Dahua HBD3200 unbricking - putty jumble

[militarymedic23]

Not sure where the text went, so here it is again.
Hoping someone can provide insight. Trying to use a TTL adapter to access the console of a HBD3200 unit to restore a working firmware image.
I'ts an armorview unit from amazon Amazon.com: Armorview PL2303HX USB To TTL To UART RS232 COM Cable Module Converter: Home Audio & Theater
Tested out the leads for Rx and I can get putty so show activity but it's all gibberish. All the posts I've come across are 115200, 8,1 no parity no control
Tried changing the speeds around but still no go. I know the speed tends to be the main culprit but apparently not in the case.
Thought I was off to a good start that I actually got activity! but now I'm not sure what needs to be looked into.

Any suggestions?

 

[nayr]

baud rate is incorrect..

 

[militarymedic23]

I thought so too, just updated with the text. odd how the attachment wiped out the message body...

 

[alastairstevenson]

Tested out the leads for Rx and I can get putty so show activity but it's all gibberish.

Dumb question - definitely got the GND from the USB to serial TTL convertor connected to the camera GND?

 

[militarymedic23]

I had wondered the same. I have it grounded to the metal base plate. Made sure it was grounding as when I disconnected it the screen readout stopped.

 

[cor35vet]

Connect RX and TX of your dongle to confirm it is working (type something and it should echo)
You could also have connected it to the wrong pins on the camera, take a pic?

 

[militarymedic23]

I was working on that. the ports for this camera are as the picture shows. I tested all three and found the middle as output, I figure the left is input but with the garbled output I'm seeing on putty, I don't get any response with a keypress. I tried putting the Tx on the right but didn't see any change.

 

[cor35vet]

All of these cameras have a 4pin connector for serial: ResetIPCamera - Dahua Wiki
Remove the plastic cover and search for a 4pin? You are probably poking something different ^^

 

[militarymedic23]

The articles I read all pointed to a 4 pin setup like you mentioned but at a brief glance with it disassembled I didn't notice anything else.
How likely is it that there are multiple points on the board that would give output?
Will search again when I get back to my testing bench.

 

[alastairstevenson]

tested all three and found the middle as output, I figure the left is input but with the garbled output I'm seeing on putty, I don't get any response with a keypress.

I'd almost lay a bet that the square pad is the GND and the 2 round ones are Tx and Rx.
Is there any way the metal frame of the camera is not the GND of the electronics?

 

[militarymedic23]

I'll give that a try.
The circuit board does appear to be suspended in the metal housing but I don't know if or where any contact points are that would allow grounding between the two.

 

[militarymedic23]

I connected black/ground to the square location but I'm still getting the same garbled output.

 

[cor35vet]

Maybe try another software?
Also does it spam the terminal or does it look like legit data is coming out of the camera, aka. with chunks printing at a time, some delays at boot and not constant spam.

 

[militarymedic23]

I did pull down other software thinking the same, haven't tried it yet.

The putty output isn't continuous, it flows, stops, flows a bit more and stops. I can repeat it with the manual reset button so to me it's prob the right output, just the wrong language.

I've seen this with my Cisco switches when hooked up via serial and it was always the speed mismatch. But this is just confusing me.

Any chance the USB adapter could have anything to do with it? Seems fairly straightforward but then again everything seems to be on the table now.

also, with green, white and black connected, I can't see any ability to get a response via keyboard entry. like it's just viewing it.

 

[cor35vet]

Chances are the camera can not read your input if you can't read it's output XD
But yeah you could try holding down * before/during plugging it in.
Try other software first.

 

[militarymedic23]

Got it. May build up a slim pic with win7 to test this too. Win10 doesn't seem to fond of the USB adapter even though it says it's fine.

 

[militarymedic23]

built up the slim pc, putty and other software still shows same type of output.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Well, that lets out the PC and its software.
Maybe a long shot - PL2303HX come apparently with fake variants - and there is more than one driver. What Windows puts in may not be the right one for your specific convertor. I have a recollection of having to do a Google search when I used one of those in Windows.
And in terms of empirical problem solving - maybe swapping the convertor itself would be worth trying.
You can also get those type of results using a classic RS-232 interface on a serial TTL source.

 

[militarymedic23]

Roger that.
With the slim pic running w7, it immediately picked it up as a prolific adapter if I remember correctly. Was thinking I would need to battle with installing the right driver.

Would you have a direct link to a known ttl cable to try?

 

[alastairstevenson]

These were the last ones I bought. But there is no guarantee of what you'd actually get on another order. These things are sold in the 10s of thousands.
PL2303 USB to UART TTL 1m Cable module PL2303HX Converter Free Shipping D44 | eBay
I presume there's no way the HBD3200 has a classic RS-232 serial console? It's not an external connector, is it?

'Official' drivers here : PL-2303H / 2303HX / 2303HXD Drivers | Prolific USA
The Windows native driver was prone to crashing.
Unlike the native Linux driver, which has been solid.
But I didn't see any corruption of characters in Windows.