Replicant

h1. GalaxyTabSerial

{{toc}}

h2. Introduction

The Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 2 tablets have a custom 30 pin connector.

The goal is to get access to the SOC UART to interact with the bootloader, get kernel boot logs, etc.

To make it easier we want to reuse existing cables without much modifications to the cables.

While this is being tested on the Galaxy Tab 2, it should also work on the Galaxy Tab.

h2. Movitelonline "Cable UART Dual Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 / Tab 2 / Note / Note 2 [RJ45 + USB]"

*link*: "shop page":https://www.movitelonline.com/b2c/producto/RJ45-USB-UNIBOX-CABLE-SAMSUNG-GALAXY-TAB-GT-P1000/1/cable-uart-dual-samsung-galaxy-tab-p1000-tab-2-note-note-2-rj45-usb-

*Exported pins*: USB D+, USB D-, USB VCC, USB GND, UART RX, UART TX. The ID pin isn't exported.

The USB cable can be plugged in a regular computer.

The RX and TX and GND are exported on the RJ45 cable.

With the clip on the bottom, we have the following pinout on the RJ45:

<pre>

+-----------------------------------------------------+

| [] [] [RX or TX?] [RX or TX?] [] [] [] [GND] [] []  |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

|                                                     |

.......................................................

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

                   |            |

</pre>

Inside the middle of the cable we have a tiny PCB that is just for soldering the pins and conducting them.

Top view with the plastic cover that has i-pmart removed.

On the bottom plastic cover, there is a white sticker with the following writings:

<pre>

      USB-021

SAMP1000 (RJ45+USB) cable

</pre>

And here's the PCB pinout:

<pre>

         To Galaxy Tab (2) connector

UART RX or TX? --------+

UART RX or TX? -----+  |

USB GND----------+  |  |

USB VCC ------+  |  |  |

USB D- ----+  |  |  |  |

USB D+ -+  |  |  |  |  |

        |  |  |  |  |  |

 [NC?] [+][+][+][+][+][+] [NC?]

        |  |  |  |  |  |

 [NC?] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [NC?]

         To USB and RJ45 cables

</pre>

On the Galaxy Tab connector, there is a gold connector only for certain pin numbers:

| 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7     | 8    | 9  | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15  | 16  | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30  |

| NC | NC | D+ | D- | NC | NC | USB + | USB+ | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | GND | GND | NC | NC | NC | RX | TX | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | GND |

TODO: Test RX and TX, to what are they exported? The modem? The SOC?

h2. REferences

* The "Galaxy Tab Serial Cable thread":https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010314 on XDA. It also contains some pinout for the 30 pin connector.