oldphonepreservation - Tumblr blog

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Custom ROMs for feature phones in 2024? Believe it!

Longtime Motorola MVP EXL and other MotoFan forum members have released a new custom firmware for the E398 named "Dream A Reality 2.x Test 17" to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

I could not possibly go over all of the additions they've added in one post alone, so definitely give the MotoFan forum post a look: https://forum.motofan.ru/index.php?showtopic=167677 or perhaps a YouTube video demonstrating its capabilities by EXL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjCnUPEm9LU&feature=youtu.be

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Thanks to yet another donation from wavvy01, the following phones have been dumped:

#Samsung: ** Alias SCH-U740 (AF24, Verizon branded) ** Solstice II (A817UCJI6) All files are on the Dumbphone Repo as usual.

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Some graphics ripped from the recently dumped Samsung SCH-V740, decoded and dumped thanks to dffn3 and kraze1984:

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More Samsung and Sanyo phones dumped thanks to donations from Rare Noggin Stuff!

Sanyo: E4100 Taho SCP-6750 Katana Eclipse

Samsung: SPH-M320

Firmware dumps and JTAG pinouts are available on the Dumbphone Repo as usual.

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Thanks to generous donations by Floomsy, the following phones now have firmware dumps online: Casio C721 Exilim (V9250T25, prototype) Nokia 6315i (D6315VEM04_0.169, D6315VEM05_3.169) Motorola V60p (8600_03.0F.00) Motorola V65p (8620_1.6A.0R) Helio Ocean (posted previously)

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The Helio Ocean, also known as the Pantech PN-810A, has been dumped!

This is the only phone released in the US to use the Yamaha MA-7 sound chip - the last in the SMAF series.

Firmware is available on the Dumbphone Repo as usual, and sounds are available on phonetones!

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Thanks to Clonelocker, the Hutch Thailand version of the Sanyo SCP-550 has been dumped! As usual, firmware and JTAG pinouts are available on the Dumbphone Repo: https://mega.nz/folder/2aoVnJJJ#ovZJG4cbvIOqLVEJBHrQSQ/file/DLRjQBDR

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Consistent graphics decoding MVP dffn3 has begun work on an OpenOCD fork called Dumpit with the hopes of making phone firmware dumping over JTAG less of a costly expense. If you have any old phones with a known JTAG pinout and a compatible JTAG interface, definitely give this program a try! dffn3 is looking for as many testers as he can. Current Dumpit website (may change in the future): https://dumpit.ucomsite.my.id/ Github page: https://github.com/dumpit3315/dumpit

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All of the animated menu icons from the recently dumped #UTStarcom CDM-8955 as one GIF.

These icons, as well as many of the phone's other graphics, are in Curitel's proprietary "AP" image format.

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Lots of new discoveries and dumps have been made since the last post, so much so that I couldn't possibly fit onto one post!

Don't want to make a gigantic essay wall of text, so open the alt text on each photo to learn what all is new!

Special thanks go to wavvy01 and Clonelocker for recently lending phones to preserve, gtrxac for starting predefrepo, and everyone who's ever contributed to LPCwiki!

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Welcome to the Old Phone Preservation Tumblr account!

If posts about all sorts of retro phone goodies interest you, then you're in luck!

Click on each image's alt text to learn what to expect around here!

Other social media accounts and useful links, such as but not limited to the Dumbphone Repo, can be found on the LPCWiki page below. This way if something new gets added, it can be found at said link for the foreseeable future: https://lpcwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/User:Dumbphonepreservation

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New year, more dumped phone firmwares!

Thanks to consistent lender Rare Noggin Stuff for sending these over:

Audiovox CDM-8500 (T050BMDM02_6.189)

LG PM325 (PM325V20)

LG VX10 (T5BVZV06) LG VX4400 (TE4VZV10)

Sejin NS1000

As always, what's new can be found on the Dumbphone Repo.

The Sejin NS1000 ought to get its own post some day. That simple looking phone was a bit infamous for some use cases, but the interesting part to me is how its MIDI softsynth makes heavy use of Roland SC-55 samples!

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Yamaha SMAF compared to Yamaha OPL series (continued)

Decided to take another look at the Yamaha SMAF and OPL comparisons by making an update to the original Tweet from 2021 (https://twitter.com/OldPhonePreserv/status/1386110052512124930), looking at the OPLL, OPL1, OPL2, and OPL3 as well as the VRC7 like featured in the original video. Check it out!

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(more) Sanyo and Kyocera phones now dumpable

It has recently been discovered that many #Sanyo and #Kyocera feature phones have a hidden test mode that prevents their JTAG test points from being disabled.

This has made it so once thought to be undumpable phones can now have their firmwares backed up!

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The Korean-exclusive #LG SV360 (a.k.a. CYON Mobile 3D Motion Game Phone) has been dumped! This is version SV360521, dumped using the phone's JTAG interface. Firmware is available on the Dumbphone Repo as usual.

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That Audiovox CDM-8930 Prototype Board

This might be a pretty lengthy read since this was originally written for Twitter/mastodon thread bursts but... here goes!

As promised, here's a post about the prototype Audiovox CDM-8930 that was recently uncovered.

The phone board was originally posted for sale without any indication of who made it, though there were a few clues that it was at least a Curitel-made ODM. For context, the vast majority of Audiovox phones made in the early-mid 2000s were ODMs from Curitel (later Pantech).

So what clues were there? The listing photos weren't clear enough to make out any board markings, though the phone came with a box with HYUNDAI and "TX-125C" on it. Hyundai had a mobile phone division at a point, which would then go on to be purchased by Curitel.

The "TX-125C" marking also helped narrow it down a lot - it was very close to other released Audiovox phone FCC IDs (e.g. CDM-8920 → PP4TX-120C → TX-120C). What was odd about this was that there is no TX-125C registered with the FCC…

Skipping ahead to acquiring the phone board, the oddities only increased. The board itself did not have the TX-125C markings, but instead had "TX130C_MAIN PROTO1_4_A 2003_09_17 T130M_03_335" silkscreened around the top right. The question then became "was there a TX-130C FCC ID?"

There sure was. It turns out this board strapped to a piece of cardboard with twisty ties was a prototype of the #Audiovox CDM-8930 - a phone that is not too frequently found for sale online. (photo courtesy of the user manual) https://fccid.io/PP4TX-130C

The silkscreened date on the board helped show how early of a prototype this was - almost half a year before its FCC approval! Unfortunately without a screen, it was hard to say what sort of software was on it (if there was anything on it at all).

The only indication that it wasn't completely blank at that point was the fact its power draw wasn't entirely consistent, though it did loop around the 120-130mA range. Next up was dumping the phone via JTAG, as per usual around here :)

Dumping the flash chip let us know it was not entirely blank! Checking for common resources using MultiExtractor showed the same sort of icons that could be found on the Qualcomm 6280 F-US reference device that was sent in not too long ago.

From there it didn't take long to realize this was still running bone-stock Qualcomm reference firmware! The latest date referenced was October 27th, 2003, which isn't as early as the board itself, but still predates its release let alone FCC approval by quite a bit. It identified itself as "T130CVE0R01.152"

While the Hyundai box nor the included JTAG adapter were used to dump the firmware, they will certainly be held onto. Oddly enough, the TTA-24 plug with the parallel port end does not have all 24 wires connected, despite having more than enough pins available on said port.

It would certainly be interesting to try and flash this to a retail CDM-8930 - but not before preserving a retail firmware release first!

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More firmware dumps thanks to recent donations

Several new firmware dumps have been made, some in part thanks to Rare Noggin Stuff: Audiovox CDM-8600 (T055VE2M04_0.236, Verizon branded) Audiovox CDM-8930 (T130CVE0R01.152, early prototype) LG PM225 (PM225V10) UTStarcom CDM-7126 (K8A_UC1.35)

The CDM-8930 prototype is definitely going to get its own post at some point. Considering the state the device was in, I am a bit surprised it even powered up. See alt text for some more info!

Firmware dumps are on the Dumbphone Repo as usual. Thank you RNS for sending the PM225 and CDM-7126 over!