Agilent 34410A firmware disassembly / rebuild - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: palindrom71
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 09:01:10 am
content: Hi,I just updated my Agilent 34410A firmware to the latest revision, which still require java to run over the web and its certificate ended in 2019.I was wondering if anyone tried to disassemble the original firmware and pack it up again (attached image).The file format is very interesting, it looks like there's a memory location for every 32b + checksum (didn't check yet)I wonder if there's any toolbox released (or leaked) for work with that.Code:%headerlength=9%imagerev=2.43%imagetype=instrumentimage%model=34410A%revsnotsupported=<0.13%supportedio=lan,gpib,usb%updatedescription=34410A Digital Multimeter Firmware, Revision 2.43%updatemethod=caspreRamBased%utilityrev=B.01.09S50500035205A0S30DFF800000D9B91711FFB52043A2S315FF8000104800004148000045436F70797269676800S315FF8000207420313938342D323030302057696E6440S315FF8000302052697665722053797374656D732C20AFS315FF800040496E632E600000006000000060000000C3S315FF80005039000002480000097C681B787C6000A696S315FF8000605464045E548403DA608410007C80012427(...)

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 09:55:40 am
content: there is another thread where i contributed and some people tried with me to hack a 34410a into a 34411a .... my meter has the serial port plug (idc10) mounted on the main board, was supposed to be an console portbut i think i did the mistake to upgrade it i had 2.x fw version and i think the port was closed ..we tried to hack the updaters and the FW, no avail ...schematics float on the web ... and you'll see what i meant by internal serial port ... folowing board revisions had the connector removedgood luckdont forget the L4411A who share the same design minus the front panel, 34410A 34411A L4411A are brothers minus the sampling speed who changedyou had the v2.41 and 2.43 versions available at the time ...

author: zrq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 12:00:14 pm
content: Check out my post:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/possible-upgrade-agilent-34410a-to-34411a/msg4454563/#msg4454563Also I'm quite sure TheSteve is wrong about the 10A to 11A uphack according to my firmware analysis, the magic value check againest is in the flash (a different sector that the normal upgrade process will not touch) instead the EEPROM. But I got a L4411A instead and can make mistakes...

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 02:22:23 pm
content: could be .... the trick is the have / possess 34410a 11a l4411a at the same time loll

author: TheSteve
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 02:40:35 pm
content: I 100% changed two 34410s to 34411s, however they were early versions. So maybe there was something slightly different about them. I wish I still had one to experiment with.

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 02:42:28 pm
content: Quote from: TheSteve on June 21, 2024, 02:40:35 pmA few years back, I tried this and it did not work on any of my 34410A.When I finally got an original 34411A, I gave up on it.

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 03:16:54 pm
content: Quote from: palindrom71 on June 21, 2024, 09:01:10 amDo you mean the Motorola S-record file format?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SREC_(file_format)https://srecord.sourceforge.net/https://srecord.sourceforge.net/man/man1/srec_cat.1.html

author: palindrom71
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2024, 06:49:08 pm
content: Thanks!I've read through your work and tried to dismantle bin file converted from s-file. Well, now I understand that pulling that one off is not feasible in reasonable amount of time.I might just not live long enough.