Magic Control Technology (MCT) USB Display Adapter Reverse Engineering

Magic Control Technology Corporation (MCT, website) is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that designs chips for use in computer peripherals and multimedia equipment.

The targets of this reverse engineering effort are MCT's "Trigger 5" and "Trigger VI" ("Trigger 6") USB-to-display adapters, the drivers for which only support Windows and Mac OS. The goal of this project is to document the protocol these chips use so a Linux driver can be written to support them and the display adapters that use them.

Reverse engineering notes

See doc/Notes.md.

Quick start

Software dependencies

• Python 3
• PyUSB
• For parsing T6 firmware images:
  • Kaitai Struct Compiler
  • Kaitai Struct Python Runtime

Procedure

1. Install dependencies.
2. Use ./test_t5.py to replay some packets to the Trigger 5 dongle. This is work-in-progress research code and doesn't do much yet.

Hardware info

Trigger 5 devices

• StarTech USB32VGAES
  • MCT Trigger 5 T5-302
  • 16 MB RAM
  • VGA output
    • 1080p60
• StarTech USB32HDES
  • MCT Trigger 5 T5-302
  • 16 MB RAM
  • HDMI output
    • 1080p60
• j5create JUA310
  • VGA output
    • 1080p60
• j5create JUA350
  • HDMI output
    • 1080p60

Trigger VI (Trigger 6) devices

• j5create JUA214
  • VGA output
    • 1080p60
• j5create JUA311
  • VGA output
    • 1080p60
• StarTech USB32HDES (Rev 2) / j5create JUA254/JUA255
  • HDMI output
    • 1080p60
• StarTech USB32DPES2
  • MCT Trigger VI T6-688L
  • 64 MB RAM (external)
  • DP output
    • 4k30
• j5create JCD543
  • VGA output
    • 1080p60
  • HDMI output
    • 4k30
• StarTech USB32HD2 / j5create JUA365/JCA365
  • MCT Trigger VI T6-688SL
  • 64 MB RAM (integrated)
  • Silicon Image Sil9136-3
  • Dual HDMI outputs
    • 1x 4k30
    • 1x 1080p60
• StarTech USB32HD4/USBC2HD4 / j5create JCA366
  • Genesys Logic USB Hub
  • 2x of each:
    • MCT Trigger VI T6-688SL
    • 64 MB RAM (integrated)
    • ITE IT66121
  • Quad HDMI outputs
    • 4x 1080p60
• HP Engage 6.6 inch Display
  • Internal LCD output
    • 6.6 inches diagonal
    • 1400 x 720 pixels

License

Except where stated otherwise:

• All software in this repository (e.g., testing and experimentation code, etc.) is made available under the Zero-Clause BSD (0BSD) license.
• All copyrightable content that is not software (e.g., reverse engineering notes, this README file, etc.) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.