9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Cant get your radio to work? General Hardware issues?
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evan
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9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

Hey everyone, I’ve been trying to update my 9X firmware for a while now, and I’m kinda at my wits end. I’ve done hours of reading online, wikis, forum threads, everything, but I can’t exactly find the solutions to my issues.

I got my 9X and first checked to make sure everything stock seemed to be working, and as far as I could tell, everything was fine. I opened it up, checked everything, and confirmed that it was a V2 board, and compatible with the SmartieParts board. I installed the SmartieParts 2.4 board, and confirmed that the red light lit up when it's plugged into my computer. For reference, I'm on a Mac running OS X 10.9.5.

Because the first SmartieParts board I ordered was defective (though quickly and painlessly replaced by Steven), I checked my system info to make sure the board was noticed by the computer, and this is what I see:

Image

I believe that means everything's OK, but I'm not sure. At that point, I looked at software options. I would like to go with openTX as I'm thinking about upgrading to a Taranis in the future, but all the documentation for the openTX companion seems geared for the Taranis, so I downloaded both companion9x and openTX companion in order to try both. Whenever I try openTX companion, I get a notification like the one below, essentially saying the DFU util isn't working:

Image

Most things I've found about fixing the DFU util problem is geared towards windows machines, and I haven't found anything directed to the Mac. But more bad things happen when I tried companion 9x.

Despite reassurances from all the guides that you didn't need to do anything special to get avrdude working, whenever I tried companion9x, it kept on saying the the avrdude executable couldn't be found. Eventually I found where avrdude was on my computer and got companion9x pointed to the right location. Then I tried writing er9x flash to the transmitter. The program goes through the whole process, writing and verifying, and then a box comes up saying "AVRDUDE did not finish correctly! Do you want some help?" And this is the box behind it:

Image

The content error and verification mismatch kinda scare me, even though I don't know exactly what it means.

And then when I turn on the transmitter, the screen is totally blank (but on, I have the backlight installed) and it emits a high pitched tone continuously. When you turn it off and on, sometimes the tone is a different pitch, sometimes it's more of a beeping and then turns off, sometimes there isn't any sound. I've tried writing the flash again, but the same error comes up. As far as I know, it did not back up the stock firmware, which is my fault, though I don't see how it could be a problem with the firmware itself (which I got straight from the source, without modifying it at all).

So: did I brick the transmitter? Is there any way to tell? What are the steps I need to take to diagnose the issue? Is there a way to reset anything?

I'm somewhat desperate and rather open to trying almost anything at this point. I'd definitely appreciate the help, if there was anything else I thought I might be able to do, I'd have done it, and I'm at the end of my small bag of tricks. Thanks everyone.

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MikeB
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by MikeB »

Does it always fail on verification at 0x0100? It would appear that address 0x0100 hasn't been flashed as 0xff is the erased value.
For the 9X you don't want DFU, that is for the Taranis.
If flashing er9x, you find eepe more suitable.
You could try slowing the programming speed by adding a -B100 in the extra options of the AVRDUDE setup.

Mike.
erskyTx/er9x developer
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evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

Mike, thanks for your help. I believe (I'll have to confirm later) that it does always fail at that address. I would rather use openTX, should that be possible with (the older) companion9x?

What would slowing the speed do? Would this fix this issue or just highlight the root problem?

Thanks again for your quick response.
Daedalus66
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by Daedalus66 »

Both Er9x and OpenTX work well on the 9x. But be sure to use the correct support program. For Er9x use eepe, NOT Companion. This is just what Mike is saying but stronger (as a result of experience).
evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

After trying to flash openTX using companion9x, the same avrdude error comes up with a mismatch at the same address, 0x0100. The only difference is now when I turn on the transmitter, there are about 10 lines across the top third of the screen on the transmitter. When I try to flash er9x using eePe, it hangs up when trying to back up, and then when I exit it says "Backup failed". Any thoughts on these results?

How do I implement a -B100 option? Is that something I would have to do in Terminal?

Thanks.

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jhsa
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by jhsa »

I know only in eepe. Burn menu where you configure your programmer and the chip, insert it in the "extra arguments" field. I got a feeling that you might have messed up the fuses somehow.. if you have the latest version of eepe, you might have an option in the "Burn" menu called "Read Fuses". Try to read them and if successful please post them here..

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evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

Here is what I get when I read the fuses:

Image

Does this reveal a problem?

Thanks.
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jhsa
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by jhsa »

I think they look like they are ok..

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evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

So I added a -B100 argument to the avrdude, and it seemed to have the correct effect, as the burn and verify took noticeably longer. However at the end of the burn, the same error and mismatch come up and the transmitter still doesn't work.

I tried resetting the fuses in eePe to factory defaults (because I wasn't sure which reset option to use in companion9x), which said was done successfully. However, when I tried yet again to burn openTX from companion9x, the same error and mismatch come up yet again.

Someone on another forum suggested that it might be a version (6.0 as opposed to 5.11) of AVRDUDE I'm using that doesn't play well with Mac OS X? For reference, I installed AVRDUDE on this computer using CrossPack from this site: http://www.obdev.com/products/crosspack/index-de.html

Could that be an issue?
evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

So I just tried again flashing openTX from companion9x, this time without the -B100 but with -v -v for verbose output, and I just thought I'd share that here:

Code: Select all

=================================================================================
Started AVRDUDE
/usr/local/CrossPack-AVR/bin/avrdude -c usbasp -p m64 -v -v -U flash:w:/Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940.:a
=================================================================================

avrdude: Version 6.0.1, compiled on Dec 16 2013 at 17:26:24
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "/usr/local/CrossPack-AVR-20131216/etc/avrdude.conf"
         User configuration file is "/Users/evp/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

         Using Port                    : usb
         Using Programmer              : usbasp
avrdude: seen device from vendor ->www.fischl.de<-
avrdude: seen product ->USBasp<-
         AVR Part                      : ATmega64
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PA0
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom         4    20    64    0 no       2048    8      0  9000  9000 0xff 0xff
           flash         33     6   128    0 yes     65536  256    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          4    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : usbasp
         Description     : USBasp, http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/

avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null)
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9602
avrdude: NOTE: "flash" memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
         To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
avrdude: erasing chip
avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null)
avrdude: reading input file "/Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940."
avrdude: input file /Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940. auto detected as Intel Hex
avrdude: writing flash (51272 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 21.84s

avrdude: 51272 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against /Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940.:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file /Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940.:
avrdude: input file /Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940. auto detected as Intel Hex
avrdude: input file /Users/evp/Downloads/opentxnew2-r2940. contains 51272 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 19.65s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0100
         0xff != 0x00
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

avrdude done.  Thank you.


=================================================================================
AVRDUDE done - exit code 1
=================================================================================
Just FYI, the transmitter still doesn't work. Does this help at all?

Thanks.
evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

A little more info as I'm just playing around in Terminal trying to see if I can find any issues:

Code: Select all

EVP-2:~ evp$ avrdude -c usbasp -p m64

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9602

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (H:FF, E:89, L:0E)

avrdude done.  Thank you.
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MikeB
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by MikeB »

Definitely drop AVRDUDE V6, use V5.11. You may need to download an older version of crosspack that has V5.11 in it.

Mike.
erskyTx/er9x developer
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jhsa
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by jhsa »

eepe has an old version of Avrdude in it's installation folder, right? Why not just point eepe to it?

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evan
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by evan »

Well that seems to be the secret sauce! I installed the most recent version of crosspack that still ran 5.11, confirmed that companion9x and eePe were both pointing to the 5.11 version, and it works like a charm. I can flash openTX with companion9x and er9x with eePe. Interestingly, openTX seems to have some issues (backlight doesn't work, seems to not detect stick movements properly), but this is probably just configuration options and firmware options on my end and/or more likely my lack of knowledge about how to use openTX. But now I at least have the ability to learn!

Thanks for all your help, and quick responses, it was good to learn a little more about AVRDUDE, even if I don't fully understand what the issue was.
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rperkins
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by rperkins »

so it isnt linux only
avrdude usbasp 6.x 6.0.1 mismatch 0x0100 with mac
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by uraniumheart »

I literally just made an account for OpenRCForums to say thank you for this, I was similarly reaching my wits end with the exact same problem (Mac OSX 10.9, Turnigy 9X, flashing er9X). Installing the last version of Crosspack with AVRDUDE 5.11 fixed my issues as well, flashed properly on the first try.
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jhsa
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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by jhsa »

Good that you have fixed it. Welcome to the forum and now that you have an account you can continue to participate in the forum ;)

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Re: 9X Firmware Upgrade Issues

Post by wilburburns »

uraniumheart wrote:I literally just made an account for OpenRCForums to say thank you for this, I was similarly reaching my wits end with the exact same problem (Mac OSX 10.9, Turnigy 9X, flashing er9X). Installing the last version of Crosspack with AVRDUDE 5.11 fixed my issues as well, flashed properly on the first try.
Same Here..

Thank you all for this info. Yes I will stay and continue to learn and try and contribute to the forum.

Thanks Again,
Cliff

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