Agilent 34410A firmware disassembly / rebuild

[palindrom71]

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: [Select]

%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.01.09
S50500035205A0
S30DFF800000D9B91711FFB52043A2
S315FF8000104800004148000045436F70797269676800
S315FF8000207420313938342D323030302057696E6440
S315FF8000302052697665722053797374656D732C20AF
S315FF800040496E632E600000006000000060000000C3
S315FF80005039000002480000097C681B787C6000A696
S315FF8000605464045E548403DA608410007C80012427
(...)

[coromonadalix]

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 port

but 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 removed

good luck

dont forget the L4411A   who share the same design minus  the front panel,   34410A 34411A L4411A  are brothers  minus the sampling speed who changed

you had the v2.41 and 2.43  versions available at the time ...

[zrq]

Check out my post:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/possible-upgrade-agilent-34410a-to-34411a/msg4454563/#msg4454563

Also 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...

[coromonadalix]

could be ....     the trick is the have / possess 34410a 11a  l4411a  at the same time  loll

[TheSteve]

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.

[HighVoltage]

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.

A 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.

[gslick]

The file format is very interesting, it looks like there's a memory location for every 32b + checksum (didn't check yet)

Do 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

[palindrom71]

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.