EFI Destroyer Lite - DIY Kit

I know it was my choice to purchase the Build Your Own kit. I figured it would be a bit of fun, give me more of a stake in this project than just placing an order, cut down on the backlog time waiting for it to be assembled, and save me a few bucks in the process. Well I was very excited to receive my kit today. I opened it to find all the parts and operating instructions, but no assembly instructions. I've watched the demo video a few times and have captured enough freeze frames to determine where the GPIO pins go as well as the PCB mount points for the resistors and LED. A diagram would have been great but I'd like to at least know the orientation of the LED instead of guessing. I believe I found the LED data sheet online but would like to verify that the longest pin (#2) is the cathode and mounts at 22. Unfortunately I don't have a convenient 3-5v power supply to test. I'd also appreciate any insight/advice you can pass on from your experience assembling these in volume. If someone can provide the info I should be able to find some time in the next few days to create an assembly diagram of sorts. Thanks.

Few pics

I wondered the same thing. I just put it on and if the light orientation is flipped I know why. Also pay attention cause one of the three resistors is backwards. I'll attach photos of mine to maybe help. My problem is finding the header to hook the easy adapter to. Seems like it's going to be a good product but it lacks guidance. The written tutorial shows close ups of the headers but not locations. I'll post a pick of the board I'm working on as well to see if ya can help.

I tried your method, when i plug it up it blinks green not yellow like it should.
If someone with a built kit can take picture of the led cathode that would help wonders.

Here is a screenshot I took from his video and the bulk material inside the led is on the right side just as I have it. I just plugged mine up and yes it flashes green as well. Not the green then yellow like in the video. It's a shame we are having to do guess work on this. I will follow this. Thanks

An admin told me the led pinout will be uploaded tonight.

i figured the led out! however I'm getting the blinking red light on all so stat on a 2014 15 MacBook pro and a 2015 MacBook air.

I've tried a few different pin arrangements for the 4 LED legs. Had it strobing before detection, but then it goes dark after it detects the chip and no status update afterwards even after waiting over a minute. It didn't remove the password from the 2015 MPB but fortunately it didn't brick it either.

Not hard to assemble but without any documentation there's too much guessing on the LED status indicator that's pretty essential to safe operation of this device.

I got the dim red light on my MacBook Pro 15 mid 2014 as well but I started all different kind of SO stat and got my MacBook unlocked. The MacBook Air 2015 is a different story. It finished doing its thing with the slow greens light indicating it's unlocked but it didn't unlock it for some odd reason. Gonna fiddle with it when I get home.

Just going to throw my experience (so far) as well for posterity's sake and also to posit a question. First, I've my Efi unit built, but unlike the rest so far, i've got no signs of life from the LED. I do have signal to it, but im going to leave it alone in the meantime.

my question is directed to anyone else that has utilized the rapberry pi efi solution.. I purchased the Flash adapter a while back and have used with great success. Is it possible to use Rasp Pi and flashrom, etc, with the adapters included in the EFI destroyer kit? It would be an immense help if its possible that way. (Currently working on 2015 MBA, btw)
Thanks in advance

Take a look at my picture, i got all the lights working correctly. So far I'm not having much luck on my 2015 mba

Hell at this point I'd be satisfied if they just blinked a little. i'm in the process of adding new rgb with same forward voltage (kind of guessing but the 220ohm resistors hint at a standardized-ish rgb led i've got)

*additionally i'm fishing out my raspi and competitors edition flash kit to compare and maybe i'll get bold enough to give it a go...

as a follow-up or explanation - this 2015 MBA came to me as a "project." Likely a failed attempt at wiping, not really sure. Anyway, keyboard is non-responsive so complicated matters to begin with (could have something to do with previous owner). Left on its own to boot up, goes to flashing folder with question mark. 'option' on boot yields padlock. these are the only two outcomes regardless of strategy (includes attempting to use efi kit in all 4 configurations (mag and batt, connected and disconnected) but without a working led all i could do was plug it in and let it sit for a while. In the interest of moving forward, i pursued Raspi option.. which yielded very odd results. i know the chip is a winbond (25q64FVIQ) but flashrom was producing a result for generic chip. upon chip read, I had a system crash (rasp) situation that both lost the efi read I *think* I succeeded in pulling as well as created confusion. Following attempts to read chip again were met with inability to read Interestingly, though, Nothing has changed on the unit. business as usual, either padlock or flashing question mark. Guess i'm going to pull the winbond chip ALTOGETHER and read off the board. really didnt want to go to that extreme but I believe a hot air station as well as IR station ought to be able to handle the task. will advise

Hello,

As many of you who bought the DYI assembly, I also opted to go this route.
I also had to view the video to figure out where to install the resistors and LED.
Normally on a RGB LED the Longest lead can be either Anode or Cathode depending on the type of LED further complicating the issue.

Reading the Teensy board pinout, it leads me to believe that the longest lead should go to V3, thus making the LED a Common Anode LED. The Shortest LED is RED, The second Lead which is a little longer then the first lead described is the Green lead and finally the Third lead which is a little longer then the second is the Blue lead. Now I also read that someone said to watch out for the resister as it was backwards... Resistors do not have polarity so it does not matter in which direction it is installed, but if you are OCD like me you will want to put them all the same way .

Now that being said I haven't had any luck getting the LED to Flash at all. I made sure the LED is working correctly using the 3.3v rail from the teensy and using the ground pin also from the teensy board. I'm thinking that my Teensy doesn't have a program loaded, the worst part is, my buddy bought one too and he is having the same issues.

Thank you.

Michael_Reyes wrote: ...
Now that being said I haven't had any luck getting the LED to Flash at all. I made sure the LED is working correctly using the 3.3v rail from the teensy and using the ground pin also from the teensy board. I'm thinking that my Teensy doesn't have a program loaded, the worst part is, my buddy bought one too and he is having the same issues.

Thank you.

Interesting, I bought two kits and assembled them similarly (same pin locations for the LED). By freezing the video all connections are pretty obvious other than the LED pinout. I agree with your assertion that the long leg is a common anode and should be tied to 3v. When I attempt to use mine, one flashes blue and yellow until connected to the MBP debug header and then goes dark. The second doesn't light up at all. My best guess, like you, is that it is lacking proper programming. This is getting really frustrating and while I appreciate others' comments and insight, the lack of response from those that certainly know is hard to understand.

Well until we get a response it will be hard to know... i'm familiar with teensy but i don't believe there is a way to dump the code off the board (at least in non-compiled way) so unless the boards are blank vs loaded, it will be hard to tell what exactly we are up against. Perhaps Jayvi or admin/mod can be so polite as to post the original code? I wouldn't ordinarily ask of that, but, well, in the spirit of the sight as well as open source microcontroller development- Can we pleeeease have it?? Please? Puh-leeeaaase? Clearly we are aware of the risks of flashing or altering the MC board, but i'd rather spin wheels and break some stuff than stare at it from across the lot... jus sayin

Justin_Gen,
You are correct unless you have the actual project, downloading the teensy application to your computer is useless. We will have to wait for the Admin to release the project so that we can try to download it to the teensy board.

TNJed,
At least you are a little further then me, at least with one of your DYI kits.

Thanks so much! The kapton tape is a great idea, just wished I'd caught on to that before soldering down the resistors. Also loved the tip of using the breadboard to hold the pins while soldering. That would have saved on some scorched fingertips. One last question for thaGhost. I've not had much luck getting the EFIDL to fit in the 3D printed case. The resistors under the Teensy seem to be preventing it from seating low enough to get the cover to lock plus slots are too tight to get the leads on the pins. I'm sure an Exacto knife will work to expand the slots but any ideas on making space for the resistors? Thanks again!

whats the difference with the elite and the lite?