyzer firmware?

[atax1a]

Hi y'all,

For SCSI hacking purposes, we picked up an Ancot Ultra2000 SCSI analyzer. It works alright, but it's got firmware 2.1 on it, and we know from searching that there exists a 2.2 upgrade. Unfortunately, Ancot itself underwent Total Existence Failure and all of their property is locked behind a Teledyne-LeCroy paywall.

Like we said, this is a long shot, but does anyone out there have a line on the upgrade file?

Cheers,

atax1a

 

[nkrypth]

Hi, sorry to resurrect this old thread but could you kindly share Ultra 2000 firmware (whichever version you have). I just got Ultra 2000 which shows a checksum error and asks for a new firmware. I was only able to find 2080 firmware but no 2000 so far. I'd appreciate your help!

 

[atax1a]

Unfortunately, we were never able to track down an upgrade file. We could PROBABLY dump the ROMs, but then getting them back onto another unit either requires you to also have the ability to write them, or us to reverse-engineer the upgrade format. :/

 

[nkrypth]

Unfortunately, we were never able to track down an upgrade file. We could PROBABLY dump the ROMs, but then getting them back onto another unit either requires you to also have the ability to write them, or us to reverse-engineer the upgrade format. :/

I'd appreciate binary dump of that EPROM when you get a chance. I have programmer so that's going to be easiest option for me too. I did dump mine already but like I said it fails with checksum error.

While you're there can you also please take a photo of the all the connections to the main board? I did a stupid thing and didn't take a photo before I disassembled it and now I'm not entirely sure if I connected all the ribbon cables in correct orientation

 

[atax1a]

sure thing, probably can get around to that later this week luckily, you caught us with some time off and we've got a brand new handheld USB-C-powered screwdriver that we've been itching to try out; this gives us the perfect opportunity.

fwiw, the file you attached only has ~24k of what smells like 68k code — judging by the strings, it's probably the boot ROM:

Waiting for S-Records.
S-Records loaded :     
 Records lost:
 Records ignored: %d
 Mark transfer OK anyway? y/N [N]
Error erasing FLASH chips:
 Error: invalid record type.
 Error reading record length.
 Error: record too long.
 Error: record too short.
 Error reading record target address.
 Ignored: address out of range.
 Error reading record data.
 Ignored: record type wrong.
 Error: bad checksum.
Error writing data to memory.
Setting new checksum:
Invalid code in FLASH
REBOOTING!

 

[atax1a]

Hi there, here is a dump of the boot ROM. There are two more EEPROMs that look like Atmel 17c128s for the FPGAs, and judging by the lack of SCSI strings in the boot rom, I'm going to guess that the bulk of the firmware is in a soldered-on Flash chip. I'm not sure how to dump those off hand. Also let me get the pictures uploaded in a second post.

 

[atax1a]

PFA, in no particular order, visuals of the ribbon cables. Some of them _do_ have "Pin 1" markings on the silkscreen, fwiw.

 

[atax1a]

Reached out to Teledyne LeCroy on their support page, and an extremely helpful guy called us back; unfortunately, he looked, and they haven't kept archives for legacy gear, and so we're kinda on our own here. Alas.

 

[nkrypth]

Hi there, here is a dump of the boot ROM. There are two more EEPROMs that look like Atmel 17c128s for the FPGAs, and judging by the lack of SCSI strings in the boot rom, I'm going to guess that the bulk of the firmware is in a soldered-on Flash chip. I'm not sure how to dump those off hand. Also let me get the pictures uploaded in a second post.

Much appreciated!

I tried with a new EPROM but as you pointed out it's only minimal code to initiate the boot sequence and the actual firmware is on the other 512kb FlashROM which it even says on the screen. Oh well...



According to the User Manual the file we need is U2000.chk. Seems like the old Ancot website linked to their ftp which sadly wasn't archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20050315153026/http://www.ancot.com:80/techsppt/u2ts/u2ts.html

No luck with other sources too. Somehow they archived all other firmwares but not for 2000 model

Index of /test_equipment/ancot

u-2320-v-2-6-0 directory listing

I might try to see if I can flash it with 2080 firmware once I will get my old Windows 95 PC up and running.

 

[atax1a]

So, we do have a thought as far as getting a working copy of the Flash for you — since it reads the entire firmware at startup, we can probably tap the data bus with a logic analyzer, and turn that into an S-rec file.

We wouldn't expect the 2080 firmware to work well on the other model, but do let us know what you find.

 

[nkrypth]

So, we do have a thought as far as getting a working copy of the Flash for you — since it reads the entire firmware at startup, we can probably tap the data bus with a logic analyzer, and turn that into an S-rec file.

We wouldn't expect the 2080 firmware to work well on the other model, but do let us know what you find.

That's a neat idea! Although as every sane person would do I just bought another Ultra 2000 This one appears to be working fine and have all the accessories but probably it will be another month or so until I will get the package from Japan. I'll keep you posted!

 

[atax1a]

Oh good luck! we're still going to try and dump the full firmware out of the device so we can see about writing code for it, though.

 

[shirsch]

I'd be willing to bet that Artisan Technology has the firmware updates. Looks like they bought out the remaining inventory when Ancot got folded up. I just bought a DS-216 on eBay and would love to get my hands on any firmware upgrades.

I'll drop Artisan a note, but even if they have the firmware it's probably going to be big bucks.