Also, check FCC registration info [LWN.net]

Also, check FCC registration info

Posted Oct 10, 2006 17:10 UTC (Tue) by AJWM (subscriber, #15888)
In reply to: The code is the documentation often by arjan
Parent article: Device drivers and non-disclosure agreements

>In addition, with a consumer product shelf life of 3 to 6 months, companies that make such consumer electronics usually don't want to waste the time (and time to market) to create detailed and good enough documentation.

But, if the thing emits any kind of RF at all (as almost any digital device does), they do have to register it with the FCC. Which can include some pretty detailed filings.

> Now it's not all bleak: there is documentation! Just not in the traditional PDF form.

FCC registration info is, if available at all (it may be sealed), is available in PDF, but non-traditional. This will include anything from cover letters to photographs of the device, to test reports, to block diagrams to user manuals.

If you have the device's FCC registration ID (maybe on a label on the case, or on a sticker inside, or may not be present) you can just enter it into the FCC search page (http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/). They also have a new page that lets you search on all kinds of different fields (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/Generic...).

No guarantee that you'll find any info about your particular device (I don't know what the rules are about registering, or how long it takes the information to become available or stay available on FCC's site), let alone programmer-friendly information, but it can be worth a look.

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Also, check FCC registration info

Posted Oct 10, 2006 19:37 UTC (Tue) by tetromino (subscriber, #33846) [Link]

I don't see why the FCC docs would help. I mean, how does knowing how many watts of RF the device emits help a programmer who is trying to figure out what random bit of hex needs to written to which register to make the device emit those watts?

Also, check FCC registration info

Posted Oct 10, 2006 23:07 UTC (Tue) by AJWM (subscriber, #15888) [Link]

As I said, the FCC info may not help. But sometimes it does -- it might help you discover that device Foo contains an Xyz1234 chip, for which specs or a driver is available. (I got an old cheap digital camera whose USB ID was unrecognized to work this way.) Sometimes the info is more useful to hardware hackers than driver writers.

It doesn't cost anything but a little time to look.