How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

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Nadim
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How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

Post by Nadim »

Hi there,

I was in Linux, flashing the firmware to the Taranis Plus and I got it bricked - to the point that switching it on did absolutely nothing. Couldn't enter in the bootloader moder either. If I hadn't know, I'd have though it didn't have the battery plugged in.

I switched to Windows and used the Zadig method. Got it working again. Models and settings popped up as if nothing happened.

It's not the first time I find Companion for Windows working better than the Linux counterpart. I'd like to do experiments and try again the whole thing (as I mainly use Linux to work with my PC and I'd like it to work), but I'm concerned I will brick again the Tx. I guess I have two questions:

1. Can someone 'brick' the Taranis (or any other FrSky Tx for the matter) to a physical point where it is impossible to get it into life again? I would think no, that the worst you can do is totally wipe out its memory but I guess you can always get it back as I did with Zadig, but I'm no expert and I'd like to have some more informed opinions.

2. Is Windows Companion being more bug-free and smoother working than its Linux counterpart a known scenario or am I the only one who has experienced that? I'm using Win10 and Linux Mint 19 in dualboot on an Acer Swift 3.

Thanks guys

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Kilrah
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Re: How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

Post by Kilrah »

No to either.

You didn't say which method you initially used to try to flash under linux.
Linux can just as well use the dfu-util power off flashing method, actually more easily since it doesn't need any special driver installation which Zadig is required for on Windows.
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Nadim
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Re: How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

Post by Nadim »

I entered bootloader mode and connected the Tx to the PC, then flashed the firmware the normal way via Companion. Or tried to do so I should say, since the status bar went up to 100% but then freezed there. I closed the window, but couldn't switch on the Tx anymore.

I noticed that in this installation of Companion (btw I'm using OpenTX 2.1.9), the interface look seems to be corrupted. This didn't happened on different installation of the same version of Companion on different computers. I tried installing Companion 2.2.2 and the interface looks good (namely, in accord with Linux one). I tried uninstall and reinstall Companion 2.1.9, but nothing changed (pics attached). Maybe this is non relevant at all, but it did seem strange to me.

Regarding what you say about Linux being able to flash with power off natively, now I wonder: should this option be preferred, in general, over the power on methog I used?

Thanks
Attachments
2.2.2.jpg
2.1.9.jpg
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Kilrah
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Re: How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

Post by Kilrah »

How long did you wait? The bar can freeze for some time until the OS has decided to flush cached writes. Wait until the Close button becomes active.

Do you know what bootloader version was on before? FrSky in the past have shipped radios with a broken bootloader where the USB function was faulty, causing read/write problems that could cause that.

Power off is preferred if you can do it. The bootlaoder method was added mostly becasue a bunch of non-technical users have great trouble following the couple of steps to install the Windows driver using Zadig.

Look is dependent on so many things like your window manager, the theme you're using with it and its settings etc that many things can happen. We updated the Qt version for 2.2 so that might have had an effect. We also did a workaround for a particular theme that was broken in a linux distro, don't remenber the details.
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Nadim
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Re: How much can one 'brick' the Taranis

Post by Nadim »

Kilrah wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:40 am How long did you wait? The bar can freeze for some time until the OS has decided to flush cached writes. Wait until the Close button becomes active.
I waited for I think one minute or so. I don't know if waiting more would eventually unfreeze it, but flashing a firmware has so far always taken not more than a few seconds.
Kilrah wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:40 am Do you know what bootloader version was on before? FrSky in the past have shipped radios with a broken bootloader where the USB function was faulty, causing read/write problems that could cause that.
It was the 2.1.9, but consider I've got this Taranis for 2 years and I've flashed the firmware (and the bootloader) quite many times. When I bought it it had the 2.0.can't-remember-which-version, and I upgraded to 2.1 when it came out and then the 2.1.9. I had never bricked it before (same goes for the quite a few Turnigy 9xs I flashed with Companion).
Kilrah wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:40 am Power off is preferred if you can do it. The bootlaoder method was added mostly becasue a bunch of non-technical users have great trouble following the couple of steps to install the Windows driver using Zadig.
This is good to know. Since I use Linux, I should then be able to flash power off without installing anything. I'll try this.
Kilrah wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:40 am Look is dependent on so many things like your window manager, the theme you're using with it and its settings etc that many things can happen. We updated the Qt version for 2.2 so that might have had an effect. We also did a workaround for a particular theme that was broken in a linux distro, don't remenber the details.
This would eplain why Companion 2.2.2 on the same machine won't show the graphic glitch, but I'm still confused as to why the same Companion 2.1.9, installed on two different computers with Linux Mint, shows the glitch in one installation but not in the other one.

Maybe it's time to move to 2.2.2, but honestly I'm not sure it has significant improvement over the 2.1.9 for the Taranis, considering how perfect this piece of software already is.

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