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Documentation

Unbrick: SigmaStar

Use this page when a SigmaStar-based device has a damaged bootloader or cannot boot far enough for normal UART/TFTP recovery.

The OpenIPC wiki documents recovery with a CH341A-style adapter, SigmaStar UART/I2C wiring, and snander-mstar.

Required Tools

Wiring Reference

The wiki describes this mapping:

GND -> GND
TX  -> SDA I2C
RX  -> SCL I2C

The exact pads depend on the board. Confirm the board pinout before powering the device.

Check Flash Detection

Power the device while connected to the programmer, then check detection:

Terminal window
snander -i -q

If the flash is not detected, power-cycle the device and recheck wiring.

Erase the Boot Partition

The wiki example erases the first 0x200000 bytes:

Terminal window
snander -l 0x200000 -e

Write U-Boot

Place the matching U-Boot file in the same folder as snander, then write it. Example for SSC338Q NAND:

Terminal window
snander -w u-boot-ssc338q-nand.bin

After restoring the bootloader, continue with the normal UART/TFTP install flow for the exact SoC and flash layout.

Notes

Known SigmaStar I2C device addresses from the wiki:

0x49 -> MStar ISP
0x59 -> MStar Debug

After restoring or installing U-Boot, bootloader access is expected on the engineering/debug UART port, often ttyS0.

Sources