Eclipse Head Unit Help

[stealth17]

I have an Eclipse CD-8455 head unit that I'm having all kinds of trouble with. Sometimes when you turn the car off it will stay on but is frooze. Sometimes it will shutoff and you can't turn it on, it's like it's unplugged, and this is the second time it has gone into security mode and I can't unlock it without paying $25 each time.

It's out of warranty so Eclipse won't help at all without money for every little thing. They said to send it in at a flat rate or $200 and they will call back if it will cost more. SCREW THAT.

So, I have it all torn apart and down the the pcb. Shouldn't it come out of Security Mode if I clear the cmos? What should I do with this thing? It's a $400 head unit and I've barely used it. So frustrating, like putting $400 through the shredder.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jordan

 

[mister_e]

Eclipse head unit are probably the best on the market... but when you have to unlock them it's a pain. You can't clear the internal EEPROM. You can't play with it... if you do it, the UNit will become in Protection-mode. Even if you reload the original EEPROM dump, it will still be in protection mode. Trust me... i already tried several ways and waste many crispy green beer-vouched dollars on that.

The only thing you can do, is to pay for an unlock, then... disable the ESN protection mode. HOW... without the CD... i don't know if it's possible. Probably you have to send you Unit to Eclipse for that. It's just bad to know that they do it in few seconds using the test point on the PCB bottom.

The only way to decode those ECLIPSE unit is to keep the original EEPROM and MCU dump before using the ESN. That's what i did with mines. But those deumps i have will never work with your model. too bad.

Another way... NEVER EVER enable the ESN mode. If you enable it... keep the CD in a safe and secret place. If you copy the unlock CD... it will not work.

 

[stealth17]

Eclipse head unit are probably the best on the market... but when you have to unlock them it's a pain. You can't clear the internal EEPROM. You can't play with it... if you do it, the UNit will become in Protection-mode. Even if you reload the original EEPROM dump, it will still be in protection mode. Trust me... i already tried several ways and waste many crispy green beer-vouched dollars on that.

The only thing you can do, is to pay for an unlock, then... disable the ESN protection mode. HOW... without the CD... i don't know if it's possible. Probably you have to send you Unit to Eclipse for that. It's just bad to know that they do it in few seconds using the test point on the PCB bottom.

The only way to decode those ECLIPSE unit is to keep the original EEPROM and MCU dump before using the ESN. That's what i did with mines. But those deumps i have will never work with your model. too bad.

Another way... NEVER EVER enable the ESN mode. If you enable it... keep the CD in a safe and secret place. If you copy the unlock CD... it will not work.

heh, I don't have the original unlock CD since I bought this off ebay. So I'm screwed?

 

[jeffsciv23]

a friend of mine bought a car at an auction and it had one in it that didn't work so he gave it to me. all it says is "HELP" when i power it up. think the model number is 5431 or somehting like that. i read on another board something about jumping the solder points on the bottom of the chassis to get it to reset, anybody know anymore about this? would liek to be able to use this radio instead of throw it away.

 

[stealth17]

a friend of mine bought a car at an auction and it had one in it that didn't work so he gave it to me. all it says is "HELP" when i power it up. think the model number is 5431 or somehting like that. i read on another board something about jumping the solder points on the bottom of the chassis to get it to reset, anybody know anymore about this? would liek to be able to use this radio instead of throw it away.

You will have to call Eclipse and they will either make you pay $25 to unlock it or they will say you need to send it in for repair at a flat rate of $200

i read on another board something about jumping the solder points on the bottom of the chassis to get it to reset, anybody know anymore about this?

PLEASE try to find that post you're referring to. It might help us both

 

[jeffsciv23]

okay here it is, doesn't give too much info but just enough to make you wonder. i have actually seen the points he's speakign of but think there were three on mine.

"on the bottom of all eclipse units to my knowledge is two (2) solder
points that are visible through the chasis, if you take something like
a paper clip and open it up so you got a "V" shape, you can make
contact with these two terminals, and that should reset everything
back to factory specs, that is what eclipse does when you (as the
registered owner) send your unit in to them when it (the H/U) sceams
"call 800", or "help"... and this will save you a two to four week
wait, BUT YOU DIDN'T HEAR THIS FROM ME, I don't want someone at
Eclipse getting pissed at me because "I Let Out Their Secret"
I'm just don't feel it's fair to go so long W/O a toy. but now that I
let the cat out of the bag, i'm probally gonna be sorry because alot
of items will end up stolen now, and now their "ESN" means nothing, SO
FORGET YOU READ THIS AND SEND YOUR UNIT IN, YOU CANNOT FIX IT, YOU
NEVER READ THIS, I DO NOT EXIST, THIS THREAD NEVER EXISTED, IT IS ALL
FALSE, NEVER MIND, DO NOT READ THIS, just go about your marry little
way and pretend all this is a heap of Sh*t, and everything I spew out
of my mouth is false."

 

[stealth17]

okay here it is, doesn't give too much info but just enough to make you wonder. i have actually seen the points he's speakign of but think there were three on mine.

Interesting.

I will say that the article certainly isn't credible but that doesn't mean it's faulty information. Could you link to the site it came from by chance?

I have 4 on my 8455. I'd hate to just start poking around with a paperclip if you know what I mean. There must be a way to clear it though like he is talking, that's what I've been trying to find.

There isn't hardly any documentation on the net either. Sucks.

That also falls in line with what mister_e said regarding the test points...

The only thing you can do, is to pay for an unlock, then... disable the ESN protection mode. HOW... without the CD... i don't know if it's possible. Probably you have to send you Unit to Eclipse for that. It's just bad to know that they do it in few seconds using the test point on the PCB bottom.

EDIT: I found nearly the same thing you said but it is changed just a little. Kinda odd. It's a forum thread about it but it quickly got off-topic and died. **broken link removed**

 

[jeffsciv23]

haha yeah it got off topic very quickly, but it seems they are trying to do the same thing. let me knwo if you find anything else out, i'm gonna take another look at mine tonight and see if i can figure anything out.

 

[stealth17]

haha yeah it got off topic very quickly, but it seems they are trying to do the same thing. let me knwo if you find anything else out, i'm gonna take another look at mine tonight and see if i can figure anything out.

I made a blog for this subject to keep all the information in one source. Hopefully we will get some Google'ers to help us out too.

**broken link removed**

 

[jeffsciv23]

okay i got bored today and decided to completely disassemble the head unit so i can see if there was anythign written on the board. well i found a few interesting markings. there are three other solder points that read "test data", "test clk" and "test IRQ" and the three known solder points read "data", "clk" and "BU+5". i'm starting to think that it's not the three points that we already knew about that need to be jumped but the coresponding new ones . worth a shot, i figure that it is pretty much worthless as it sits so there is really no damage i can do to it. i also found a reset button on the face (probly does nothign but resets the stations and clock but never seen it before till i took the face apart). i'll probly take it apart again and hook it up to a 12v source on a bench so i can mess with it some more to see if i can get somethign to happen. oh and here is a scan of the board and the new points i found highlighted.

you know where to find out what the 4 dip switches do?

**broken link removed**


oh and i'll post this on your blog also

 

[tunedwolf]

it's not a jumper that gets fitted, it's a serial data stream, upon power up the data is put across the bus, they merely read it off and enter in the unlock code...placing a jumper anywhere may well damage the port feeding that data then you really won't be able to get it decoded...

 

[stealth17]

it's not a jumper that gets fitted, it's a serial data stream, upon power up the data is put across the bus, they merely read it off and enter in the unlock code...placing a jumper anywhere may well damage the port feeding that data then you really won't be able to get it decoded...

Are you saying there isn't a way to unlock it other then by the actual unlock code?

 

[jeffsciv23]

i think that might be for the newer ones only . i don't know but mine is pretty much worthless as it sits so i'm gonna go poking around at it to see if anything happens

 

[tunedwolf]

The unlock code is most likely stored in the flash memory or eeprom of the main micro now. Years ago most of the manufacturers used to use a seperate eeprom only to store it, but as it was easily hacked they moved the security into the main micro. It's not so easy to get at now, and can only be read as the unit powers up with the right equipment. If you go poking around inside it, there is the risk of damage. It would perhaps be better to find someone with the right tools to unlock the thing, and then as an eariler poster said, disable the protection scheme altogether to prevent it inadvertently happening again.

If you want to decode it yourself, start off by finding out exactly what the data stream is, and what protocols it's using...and work from there...