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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Technical > Convert a data/service to a service/data cable Bookmark topic

After a shipping mistake from my friendly phone cable guy, I received a T68 data cable instead of the T28 flash cable that I wanted. So after searching through the forums and Google (and some playing around with the multimeter at home) I found a way to quickly and painlessly convert a data cable to a service cable and vice versa (actually, I made it into both but more on that later).

Essentially the difference between the two cables is in three little wires. As shown below the transmit/receive terminals are shifted between the two types of cables and there is a flash terminal that is brought to +5V on the service cable.

Data Service
|12345678|9|10 11| |12345678|9|10 11|
RT G +5 RT +5 G +5

So theoretically, all you have to do to convert a data cable to a service cable is to shift the wire on pin 4 to pin 6 and the wire from pin 5 to pin 7 and lastly connect a wire from pin 9 to pin 11. Obviously to convert from a service cable to a data cable you do the reverse by shifting the wire from pin 6 to pin 4 and the wire from pin 7 to pin 5 and cutting the wiring connecting pin 9 and pin 11. Simple, right?

Now you can see that to do this, you really need a very fine tip soldering iron, a really steady hand and a lot of luck so you don't burn out your cable. For me, this is not good due to my lack of equipment (the fine tip I don't have), nervous shakes, and my incredibly bad luck with all things burning. So I went to search for a solution.

If you open your cable (the side that you plug into the phone) you will see a set of cables soldered onto their respective terminals. A closer inspection shows that the nonexposed side of the plug arranges the soldering pins as follows:



As can be seen in the diagram, the pins are laid out so that the soldering points for pins 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 are on the top side of the plug and 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11 are on the bottom side of the plug. This arrangement allows for more working room when soldering onto these small pins. If you remember, the pins we want to shift are from 4 to 6 and from 5 to 7. Well, they just so happen to be on the same side of each other and if you feel brave, you can bend each pin slightly to the other so that pin 4 touches pin 6 and pin 5 touches pin 7. If done properly, you can have a pretty good connection (of course please check using a multimeter!!!). Now if you have the service cable, then you are done, DO NOT cut the wire from pin 9 to pin 11 (more later). If you have the data cable, you now need to take a small wire you may have laying around the house and connect pin 9 to pin 11 making sure neither touch pin 10!!! What I did was to take a bare stranded wire and wrap one end to pin 9, lead it to pin 11 pulling it taught so not to touch any other pins and wrap the other end several times around pin 11 and removing any excess. This gave me a very good connection without soldering, but I suggest you still check with a multimeter. And that's it, you are done with the cable conversion.

What you have made now in essence is both cables. But in order to use it as either one, you must block off the proper terminals. For the data cable, just cut a thin piece of tape (I used scotch tape) and block off all the pins from 6 to 9, pin 8 does nothing for the cable. By doing so, the phone will only be able to use pin 4 and 5 for communcation and pin 9 will not be set. Now, to use it as a service cable, cut a really thin sliver of tape and carefully cover ONLY pin 4 and 5. This is a bit trickier since you need the surrounding pins to be exposed. A bit of practice helps. As soon as you have covered those pins, just plug it in and you are set. That's it!!!

Now you have a Data/Service cable for you to use however you want!
Just remember:
Block out pins 6 through 9 for DATA cable
Block out pins 4 and 5 for SERVICE/FLASH cable


Sai

[ This Message was edited by: theslugger on 2004-08-28 18:53 ]
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Posted: 2003-01-02 22:56:00
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Whoa! That's a bit technical for this time of night! I'll read through it properly tomorrow morning... but is it possible to just have several switches between the appropriate wires so we can switch between both types of cable?
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Posted: 2003-01-03 00:56:00
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sure, I thought about the switches before. To do the switches requires a triple pull double throw switch which simply means you need one that can switch the state of three wires to two states. That's a hefty switch. And on top of which you will definately need to do some soldering since you'll need to run six wires from the plug to the switch.

That would definately be the best solution, and the recommended one since all connections would be stable and strong. However, I am an opportunist and if I can get the job done without needing to solder, getting my hands dirty, looking for and buying odd parts from Radio Shack, straining my eyes, and adding to my fustration, then I'll take it. Just to let you know, my little modification took me all of 3 minutes to accomplish. And the hardest part was cutting the tape!

Sai
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Posted: 2003-01-03 04:07:00
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Okay. I have a little problem with my T39. After lending it to my parents, they 'accidentally' changed the phone lock code and now I can't get back in. I've heard the only way you can view or reset the lock code is by hooking it up to a pc with some unlocking software. I've got an Ericsson data cable which was originally intended for use with a palmpilot and a spare serial cable for the pc. I've stripped both ends and I kinda confused as what to do next and the fact I cannot find not any wiring diagrams online doesn't help! I figure that it'd be easier to order an unlocking kit or whatever, but I kinda live out in the sticks of northern Australia. Any help on the wiring and any software you can point me to would be a great help. Thanks.
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Posted: 2003-01-15 22:42:00
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I'm not really sure but I believe that the cable is not as simple as it seems. From initial probing using a multimeter, it turns out that the data/service cable for the T68/T28 has what looks like diodes running from the Tx/Rx to ground and the +5v in to ground. This means that there really are diodes running in between the lines or that there is a microcontroller involved. Can't take apart the plug to check sorry. Try the below link. I got most of my inspiration from there.


http://xentrax.narod.ru/eng/320pinouts.html
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Posted: 2003-01-15 23:04:00
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More plug schematics


http://www.gsmhacking.com/help/cables/ericsson/index.htm
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Posted: 2003-03-25 12:21:00
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hi are you sure the service cable is pin 6,7,9&11
and the data is pin 4,5,11
and also isnt there a wire soldered onto pin10? thanks
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Posted: 2004-06-20 08:54:27
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I'm not sure whether there were any wires or what not soldered to pin 10 or any other pin for that matter. I just know that after much research and tinkering.. the schematic works! I have unlocked and upgraded the firmware on several t68 phones with it. And after I was done "servicing" the phone, I was able to convert it back to a data cable and use it to upload a backedup phone book into the phone!
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Posted: 2004-08-28 19:56:37
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does the data cable have anything between the phone and the serial port? or is it just wires going from one pin of the phone to a pin of the serial connector?

just makes things much easier to DIY.

if it is just wires going from pin to pin, can you please give me a list of which pin onm the phone goes to which pin on the serial connector for a service cable?
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Posted: 2004-10-13 21:49:51
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i had some spare time yesterday and decieded to a 'proper' service and data cable conversion guide. it contains lots of pictures and i tried to make it as simple as possible, hope it helps people to check their cable or do the conversion.

t28 service and data cable conversion guide

-ivc
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Posted: 2004-10-24 21:11:07
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