Hanvon N516 Dilemma

[Maughann]

First time poster here looking for some advice from wiser heads.

I've had a scan through the forums and haven't seen an answer for this question yet so here goes.

I have a Hanvon N516 with the standard firmware and I'm interested in switching to OpenInkpot.
I have read through the installation instructions and they say that there is a revision to the N516 that bricks the reader if OI is installed.

As I don't wish this to happen, is there any way to tell externally or from the software/serial number which version I have and whether I'm safe to proceed?

Thanks in advance for any guidance that anyone can offer.

[Pelesz]

The only way i know of is by removing the back panel and peek inside. The one with the epson controller does NOT work, metronome one does.

http://openinkpot.org/wiki/Device/N516/Photos

[mr ploppy]

You could only tell for sure if you opened it up, but even if you couldn't install OI there would be no reason you couldn't install one of the official firmwares with USB-boot once you've deleted everything. I don't know where I downloaded it from now, but this is from a text file I saved at the time. The German one worked for me (it has English and other languages built in that you can choose from a setup menu).


= Flashing original firmware to N516 =

This method has been tested only with these updates:
* [http://www.hanvon.com/de/download/Eb...2.2.7.2.0.rar]
* [http://rapidshare.com/files/28096480...-20090910.rar]
* [http://support.hanvon-deutschland.de/n516-fw22820.rar] (WISEreader N516 2.2.8.2.0)
* [http://www.woxter.com/data/upgrades/...0firmware.rar] (Woxter Firmware Scriba V.2.5.3.2.0)

It might also work with other updates if the uImage-upgrade file is exactly 6488064 bytes long. It won't work if uImage-upgrade has different size.
[[BR]]
Please, use [http://openinkpot.org/pub/contrib/n5...oot-new.tar.gz new azbooka usbboot], download attached config files and put them and the firmware files into the azbooka-usbboot-new directory.
{{{
boot 0
fconfig uImage.cfg 0
nerase 0 4096 0 0
nprog 0 uImage-upgrade 0 0 -e
fconfig rootfs.cfg 0
nprog 6144 rootfs-upgrade 0 0 -e
}}}

[Maughann]

Thanks very much for the guidance. I'll give it a shot.

[Maughann]

I'm delighted to report that my N516 is now happily running OI. I'm most impressed with it.
Thanks again folks!

[Ovid]

I tried it too, but couldn't start the device, so I think that I got the version with the Epson controller :-(
I couldn't get back to the original software, but to the woxter version, which is better.
Is there any chance that the io developpers fix this problem? I tried to find this problem in their ticket-list, but couldn't find it. OI seems to be very nice...

Thanks for answers

[dottedmag]

This is not a problem to fix, but a task to tackle, and not a simple one, actually.

[Zetmolm]

I have a similar problem as the OP. I can buy a Hanvon N516 for a good price, but I only want to do that if I can install OI on it.
The seller would rather not open the device to check the controller (one reason is that it does not seem immediately clear to him how to open the device). But he suggested there might be another way to find out. Does someone know when Hanvon started putting in the Epson controller? Or could the controller type somehow be derived from the reader's serial number?

The seller purchased the N516 in May 2010 or perhaps a bit later. Does that tell us anything?

Thanks for any information.

Edit: Never mind, the reader has been sold to someone else.