From: Laurent Giroud <laurent.giroud_at_libertysurf.fr>
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 19:06:55 +0100

Oh, I had searched within the mail archive but obviously missed your email. I'll be looking at your work before unsoldering the gmini then.

Thanks !

Laurent

> I had already taken apart the Gmini, but did not go further then listing all the
> chips, etc. You can check it out in the archives. This was about 2 months
> ago.
>
> -eric
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > given the low number of answers, I decided to disassemble the GMini
> > yesterday. So, here's what I found so far.
> >
> > I made a few pictures, they haven't been sorted or appropriately scaled yet
> > so they are quite crappy but it's better than nothing for those who may be
> > interested : http://lgiroud.chez.tiscali.fr/photos/
> >
> > Note that many of them look the same, it's raw material and not a
> > presentation/documentation of any kind :)
> >
> > The Gmini is quite hard to disassemble without any insight and I broke a
> > screw "support" and bent three pins during the process so take care if you
> > are willing to try it too.
> >
> > A tork screwdriver size 6 is needed to remove the two screws on the cover,
> > after this, the back cover must be removed first, it can be acheived by
> > inserting a flat screwdriver in the separation between the two covers and
> > gently pulling one cover up while pushing the other down (I'll take
> > photographs, it's not easy to get it textually ;).
> > After that, a copper plate must be removed (easy) and then the hard drive can
> > be pulled off after "squeezing" one of the two rubbers on the sides and using
> > a flat screwdriver to separate it from its plug.
> >
> > Here's what the inside looks like after the hard drive is removed :
> >
> > http://lgiroud.chez.tiscali.fr/photos/IMG_0182.JPG
> >
> > The writings on the only visible chip of the board can be read on this
> > picture.
> > -> the chip is a USB97C202, ie an "USB 2.0 ATA/ATAPI Controller" which data
> > sheet can be found here :
> > http://www.smsc.com/main/catalog/usb97c202.html
> >
> > I have no idea if it's better than the ISD 200/300 chips on the other archos
> > models.
> >
> > The grey rectangle on the above picture seems to be the battery, it's
> > soldered on the mother board on at least two points and I had to stop the
> > disassembly there since I haven't got my soldering iron with me now. I hope
> > to have one within two days at most.
> >
> > I guess the CPU lies under the battery, but there are screws maintaining the
> > front cover stuck to the mother board and those screws are lying under the
> > battery. So the CPU cannot be seen without removing the battery and thus
> > unsoldering at least two points. So I can't go much further for the moment on
> > the hardware side.
> >
> > Until I have a soldering iron again, I'm going to have a look at the firmware
> > files now and try to descramble/disassemble them. I will start with the
> > hypothesis that the CPU is the same than on the original archos since I
> > haven't been able to get that information yet but I don't think I will get
> > anything interesting without knowing the CPU type. Once again, if anyone has
> > more information it will be much faster. If you fear legal assault from
> > Archos, then I can bear all responsability for this "work", all this is
> > perfectly legal in France and probably even under the DMCA if I understand it
> > well.
> >
> > Also, please tell me if I'm off topic and should not post here, I don't want
> > to bother you with this if this is not the place ;)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Laurent
> >
>
>
Received on 2003-12-24