Project D.I.R.E.


Special Thanks to the following individuals for their dedication and hard work. Without them this project would not be possible.

znxDomain -> firmware unlocker, tester, researcher
Lucky.peic -> firmware gui editor, tester, prototype, initial writeups, researcher
B47M4N -> firmware gui editor, tester, pcb and case creator, researcher, user guide writer
Bowman -> alt firmware, prototype tester
Mystic -> supplied test files, tester


Project D.I.R.E. (Disney Infinity Reverse Engineered) is a portal emulator for Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, and Skylanders. This replaces the original portal in place of a custom created one to inject your own character dumps without the need for the original characters, vehicles, or playsets.

This emulator originally started several years ago after a talented coder named obiima did not release his project to the public. Obiima created and demoed a console portal emulator for 3 games: Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, and Skylanders. Obiima never released his project into the wild and the project he did release privately was closed firmware meaning locked to the stm32 Bluepill. This project picks up where he left off.

The Firmware allows this device to select between games by holding one of the buttons during boot. Specific Button usage can be found in the User Guide. You have the option of using limited onboard memory or by using an SD card you can increase the character count in your base emulator. By adding your own character files known as bin files, you can inject them into the game without having to keep your original characters.

This emulator currently works on the Wii, Wii U, PS3, and PS4.
We CAN NOT confirm if this works on the PS5 or Nintendo Switch as we do not own those consoles with these games to test with.

We have been told Skylanders plays on the Nintendo Switch but does NOT use the Portal of Power.
We have also seen footage of Disney Infinity being played on a PS5 with a PS4 base.

XBOX 360 and XBOX One are Not Yet included in this release. There is a security chip required from an Activision portal to make this work and we have not yet discovered a simple method to allow these games to work on these specific consoles.

Some of the files are too large to fit in this forum post and have been attached via mediafire.
All files can be found here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/9u87thpc42j9a/Release+Package​

 

[lafleche]

If you ever find out how to accomplish something like a web interface for this project please share... This project is an amazing piece of work and works great.
The small buttons are however sometimes a pain and a webinterface would be appreciated.

 

[sapin06]

Can someone help me i've finished it, he's detected in disney infinty but i cant selecte anything do you think it's due to bad soldering?

-

 

[lafleche]

I assume that you put some bin files on SD card with the bank editor software?

 

[sapin06]

I assume that you put some bin files on SD card with the bank editor software?

yes i've put all 322 disney infinty bin file with the bank editor

 

[sapin06]

Can someone help me i've finished it, he's detected in disney infinty but i cant selecte anything do you think it's due to bad soldering?View attachment 293272View attachment 293273-

i try to change the button but it dosent change anything

 

[lafleche]

soldering looks fine...... (looks the same for me).
So when you push button 3 you can not 'browse' through all your characters (bin files) at all?
and you are positive that when you connect your device to bankeditor and load the Inifinity bank that all your characters are there?
Try to remove sd card and put a few on internal memory (do not forget to save your 'bank')

good luck

 

[sapin06]

soldering looks fine...... (looks the same for me).
So when you push button 3 you can not 'browse' through all your characters (bin files) at all?
and you are positive that when you connect your device to bankeditor and load the Inifinity bank that all your characters are there?
Try to remove sd card and put a few on internal memory (do not forget to save your 'bank')

good luck

i've put around 30 figure in the internal mem but that doesn't change anything

 

[lafleche]

Do you have some device to measure continuity? are butons shorting or malfunctioning? Can not think of anything else. Your stmt seems to be working and so is your screen. You can even put bin's on your device so usb is fine.
Does button 5 work for instance (settings)?

 

[sapin06]

Do you have some device to measure continuity? are butons shorting or malfunctioning? Can not think of anything else. Your stmt seems to be working and so is your screen. You can even put bin's on your device so usb is fine.
Does button 5 work for instance (settings)?

OK so i recheck everysolder of the stm32 and apparetly it was the problem

but now i have another problem i got every skylanders .dump but i don't know how to convert them to bin file, there's also skyreader-gui that generate bin file but that doesn't work either
Edit: ok that's just me who doesn't know how to read a manual

 

[Davjo]

Hello, I am new on this forum, and am trying to build this contraption. I have downloaded the PDF guide, but have gotten confused in part 6 and would like some clarification if anyone can please help. It states:

6.1. ST-LINK
Step 6.1 - Download and install the "STM32 ST-LINK Utility" software.
Step 6.2 - Download the "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" file.
Step 6.3 - Unplug the USB cable from the STM32 board.
Step 6.4 - Connect the ST-LINK adapter to the STM32 board (see Figure 14).
Step 6.5 - Connect the ST-LINK USB adapter to your PC.
Step 6.6 - Download and extract a compatible firmware (included in the zip).
Step 6.7 - Drag the firmware .bin file and drop it on the "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" (see Figure 15)

My first question is at 6.1. Which version of the STM32 ST-LINK Utility? I've been to ST's website and there are several versions including a new STM 32 Cube Programmer that has an exe file to run the utility. (the other versions don't seem to have that). Also, when do I actually use this utility?

The next question is at 6.6. What zip file are they talking about? Where do I download this compatible firmware from? Is it from the Mediafire link, or do I use the St-Link Utility?

What I was able to do was drop the "unlocked-firmware.bin" from the Mediafire download onto "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" (also from the Mediafire link) and got the command line reaction like Figure 15 in the PDF. It ran the terminal program to 100% programming complete, but I never actually used the ST-Link Utility to do anything except install drivers for the ST-LINK V2 Programmer.

One last question is does this all have to be done after connecting the STM32 to the PCB, or can it be done prior to soldering it in place to the board? Right now I am waiting for my boards to arrive, but already have everything else. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[White_Raven_X]

Hello, I am new on this forum, and am trying to build this contraption. I have downloaded the PDF guide, but have gotten confused in part 6 and would like some clarification if anyone can please help. It states:

6.1. ST-LINK
Step 6.1 - Download and install the "STM32 ST-LINK Utility" software.
Step 6.2 - Download the "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" file.
Step 6.3 - Unplug the USB cable from the STM32 board.
Step 6.4 - Connect the ST-LINK adapter to the STM32 board (see Figure 14).
Step 6.5 - Connect the ST-LINK USB adapter to your PC.
Step 6.6 - Download and extract a compatible firmware (included in the zip).
Step 6.7 - Drag the firmware .bin file and drop it on the "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" (see Figure 15)

My first question is at 6.1. Which version of the STM32 ST-LINK Utility? I've been to ST's website and there are several versions including a new STM 32 Cube Programmer that has an exe file to run the utility. (the other versions don't seem to have that). Also, when do I actually use this utility?

The next question is at 6.6. What zip file are they talking about? Where do I download this compatible firmware from? Is it from the Mediafire link, or do I use the St-Link Utility?

What I was able to do was drop the "unlocked-firmware.bin" from the Mediafire download onto "stlink_flash_firmware.bat" (also from the Mediafire link) and got the command line reaction like Figure 15 in the PDF. It ran the terminal program to 100% programming complete, but I never actually used the ST-Link Utility to do anything except install drivers for the ST-LINK V2 Programmer.

One last question is does this all have to be done after connecting the STM32 to the PCB, or can it be done prior to soldering it in place to the board? Right now I am waiting for my boards to arrive, but already have everything else. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You need to use the programmer... Did u buy the programmer to be able to program the STM32?

 

[Davjo]

You need to use the programmer... Did u buy the programmer to be able to program the STM32?

Thanks for responding. Yes, I bought the programmer. It has a USB type A on one end and a 10 pin connector on the other. I connected the 4 pins on the programmer to the stm32 as shown in figure 14 of the PDF, and I plugged the USB end into my computer. The next step is one of the ones I have a question about. It says to, "Download and extract a compatible firmware (included in the zip)." Do you know what firmware they are talking about? Do we download it from the Mediafire link, do I use the St-Link Utility and upgrade the firmware, or do I get the firmware from some other place?
Which version of the ST-Link Utility software do you recommend, which one did you use?

 

[White_Raven_X]

Thanks for responding. Yes, I bought the programmer. It has a USB type A on one end and a 10 pin connector on the other. I connected the 4 pins on the programmer to the stm32 as shown in figure 14 of the PDF, and I plugged the USB end into my computer. The next step is one of the ones I have a question about. It says to, "Download and extract a compatible firmware (included in the zip)." Do you know what firmware they are talking about? Do we download it from the Mediafire link, do I use the St-Link Utility and upgrade the firmware, or do I get the firmware from some other place?
Which version of the ST-Link Utility software do you recommend, which one did you use?

I actually haven't built it yet. Try contacting OP. He usually responds.

 

[lafleche]

It is really not THAT difficult
Download ST Utility (https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stsw-link004.html)
Download the bat file and unlocked-firmware.bin from this thread (first post) and put in same folder as utility
connect STM32 with programmer cable to pc (make sure your programmer cable matches the connection)
now 'drag' firmware.bin onto bat file and see the magic happening.

You would only do this 1 time. After that you can store away the programmer cable.
Yes you can do this before soldering and you can even check with bankeditor (also from mediafire link) if you can put a character on the internal memory (disconnect programmer and connect with usb-cable on other side of board to pc)

 

[Sambuka06]

Does anyone know where I can get a D.I.R.E. PCB or maybe a ready to use D.I.R.E. modul?

 

[sapin06]

Does anyone know where I can get a D.I.R.E. PCB or maybe a ready to use D.I.R.E. modul?

on jlcpcb or pcbway for exemple, you have to upload the gerber file (D.I.R.E._PCB_2021-03-12.zip) on the websites, order it and normally you should be fine

 

[tommaloney]

Very interested in seeing if there is a reseller for this, I don't have the skills to build one but would love to have a working one.
Willing to pay a far price.

Thanks

 

[Thejax]

As a very stupid question, there would be no way to run a almost virtual arduino setup for this? That emulators could see?

 

[lafleche]

Very interested in seeing if there is a reseller for this, I don't have the skills to build one but would love to have a working one.
Willing to pay a far price.

Thanks

I thought I missed the skills also but when you order a print at jlcpcb the througholes soldering is really a piece of cake.
You get 5 pcbs (is minimum) and practice on one of them with for example the pushbuttons (order a few more)... You will find it easy enough.. Also Look at some YouTube videos... This was my first soldering project ever.

I did find the assembly and programming 90% of the fun. Since I built these (2 of them) I only played a few times.

 

[jellybeangreen2]

this is great! Has any progress been made to get this to work on Xbox one / XSX? I’d be all over this!