CYUSB3014 parallel ATA sniffer

[aekhv]

Hey all! I did this project a few years ago and I think it's time to make some improvements and share them with everyone.

The sniffer device based on Cypress EZ-USB Superspeed Explorer Kit. This pretty toy can help you to capture vendor tech keys, ATA passwords and much more.

No additional adapters or soldering needed, only few wires are required.

Features:
- USB 3.0 speed supported;
- Full WINUSB compatible, no special driver needed;
- Full ATA PIO flow capturing (commands and data) between PC host and target PATA/SATA device;
- User friendly decoder from captured raw data into readable text;

Limitations:
- The correct PIO mode (0...4) must be selected. Otherwise, some data may be lost;
- Data transfer in UltraDMA mode is not supported;

Actual pinout:

Code:

FX3 board pin:    IDE cable pin:
DQ_0  <---------> DD0 (17)
DQ_1  <---------> DD1 (15)
DQ_2  <---------> DD2 (13)
DQ_3  <---------> DD3 (11)
DQ_4  <---------> DD4 (9)
DQ_5  <---------> DD5 (7)
DQ_6  <---------> DD6 (5)
DQ_7  <---------> DD7 (3)
GND   <---------> GND (19)

DQ_8  <--------> DD8 (4)
DQ_9  <--------> DD9 (6)
DQ_10 <--------> DD10 (8)
DQ_11 <--------> DD11 (10)
DQ_12 <--------> DD12 (12)
DQ_13 <--------> DD13 (14)
DQ_14 <--------> DD14 (16)
DQ_15 <--------> DD15 (18)
GND   <--------> GND (22)

DQ_16 <--------> DA0 (35)
DQ_17 <--------> DA1 (33)
DQ_18 <--------> DA2 (36)
DQ_19 <--------> CS0 (37)
DQ_20 <--------> CS1 (38)
GND   <--------> GND (40)

DQ_24 <--------> DIOR (25)
DQ_25 <--------> DIOW (23)
GND   <--------> GND (24)

Two short wires on FX3 board:
CTL_0 <--------> DQ_24
CTL_1 <--------> DQ_25

TO BE CONTINUED...

[aekhv]

SNIFFER FIRMWARE

Source code: https://github.com/aekhv/pata-sniffer-fx3-firmware

How to flash:
1. Download and install Cypress EZ-USB FX3 SDK;
2. Download latest ready to flash binary image from GitHub;
3. Connect FX3 board to PC, install jumper J4, press reset button;
4. Run Cypress USB Control Center, program binary image to I2C EEPROM;
5. Remove jumper J4, press reset button;
6. FX3 board is ready to work. Run sniffer application and enjoy.

Blue LED mode:
- Blinks two times when FX3 board connected to USB 2.0 host. I do not recommend this mode because of possible data loss.
- Blinks three times when FX3 board connected to USB 3.0 host. It is optimal mode.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[aekhv]

SNIFFER APPLICATION

Source code: https://github.com/aekhv/pata-sniffer

Hot to run:
1. Download and unpack latest release from GitHub;
2. Connect sniffer device to a USB 3.0 host, blue LED must to blink three times;
3. Run pata-sniffer.exe and enjoy!

A short video to demonstrate how parallel ATA sniffer works: https://youtu.be/JzeESNMVAWQ

Screenshots:

img1.png (9.34 KiB) Viewed 18331 times

[fzabkar]

Can you buy the rainbow cable ready-made?

Which PATA-SATA bridge IC do you recommend?

[aekhv]

Can you buy the rainbow cable ready-made?

Could you rephrase please? Why do I need to buy rainbow cable? A have a lot of them already.

Which PATA-SATA bridge IC do you recommend?

If you plan to capture standard ATA commands then any bridge chip should be fine. In same time, as I know, some of them can block non-standard ATA commands, like vendor specific commands, tech keys and so on. Before PC-3000 Portable-III was released ACE Lab recommended to use JMicron JM20330 bridge with EXPRESS and UDMA complexes for some SSD in tech mode, because this chip does not block anything. So that's why I use it, but it's hard to buy it now.

[HaQue]

Thanks for sharing, looks very interesting indeed. The card in the PC is any regular IDE card?

This explains a screenshot on another thread!

[aekhv]

The card in the PC is any regular IDE card?

My sniffer device connected to the PC-3000 EXPRESS board but you can use any PATA/IDE controller of course. Or even SATA host controller, no problem:
SATA host controller <-> SATA-to-PATA bridge <-> Sniffer device <-> PATA-to-SATA bridge <-> SATA HDD/SSD

[Lardman]

Can you buy the rainbow cable ready-made?

Could you rephrase please? Why do I need to buy rainbow cable? A have a lot of them already.

It looks like just M-F dupont cable. I think Fzabkar was asking if it was anything special and could just be purchased.

[aekhv]

It looks like just M-F dupont cable. I think Fzabkar was asking if it was anything special and could just be purchased.

Yep, I use dupont wires. Something like this: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=dupont+arduino+cable

[fzabkar]

It looks like just M-F dupont cable. I think Fzabkar was asking if it was anything special and could just be purchased.

Yep, I use dupont wires. Something like this: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=dupont+arduino+cable

Yes, that's what I was looking for. Thanks.

FYI, I compared the various PATA-SATA bridges here:

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=24565#p24565

[aekhv]

Has anyone already repeated this project? Any luck?

[HaQue]

I have bought the parts and kit but not tried it as yet, hopefully this month