Enable Serial Console on B series TV

Find below the steps you need to follow to enable console access to your TV via a serial cable.

The Ex-Link (serial) cable

• Solder yourself ( or buy ) an Ex-Link serial cable to connect to your Samsung TV.

Example online shop which sell such ex-link cable and serial to usb cable. Usb-serial adapter better to buy some cheaper version.

See here for the Serial Cable specs. You can ignore the rest of the information posted there, as it is not applicable for the more recent Samsung devices.

The Ex-Link (serial) cable for C-Series

• At the C-Series the Ex-Link port is located at the VGA connector of the TV.

As the TV has TTL level serial output (3.3V) a TTL-level to Rs232-level adaptor is needed, normal RS232 Level is up to 15V which can cause seriously damage at your TV!

• Pin 4 at the VGA connector is TX
• Pin 11 at the VGA connector is RX
• Pin 5,6,7,8 and the case at the VGA connector are GND

Here is a simple circuit using a MAX232 chip to convert the signal from TTL to RS232 level. The Pinout of the connectors is shown at the circuit:

And a picture of the completely assembled board:

• As written before,

do never connect your TV directly to the serial port of your PC, as the TV has TTL-level (3.3V) and the PC has normal RS232-level your TV could seriously get damaged by dircet connection!

Configure your TV for Debug-Mode

• Enter Service Menu ( quickly push [INFO] [MENU] [MUTE] [POWER] on your remote control )
• Change setting for your RS232C interface to "debug" ( Control -> Sub Option -> RS-232 Jack -> [ Debug | UART | Logic ] )

Debug mode at older TV's like B530 series

• Enter Service Menu
• Enter "Advanced" menu. To activate `Advanced` menu need to type '0000'
• Advanced => ADJUST => Debug mode [OFF][Debug smart][Debug runtime]

Terminal Connection Parameters

• Use following connection parameters with your terminal-client ( e.g. Kermit, Hyper Therminal or ZOC Terminal ):

Baudrate: 115200
Data bits: 8
Parity: none
Stop bits: 1
Flow Control: none

For Older models (like B530), you can try lower baudrates (like 9600 bps)

Enabling Serial Input

• Switch on your TV ...
  If you did everything right and everything works as expected, then you should see the boot-log on your terminal.
• Enter "debug" at the invisible prompt ... to enable your serial console.
  You should see something like below with each keystroke

[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] 1-th ENABLE Magic serial input match!
[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] 2-th ENABLE Magic serial input match!
[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] 3-th ENABLE Magic serial input match!
[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] 4-th ENABLE Magic serial input match!
[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] 5-th ENABLE Magic serial input match!
[SERIAL INPUT MANAGE] serial input ENABLE!!!!!

Debug Menu (On CI+ Devices Too)

• When you enter '1198282' numbers twice instead of debug string, you will see TOP Debug Menu like that:

====================================
[ TOP Debug Menu]
------------------------------------
1 : SubSystem Print On/Off
2 : Platform Print Setting
3 : TD Print Setting
4 : Performance Print Setting
5 : Sdal Print Setting
6 : Sdal Trace Setting
10 : Factory Debug
11 : TD Debug
12 : SubSystem DBG
20 : Performance File Write
21 : Louvre Print Setting
22 : JavaMW Print Setting
30 : Auto Lock DBG
------------------------------------
50 : ROSE Debug
60 : MediaLink Debug
70 : Jade Debug
====================================
99 : Exit
====================================
DBG> : 

Activating the serial console from Debug Menu

• Enter TOP Debug Menu
• Than enter menu numbers 11 : TD Debug -> 0x04 : spI Debug -> 68 : Shell

will let you drop linux shell on CI devices. Is could true for CI+ devices too. But you cannot use characters on shell of CI+ devices, because kernel filters them, only numbers and enter allowed on CI+ devices...

This approach will do not kill exeDSP. So you don't needed to stop watchdog after dropping linux shell.

Activating the serial console (old way)

• Now you need to be fast ...
  • hit CTRL-C, which stops the exeDSP binary
  • immediately after that enter ( you have ca. 3 seconds ... I suggest you cut&paste this command ):

/mtd_boot/MicomCtrl 23

This now prevents your LED/LCD to stop and you have a command prompt of the TV-Console.

--Dynamic1969 16:17, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

--Erdem_ua 21:55, 15 January 2010 (EET)