PS3 How to get started analyzing syscon firmware?

[Shinichi Kudo]

I think by reading the syscon firmware one can figure out what exactly do the beeps mean in a YLOD or whatever.

Recently I saw this:
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/s...c-release-by-zecoxao-what-does-it-mean.26148/

Great, I see the keys are posted on https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Keys#SYSCON however, I don't know how to use them. Is there a tutorial or decrypted syscon firmware somewhere that I can get started analyzing?

I see these commands here
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/System_Controller_Firmware#Syscon_update_packages
Are these commands sent over JTAG or something and only usable on debug units?

 

[M4j0r]

You can diagnose the problem by connecting to the Syscon UART interface. You can find the testpoints either on the service connector (but there might be missing 0 ohm resistors) or near the South Bridge test pads (take a look at the psdevwiki). It's a 3.3V interface.
The protocol is implemented here: https://pastebin.com/4ymiFQbi . The usage is: "python script.py <com port> <CXR/CXRF>".
After connecting you can run the commands "ERRLOG GET 00", "ERRLOG GET 01", .... to get the error codes and the date of occurence.
The meaning of the error codes can be deduced from the recently leaked document.

 

[Shinichi Kudo]

Thanks. It looks like a computer's serial port speaks RS-232 so I should just get a simple USB-UART converter instead. But this article says I should connect ground and Vcc too, and psdevwiki doesn't mention anything of the sort. Wouldn't power flow from the PS3 to my USB-UART bridge, or the other way around, and kill something?

EDIT: I think you mean these ones, however they don't seem useful for troubleshooting the YLOD. I still don't know what they mean/ what I can do about any of these error codes.

VID GET: VendorID get? why would this be needed in a Sony system
CID GET: customer ID apparently
ECID GET: encrypted customer ID...

none of these seem like they could help me troubleshoot a YLOD.

 

[M4j0r]

Thanks. It looks like a computer's serial port speaks RS-232 so I should just get a simple USB-UART converter instead. But this article says I should connect ground and Vcc too, and psdevwiki doesn't mention anything of the sort. Wouldn't power flow from the PS3 to my USB-UART bridge, or the other way around, and kill something?

EDIT: I think you mean these ones, however they don't seem useful for troubleshooting the YLOD. I still don't know what they mean/ what I can do about any of these error codes.

VID GET: VendorID get? why would this be needed in a Sony system
CID GET: customer ID apparently
ECID GET: encrypted customer ID...

none of these seem like they could help me troubleshoot a YLOD.

You only need to connect to Tx, Rx and GND.

I was talking about the "ERRLOG GET" command which returns errors likes these ones: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/s...o-what-does-it-mean.26148/page-10#post-220462 .
If you're sure that this is a hardware fault, these errors tell you the cause.