Hi M8,First take a closer look, as i found picture on box scene front very unclear
The advantage you could notice about the Aladdin Adv are the following:
HDD led feature: This will probably be one of the feature who will stay in all "well thinked" box modchip who will reach the market in the future, installing a modchip on your system, will automatically drive you to use the box HD for other purpose than the official one
, or like many, you'll go for Bigger HD, there you can understand the impact of that feature, watching your box's led blinking when HDD is working !. like any PC !
Also usefull feature for Linux purpose.
Other feature i appreciate (do not said i'm biased, YES i'm !
.. )
is about the warning led in flash mode, box led, flasing during some secs in green / orange
if G = Green, O= Orange, R=Red the led sequence is like this:
RRROOOOOOOOOOVOVOVOVOVOVO
The mode are selectable this way:
MODCHIP ON/OFF:Press POWER normally, modchip is OFF (some will not like this function, some will like, the purpose of this, is about the privacy of the user, like a visitor trying to check your box, or for parental and child purpose.)
Press POWER until led turns RED, then Orange, modchip is ON, it's easy trick as you have visual support from the LED.
FLASH ON/OFFPress POWER until led turns starts to blink in GREEN/ORANGE, modchip is ON with FLASH ON.
HDD led feature, is ONLY activated in modchip ON modeNow what you should know about Cheap mod for v1.0 to v1.3
is that most of the design use Lattice M4A3 + SST 49lf020 TSOP or PLCC
The Alladin Adv have TSOP space, if for any reason you want to solder bigger flash.
it also have Socket for PLCC flash memory, and it comes with a SST49LF020 in PLCC package, which you can remove easily, replace or simply remove to solder a TSOP one. so mostly compatible in all the case.
Most of cheap mod use M4A3 in 32 version, giving less features,
Aladdin Adv use M4A3 in 64 so if you want the feature listed above, better make sure it's 64 version.
for better understanding visit this link :
M4A3 32 or 64 difference.Please note that this link show difference between M4A3 64 (original Alladin Adv) and M4A3 32 (already some clones).
Now about other cheap mod, most of them use the M4A3 32 and for sure, they have less features.
Some other use M4A3 64, and they have similar mode than the Aladdin Adv, but no HDD led features or any other '+' features
Some other use M4A3 64 + PIC, and they still have similar mode than the Aladdin Adv, and still no HDD led features or any other '+' features.
Well about the design M4A3 64 + PIC, without any offence to their producer, i would said, that's matter of scene is to bring you more, everytime you made something, it should be better than before. but there, you have more components, less functions...
You'll said to me.. well as long as it does the job, yes but it did worst job, for higher cost ...
In my opinion in v1.0-v1.3 cheap mod contest you have
Alladin Adv (hdd led feature, and led management at all)
Akira (no extra function) but header pin which is liked by many.Other are simply similar, and do the job the same way, without those 2 specifics features.
Regarding your others questions:
is it good ? well, the features are explained above, and the overall manufacturing quality looks perfect.
diagram ? that's a good one, i'll try get some links for you and paste them here later.
Hope it will help.
C ya.
This post has been edited by side: Aug 28 2003, 01:07 AM
Aladdin Advance
Aug 27 2003, 08:25 PM
(i hope)
