Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

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Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Hi, I think this will be a thread for Mike.
After installing the encoder via the arduino and that port in the 9xtreme, from time to time, and I think with no reason, I get the bad eeprom error, so things are erased from my radio.
Thanks to you, guys, I discovered it is possible to create copies of my eeprom and models, so revert it takes me seconds, but I am worried it can happen in one of the scarce rc events I have here, or if the 9xtreme can end damaged.

Is there something we can do? It happened about 3 times since I installed the encoder.

Thanks
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

I assume you only get this error at power up?
I'll look at the code, this encoder is sharing the signals that connect to the EEPROM, so there is a possibility I have something not quite right at start up.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

MikeB wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 9:36 am I assume you only get this error at power up?
I'll look at the code, this encoder is sharing the signals that connect to the EEPROM, so there is a possibility I have something not quite right at start up.

Mike
Hi Mike, yes, I have seen the error only when powering the radio on.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

I've just posted a test version where access to the encoder is blocked during the startup reading of the EEPROM.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

MikeB wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 11:48 am I've just posted a test version where access to the encoder is blocked during the startup reading of the EEPROM.

Mike
Thank you very much, Mike. I just flashed it, I will update you if I have that error again.

As always, thanks for everything.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Hi Mike, I believe I am still having some issues with this.

It is not the first time the radio does not start and I had to replace the eeprom with eepe. Today it happened again, but thanks to God I did a copy of the eeprom two days ago.

I tried to start the radio and I had the starting music. Even when I had a white backlight this time I got a red or orsnge one, and all the pixels were in black. I also heard throttle warning when I had it deactivated. I could not do anything else with the radio until I connected to the computer and copied the eeprom back.

The bootloader launched fine.

I attach to this post two eeproms, the one I did two days ago, and the one I extracted when the radio failed:
eeproms.rar
(3.51 KiB) Downloaded 270 times
I suspect this must be an error related with the encoder and the arduino board.
Even when it improved a lot last time you touched it, it is still not working 100% troublefree.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

I have been thinking about this and I have some ideas:
Blocking access to the encoder removed most of the issues... Maybe you could block it until the splash screen is gone.

Also another thing that would help a lot is to be able to restore the eeprom from the bootloader or from the maintenance mode. That would allow us to correct the failure in situ, without a computer.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

The bad EEPROM data is all shifted 1 bit. Either the EEPROM missed a clock edge (unlikely), or maybe the extra loading/capacitance of the encoder connection is slowing the data signal from the EEPROM, and sometimes it is just slow enough that each data bit is missed and so is read on the next clock edge.
I've just posted a test version for the 9Xtreme with the EEPROM clock slowed to half what is was, although it is still quite fast and shouldn't cause any other problems, but might solve your current problem.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Thanks Mike, I will test it tomorrow morning, first thing I will do.

This time I did not get the bad eeprom message but just got that full black screen. Not sure if you can see anything in the files I posted.

Thanks again, will post tomorrow :D
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Hi Mike, I flashed the last test version and seems to be working OK.
I will report if I see some issues, hope this version is the definitive one so I dont have to annoy you more, lol.

The issue that I had yesterday was a real pain, because the radio was unusable until I connected to the PC, so if in the future you can add to reflash the eeprom from the radio, it can be usefull in this case and maybe in some other.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

I think you can :) but not sure. I know we can backup the complete eeprom to the SD Card.
I don't have the radio with me at the moment, but you can check in the Radio Settings/EEprom. You might have to unlock the menu by holding the left horizontal trim to the left at power ON. :)

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:40 am I think you can :) but not sure. I know we can backup the complete eeprom to the SD Card.
I don't have the radio with me at the moment, but you can check in the Radio Settings/EEprom. You might have to unlock the menu by holding the left horizontal trim to the left at power ON. :)

João
Hi Joao, yes, I can backup the complete eeprom. In fact I do it quite often.
But what I would like to be able to do is to restore it from the bootloader menu or maintenance mode.

If the radio fails in one meeting I have no access to the computer so I am basically screwed, lol. If I can restore the eeprom just with the radio, is a 15 seconds fix.

Anyway this is just an idea. Hope the last update fixed any issue the radio had. This last update I did not have a lot of time to test, but seems to work so far.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

I have just checked on my 9xtreme radio. You do have a "Restore" option in the Radio "Settings / EEPROM" menu. You can use it to restore the EEprom you have saved to the SD Card.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:56 pm I have just checked on my 9xtreme radio. You do have a "Restore" option in the Radio "Settings / EEPROM" menu. You can use it to restore the EEprom you have saved to the SD Card.

João
Yes, but that is when the radio is working, not like the other days with the radio completelly dead, lol.
Hence Id fit that function in the bootloader or in the maintenance mode.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

Oh, I see.. :) But if the radio is completely dead, I don't know if maintenance mode will work. As far as I know it is part of the firmware :) But Mike knows better than me of course.. :)

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

I'm looking at putting together an "app" that will do the EEPROM restore. This may be run from the bootloader. It will be easier for me to do this than modify the bootloader itself.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

The app would be the best option in this case in my opinion. That is a great idea Mike. Thank you

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

jhsa wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:19 pm Oh, I see.. :) But if the radio is completely dead, I don't know if maintenance mode will work. As far as I know it is part of the firmware :) But Mike knows better than me of course.. :)

João
Yep, that is the thing, bootloader and maintenance mode worked fine. Some posts above I uploaded my faulty eeprom, maybe you can flash it and replicate the problem. Nothing worked except the maintenance and the bootloader.

The APP way should be another way of making it work too :DD
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by bob195558 »

Suggest, maybe it could be a hardware problem.
If you have a bad switch or a bad chip it could be causing the troubles.
Many years ago I had a new 9x that bricked when programing it
and later found the selecting switches were corroded.
After replacing several of the selecting switches, it worked OK.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

bob195558 wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 10:29 am Suggest, maybe it could be a hardware problem.
If you have a bad switch or a bad chip it could be causing the troubles.
Many years ago I had a new 9x that bricked when programing it
and later found the selecting switches were corroded.
After replacing several of the selecting switches, it worked OK.
It is possible, of course. This would not be the first case I solder something wrong. But at this very moment the radio is so modded that is a pain to investigate what is going wrong. I believe I did all mods possible. https://radindustries.wordpress.com/202 ... /my-radio/

Anyway it is true that from the first software encoder version to the first fix, I had a vast improvement. And with this second update I did not have any issues so far...
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

A "Restore EEPROM" app for the 9Xtreme is now available at www.er9x.com. Follow the "Apps" link and click on the link to the app, save it, then place it in the "apps" directory of the SD card.
If it doesn't appear on the site, refresh the page.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Thanks Mike, I installed the app and it works.

That will fix the issue if it happens again.
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

Mike, is it only for the 9XT or does it also work with other radios? I am asking because the other apps work on all radios, I think?
But EEPROMs are different..

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

At the moment I've only done it for the 9XT.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by jhsa »

Thank you..

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Hi Mike, I keep having issues with this.
I cannot tell you what makes the mistakes appear. I tried everything I could think of, switches to one side, to the other, module on, off, no module, and the eeprom errors come themselves from time to time. Sometimes the first radio model is deleted. Sometimes empty models appear on the model select screen, with just number "Model X" being X the slot where they are. Sometimes strange symbols appear as a name... And sometimes the Bad eeprom error comes. Oh, that happens only when powering on.

Thanks God and thanks to you I can restore the eeprom from the bootloader and cannot thank you enough because this saved my neck several times, but it would be great if we prevent from happening. Do you have any other idea?
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

There must still be a conflict between the EEPROM access and the encoder (on the Arduino) access. I've added an extra check to try to prevent this. I've posted it in a PM to you.

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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Hi Mike, bad news here.

Flashed the new version and now the encoder wheel and center button does not work at all. The four arrows at the corners keep working though.
I switched on and off the radio 5 times, and on the 5th the first model was damaged: Name dissapeared, and from the 8 channels I had programmed, it all changed to something like the screenshot, up to channel 16. Example here:

Image

If the encoder creates an issue at start, maybe an idea is to disable it until the radio intro ends?
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by Rad »

Another issue, I tried to restore the eeprom with my radio and it gives a "bad SD card error"
Card works, because I still have sounds and can save new eeproms and models. So I restored the eeprom with the computer, and it worked.

I flashed back the latest erskytx software, and now the wheel and center button works again.
I also managed to reflash the eeprom with the radio. So it seems this version you sent me also creates an issue with older eeproms. No big issue I can always create a new one, but it might give you a clue or something.

Just in case I attached the latest eeprom I have.
eeprom-2021-03-27.rar
(2.61 KiB) Downloaded 123 times
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Re: Bad Eeprom error. 9xtreme/encoder.

Post by MikeB »

I've PM'ed another test version. In this one I've removed the encoder code. Please try this to make sure you don't have a problem with the actual EEPROM.

If you still get problems, please, if possible, try disconnecting the arduino that drives the encoder, to see if it that loading the signals causing the problem.

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