I ordered the firmware for 205.
The guide he includes tells sort of "just enough" but there are some holes. For example, when he had his web guide up, it mentions that the custom firmware needs to be on a "u-drive" (usb drive) attached only to the front connector of the Oppo 205. The guide he includes with his custom firmware - a .docx file - omits this.
I got unexpectedly blocked when it came time to connect the USB to TTL cable. My cable has 4 single pin female connectors. When I bought the cable, it looked like it would be what I'd need. However, these pins are too big to fit onto the necessary port on the Oppo 205 board. The pins are too close together.
I spent some time researching this... it seems the "standard" size for a 4 pin PCB header is 10mm. The Oppo board looks like it uses something custom... I can't really get calipers properly around it but it looks like it's probably about 8mm. (A 10mm connector WILL NOT fit.)
Here's a pic of the port:
(There is a voltage pin but it isn't supposed to be connected; only RX, TX, and Ground.)
Here's a pic of a 7 pin connector that gets disconnected when you remove the sound cards to gain access to the port. It looks like you would need the same kind of connector, but 4 pins instead of 7:
I guess I could try direct soldering to the pins but I **DO NOT** want to do that... I don't want to permanently mod the board, nor am I confident in my solder skills... yes even for something this big.
I tried e-mailing and asking him if he knows what kind of connector / header to use.
Anyone here have any idea?
(I suspect it's some custom thing that's not readily available in order to discourage people from flashing custom firmware... according to the firmware mod guy, this
is a port intended by Oppo for manual firmware flashing. It's weird... I found a few threads online from people who bought and flashed the 205 firmware and no one mentioned this connector problem.)