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Reprogramming the Raven USB Stick for use with the KillerBee framework
This is the Raven USB stick. It is a network evaluation tool for ZigBee networks. You can use it with the killerbee framework/toolkit to passively listen in on network traffic.
Which is great, until you want to use some of the more active features of the toolkit. The toolkit comes with an active firmware, but first you have to load it onto the Raven.
The recommended method is to use one of these, the AVR JTAG ICE MKII.
But it costs about €350. Bit step for a one time operation. A visitor to the hackerspace was kind enough to bring one over with him for a lend. All the lights went blinky and we were happy. When I got around to actually trying them though it turned out the new firmware hadn't taken. Seems the firmware in the version 1.0 binary doesn't actually work. You need to take the firmware from the source code.
But, without a programmer what was I to do? I searched the web for alternatives, but short of soldering wires directly to the chip itself there isn't much info out there. I took a calculated risk and got myself one of these, the AVR Dragon.
Aimed at students and costing about €50, it seemed to have what I was looking for. The Dragon has full-size JTAG pins. The Raven has tiny JTAG pins. To switch from big to small you need one of these JTAG standoff adapter kit (kit of four, you only need one), and a 50-mm 2x5 male-male header.
But, em, another problem; both sets of pins are male. We're going to need some female-to-female jump leads. When connecting them up pay close attention to the pin numbers, they are swapped around (different order) on each board. Then just connect it all together like so.
Now you can use the firmware from the killerbee source, AVR Studio (I used 4 but 6 is available now, free to download but you have to register), and this hardware setup to reprogram the Raven for active network interception. Without great expense. (Just fyi, the LED on the Raven goes from blue to orange when the new firmware is successfully loaded.) Enjoy!
Which is great, until you want to use some of the more active features of the toolkit. The toolkit comes with an active firmware, but first you have to load it onto the Raven.
The recommended method is to use one of these, the AVR JTAG ICE MKII.
But it costs about €350. Bit step for a one time operation. A visitor to the hackerspace was kind enough to bring one over with him for a lend. All the lights went blinky and we were happy. When I got around to actually trying them though it turned out the new firmware hadn't taken. Seems the firmware in the version 1.0 binary doesn't actually work. You need to take the firmware from the source code.
But, without a programmer what was I to do? I searched the web for alternatives, but short of soldering wires directly to the chip itself there isn't much info out there. I took a calculated risk and got myself one of these, the AVR Dragon.
Aimed at students and costing about €50, it seemed to have what I was looking for. The Dragon has full-size JTAG pins. The Raven has tiny JTAG pins. To switch from big to small you need one of these JTAG standoff adapter kit (kit of four, you only need one), and a 50-mm 2x5 male-male header.
But, em, another problem; both sets of pins are male. We're going to need some female-to-female jump leads. When connecting them up pay close attention to the pin numbers, they are swapped around (different order) on each board. Then just connect it all together like so.
Now you can use the firmware from the killerbee source, AVR Studio (I used 4 but 6 is available now, free to download but you have to register), and this hardware setup to reprogram the Raven for active network interception. Without great expense. (Just fyi, the LED on the Raven goes from blue to orange when the new firmware is successfully loaded.) Enjoy!
50-mm 2x5 male-male header?
(Anonymous) 2015-01-15 02:34 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 50-mm 2x5 male-male header?
You need to find an electronics components supplier near you, and search for something like;
http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/pcb-headers/2518272/
http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/pcb-headers/5473273/
I can't remember what the pitch (distance between the header pins) needed is offhand. The one needed is tiny, I'll see if I can measure it later on today.