[clug] Rescuing old motherboards the hard way

[Adam Thomas]

On 24 June 2010 22:18, Paul Wayper <paulway at mabula.net> wrote:
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> On 06/24/2010 04:22 PM, Jason wrote:
>> Hi paul, are these the Advantec lcd screen thingies I see in my google
>> search? Amazing coincidence in name if they are not, they look like they
>> are just a plug in module for a larger machine though not a motherboard,
>> are you sure thats the right name?
>
> Sadly, the results for "NAMB-6200" generally show two things - the two row
> sixteen character LCD display (which is on the front of the case - something
> like the 6200B LCMP) and the 8 port (or 12 port) ethernet adapter board that
> plugs in the front (something like the 6200BCF).  But this is definitely the
> full motherboard, marked NAMB-6200 and a revision number.
>
> On 06/24/2010 03:53 PM, Michael Carden wrote:
>> Each one has only two possible states though. How long can it possibly
>> take to try them all?
>
> It's got about a dozen jumpers; so, about 4096 possibilities.  It takes about
> a minute to change the jumper and wait for the thing to boot, so I'd say
> that's over a week of changing jumpers for an eight-hour working day.  Thanks,
> but no thanks.

It would be trivial to have a micro controller run through each of
those options and, with a MAX232 serial level shifter, it could also
log the console output and flag 'interesting' results. That'd take it
down to less than 3 days, assuming that much frobbing doesn't damage
the board.

>
> Just for laughs, I phoned up the supplier of the motherboard, whose Australian
> representative reckoned they didn't make anything like that.  However, I now
> have to take that with a pinch of salt, because:
>
> On 06/24/2010 04:38 PM, Jason wrote:
>> Following up my earlier email its not something like this?
>>
>>
> http://www.advantech.com/products/2U-Rackmount-Intel-Xeon-Processor-basedPlatform-with-Modular-PCIe-LAN-I-O-Cards/mod_1-2JKJI4.aspx
>
> Yes, that's the one, with some vendor badging.  Excellent.  Now I know what to
> ask for, I can ask them for the motherboard spec sheet for it.
>
> Amusingly, the top hit on Google for this model motherboard is now:
>
> http://www.pubbs.net/201006/samba/45854-clug-rescuing-old-motherboards-the-hard-way.html
>
> Suspicious.
>
> Have fun,
>
> Paul
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