Freecom Musicpal (Marvell-based)
There are 2 very different devices, identified by their model code:-
- Starting with SSRAA
- These are based on the Marvell 88W8618 VoIP SoC, and what this page discusses.
- Starting with SSRBA
- These are based on another (gemini?) SoC. I do not have one of these, so nothing useful here
↑Hardware
The main chips on the board are:
| SoC | Marvell 88W8618-BBS1 |
| LCD | Ashan YMC12864 (DGL-0301W-4DK YMC12864-132ACDNDGL) |
| SDRAM | 2x Samsung K4S281632I-UC75 128Mbitx16 PC133 |
| Flash | SST39VF6401B 64Mbit |
| PHY | Marvell 88E3015-NNP1 |
| Codec | Wolfson WM8750BG 76AC6HF |
| IR | ATTINY2313-20SU |
Images
Front of PCB and back.
USB Port
The USB port is initially unpopulated but a new socket can be soldered on easily, firmware will support it.
Serial port
The serial port is available on the 9-pin connector behind the LCD, along the top of the board. The connector accepts a Molex 51021-0900, and RS has the connector and the cable. Pinout is as follows:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GND | ? | RXD | ? | ? | TXD | ? | ? | Vcc |
As ever, a TTL-232R-3V3-AJ is handy here.
Unpopulated headers
The board has quite a few holes for expansion. On the LCD side...
- Serial connector (top centre behind LCD)
- 9 pin Molex socket
- JP502 (bottom right)
- 5x2 header, connected to the AVR
- R536 (bottom right)
- Jumper next to AVR
- SW1000 (right)
- Surface-mount switch, near AVR
- JP501 (right)
- Jumper above SW1000, part of unpopulated logic on other side
- SW503 (top left)
- Surface-mount switch
- MK600 (top left)
- Jumper
- JP600 (left)
- Extra speaker connector, wired directly to actual connector
And on the side with the SoC...
- JP602 (bottom right)
- 2x8 header, probably JTAG
- J501 (bottom left)
- 9 pin unpopulated Molex, like serial
- JP701 (top centre)
- 5x2 mini header
- U601 (top centre)
- 8-pin surface mount chip
- U700 (top centre)
- 16-pin surface mount chip
- J1000 (left)
- External Wifi antennae connector
- JP800 (centre)
- Mini-jumper, to PHY centre
↑Link-o-rama
- elinux.org page
- Musicpal specs
- Visaton SC 5.9 8Ω speaker (apparently a good upgrade)
- Big heap of MusicPal info
- Another MusicPal hacking blog
- A firmware image generation tool
Freecom's site /used/ to have a lot of useful info, including:
- The GPL sources page: www.musicpal.info
- Controlling over HTTP: www.freecomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=19420&start=0
- Serial port info: www.freecomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=9923
Some dead links, but where big back in the day.
- Pictures and chipsets: www.donar.com/musicpal
- IR CPU & Serial port connector: www.mydssd.de/musicpal/doku.php?id=my_musicpal:hardware:
The Spykee is a robot toy with the same SoC.