Laboratory stand dedicated to Protectli platforms assembly guide

Introduction

This document describes platform-specific details for assembling Protectli VP2410, VP2420, VP4630/VP4650/VP4670, V1210/V1410/V1610 testing stands. Use this document as reference while going through Generic Testing Stand Setup

Prerequisites

The below table contains platform-specific information about all elements which are needed to create testing stands for Protectli machines.

• RTE v1.1.0
• RTE power supply 5V 2A Micro-USB
• 6x standard female-female connection wire 2.54 mm raster
• 6x standard female-female connection wire 2.54/2.00 mm raster
• 2x RJ45 cable: 1 for RTE and 1 for the platform

VP2410VP2420VP4630/VP4650/VP4670V1210/V1410/V1610

• VP2410 platform
• Power supply for the platform: 12V 5A
• Micro-USB to USB-A male-male cable for console

• VP2420 platform
• Power supply for the platform: 12V 5A
• Micro-USB to USB-A male-male cable for console

• VP4630/VP4650/VP4670 platform
• Sonoff S20 type E (relay unused due to disruptions in power during high CPU load)
• USB-UART converter with 4-wire cable
• 4-pin header 2.54 mm raster
• Pomona SOIC8 clip
• Micro-USB to USB-A male-male cable for console
• Power supply for the platform:
  • VP4630: 12V 5A
  • VP4650/VP4670: 12V 7.5A

• V1210/V1410/V1610 platform
• Power supply for the platform: 12V 4A
• USB-C to USB-A male-male cable for console

External flashing enabling

VP2410VP2420VP4630/VP4650/VP4670V1210/V1410/V1610

External flashing not possible with Pomona clip, the flash chip lies under the chassis, which serves the cooling purposes. One option is to drill a hole in the case where the flash chip lies.

External flashing not possible with Pomona clip, the flash chip lies under the SODIMM module.

Flash chip is socketed. One has to desolder the socket, solder the flash chip in place of the socket and connect the Pomona SOIC8 clip.

Connect the RTE SPI header to the platform using the 2.54mm female-female wires as described in the table:

RTE SPI header	6pin flash header
J7 pin 1 (Vcc)	pin 1 (SPI Power)
J7 pin 2 (GND)	pin 2 (GND)
J7 pin 3 (CS)	pin 4 (BIOS SPI CS pin)
J7 pin 4 (SCLK)	pin 6 (SPI Clock)
J7 pin 5 (MISO)	pin 5 (MISO)
J7 pin 6 (MOSI)	pin 3 (MOSI)

CMOS reset circuit

VP2410VP2420VP4630/VP4650/VP4670V1210/V1410/V1610

Connect the RTE J11 header to the platform JCMOS1 header using 2.54mm to 2mm wires as described in the table:

RTE	Protectli
J11 pin 8	JCMOS1 pin 1 (CLR_CMOS)
Any GND	JCMOS1 pin 2 (GND)

Resetting CMOS is required for proper external flashing.

Connect the RTE J11 header to the platform JCMOS1 header using 2.54mm to 2mm wires as described in the table:

RTE	Protectli
J11 pin 8	JCMOS1 pin 1 (CLR_CMOS)
Any GND	JCMOS1 pin 2 (GND)

Resetting CMOS is required for proper external flashing.

Connect the RTE J11 header to the platform JCMOS1 header using 2.54mm to 2mm wires as described in the table:

RTE	Protectli
J11 pin 8	JCMOS1 pin 2 (CLR_CMOS)
Any GND	JCMOS1 pin 1 (GND)

Resetting CMOS is required for proper external flashing.

Connect the RTE J11 header to the platform CLR_CMOS1 header using 2.54mm to 2mm wires as described in the table:

RTE	Protectli
J11 pin 8	CLR_CMOS1 pin 2 (CLR_CMOS)
Any GND	CLR_CMOS1 pin 3 (GND)

Resetting CMOS is required for proper external flashing.

Theory of operation

The following sections describe how to use all of the enabled features:

• serial connection to the platform,
• controlling power supply,
• enabling basic power actions with the platform (power off/power on/reset),
• external flashing with the RTE,
• CMOS reset.

Serial connection

The method of setting and using serial connection is described in the Serial connection guide.

Power supply controlling

VP2410VP2420VP4630/VP4650/VP4670V1210/V1410/V1610

Power supply controlling is performed with the relay module on RTE connected to one of RTE GPIOs. Power operation should be performed using the rte_ctrl script implemented in meta-rte (OS image dedicated to the RTE platform).

To toggle the power supply use the below command:

```bash
rte_ctrl rel
```

Power supply controlling is performed with the relay module on RTE connected to one of RTE GPIOs. Power operation should be performed using the rte_ctrl script implemented in meta-rte (OS image dedicated to the RTE platform).

To toggle the power supply use the below command:

```bash
rte_ctrl rel
```

Power supply controlling (in this case: controlling the state of Sonoff) should be performed based on the sonoff.sh script implemented in meta-rte (OS image dedicated to the RTE platform).

Note, that before using the above-mentioned script, it should be modified and SONOFF_IP parameter should be set in accordance with obtained Sonoff IP address.

To perform basic power operations use the below-described commands:

1. Turn on the power supply:

   ./sonoff on
   

2. Turn off the power supply:

   ./sonoff on
   

Power supply controlling is performed with the relay module on RTE connected to one of RTE GPIOs. Power operation should be performed using the rte_ctrl script implemented in meta-rte (OS image dedicated to the RTE platform).

To toggle the power supply use the below command:

```bash
rte_ctrl rel
```

Basic power operations

Basic power operations should be performed based on the rte_ctrl script implemented in meta-rte (OS image dedicated to the RTE platform). To perform basic power operations use the below-described commands:

1. Turn on the platform:

   rte_ctrl pon
   

2. Turn off the platform:

   rte_ctrl poff
   

3. Reset the platform:

   rte_ctrl reset
   

Note, that in order for the above commands to work properly, the platform should be powered up: both Sonoff and the power supply must be turned on.

External flashing

The external flashing procedure should be performed based on the scripts implemented on the RTE platform. To perform the flashing operation reproduce, the below-described steps:

1. By using scp put the requested Dasharo file to the RTE:

   scp <path_to_firmware>/<firmware_file> root@<RTE_IP>:/tmp/coreboot.rom
   

   Where:

   • path_to_firmware - path to firmware, which should send to RTE,
   • firmware_file - the name of the firmware file, which should be sent to RTE,
   • RTE_IP - IP address of the connected RTE.

2. Login to RTE via ssh or minicom.

3. Read the flash chip by executing the following command on RTE:

   ./flash.sh read tmp/dump.rom
   

4. If the reading was successful, the output from the command above should contain the phrase Verifying flash... VERIFIED.

5. Write the flash chip by executing the following command on RTE:

   ./flash.sh write /tmp/coreboot.rom
   

   Do not interrupt the flashing procedure in any way (especially by changing connections). It may cause hardware damage!

6. If the reading was successful, the output from the command above should contain the phrase Verifying flash... VERIFIED.

CMOS clear

To clear the CMOS, turn off the power with Sonoff or relay and use the following commands:

echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio412/value
sleep 10
echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio412/value