Will Taranis / Companion9x communicate on USB 3.0?

[xenon20]

Hi

I had an earlier issue where I couldn't flash my firmware on my desktop which has USB3.0, but then when following exactly the same process on my laptop (USB2.0) it worked.

Now when I try to read or write the EEPROM to/from the Tx on my desktop, it comes back with error message:



When I go to laptop with exactly the same setup, I can read and write no problem.

What's the word on this? Is it not possible to read/write/flash on USB3.0 ?

[Kilrah]

When accessing the EEPROM the radio appears as a simple mass storage drive, so it shouldn't matter. See in "My computer" if you see the 2 drives (SD card and EEPROM).
If yes there should be no problem. What version of companion9x do you have? Is it the same on both computers?

Flashing is different, and for that some problems have indeed been reported with certain USB 3.0 controllers.

[xenon20]

Hi

Yes I can see both disks in my computer :-



I have companion9x v1.51 on both computers with Firmware 2834 on tx. Tried updating to 1.52 and firmware 2923, but same problem exists. Reverted for now.

I don't seem to be able to flash or read/write at the moment on my desktop. When trying to flash I get the following message :-

[Kilrah]

For flashing, did you install the driver with Zadig?

For the EEPROM, what happens if you simply copy the TARANIS.BIN file to your desktop and open it with companion9x? Can you post it here too so we can have a look at it?

[xenon20]

Yes the driver was installed with zadig.

I can copy the file to the desktop and open and read it in companion9x.

Here is the bin file (rar'd)

TARANIS.rar

(1.68 KiB) Downloaded 264 times

[Kilrah]

Did you use the Zadig version supplied by the openTx team?
If yes, have a go with the latest one: http://zadig.akeo.ie/
Some say it helps with some USB3 systems. We haven't been able to validate it ourselves as we can't reproduce the problem in the first place on our systems and nobody has given us direct feedback, so we haven't updated our recommendations yet.

If opening the file that way is OK I don't get why companion won't open it from the radio. It just finds the drive, and opens the file on it.
Could be a permission issue or something, do you run the same Windows version on both?

[xenon20]

Not sure where I got the original version from tbh but just downloaded and tried zadig from the link you supplied which has worked! It allows me to read/write the EEPROM but unfortunately still can't flash.
Same error message "DFU util did not finish correctly". Path to DFU : Burn > Configure > C:/Program Files (x86)/companion9x/dfu-util.exe

[Kilrah]

Not sure where I got the original version from tbh but just downloaded and tried zadig from the link you supplied which has worked!

Zadig does NOT play any role regarding EEPROM access. The driver it installs is only used for flashing the firmware. So it seems it didn't change anything, your EEPROM issue was somewhere else.

One thing I haven't thought to ask as it's written in so many places, but your radio is powered OFF when you try to flash the firmware, right?

[xenon20]

That's very strange then! I couldn't read the EEPROM earlier and all I have done is re-install the driver with the (new) zadig tool, and now I can. Only point to note was that the zadig tool asked me to reboot after driver installed, which I don't think happened first time around.

Yes radio has always been off when trying to flash.

[Spoogy]

We have had exact the similar problems with couple Finnish users yesterday and day before that. I helped them same way as Kilrah did here suggesting and telling the same things. I also instructed them to un-install old driver first when radio is connected (so Windows computer will un-install driver properly), reboot and re-install again. In another case that did help but in another when user tried to re-install zadig there wasn't bootloader listed at all. The whole driver window was empty (he posted a screenshot) and there was some diffrent text on that button...what was it... something like install WINCUID driver or something like that. He has USB 2.0 on his Lenovo X220 Laptop.

Then I told him to look for that Windows USB update from october because it has raised some problems with USB devices and uninstall it if it's there. He didn't have it. I also guided him to goto options -> show all devices, but meanwhile he used another computer to update the software. After that he tried that not working computer again and succeeded installing the drivers and read/write flash and EEPROM.

On my own computer (laptop Lenovo W530) when I first installed Zadig and Companion (couple week before christmas) I had same problems with USB 2.0. I were sure that driver installation was success because when Taranis were connected I could see it in W7 device manager as a STM32 bootloader device. But still I got failure while trying to flash it. Then I opened that dfu-util configure window and closed it by clicking ok. Then I created a profile on preferences, saved it and closed by clicking ok. Right after that it begun to work (reading the flash from the TX).

So, I learned something:

- Un-install old drivers when TX is connected to comp.
- REBOOT THE COMPUTER
- Install Zadig again
- REBOOT THE COMPUTER
- Install companion and check configurations and preferences (create profile).

If that doesn't succee then there is a USB stack problem and that may be a little tricky to found out where it have raised (incompatible USB hub, some security update or so..). Trying another USB port may help also, even that is the same version (prefered USB 2.0) if it is in a different stack.

But now I have USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 on my computer and with USB 2.0 everything works just fine. I can test if USB 3.0 works also. If it doesn't I can update those latests drivers and see if there's any help from them for that.

-Spoogy

[xenon20]

Hi Spoogy, thanks for sharing your experiences.

I have just tried the things you mentioned, after re-installing the driver I still couldn't flash the firmware (same DFU util error) but I also couldn't read/write the EEPROM - strange because it was working last night. I decided to follow the same process as last night by copying the BIN file to the desktop and opening it within companion which worked, and then when I retried to read the EEPROM from the Taranis, it worked!

Some things are definitely amiss here.

[Mechcondrid]

so outside of making a custom usb stack (which if i understand correctly is near impossible in windows) is there any other way to get the taranis for flash on a usb 3.0 port? sadly all i have is 3.0 ports ....except for at work (which consequently is where i have been doing my flashing..... dont tell nobodies!)

[Kilrah]

When the bootloader is integrated in the firmware you won't need a PC anymore. Well yes, but only to copy the file to the SD card.

[jhsa]

Kilrah, does your taranis have wi-fi as you won't need a PC?


Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Kilrah]

You could put the file on the SD card with your smartphone

[jhsa]

Yeah, but my phone is not that smart.... yet..

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Kilrah]

Of course it is
Now maybe the operator...

[jhsa]

ha ha ha..

[Mechcondrid]

ya i was aware of that though i cant seem to find any kind of solid progress info on the bootloader, at least in the repo (though i'll admit i've been looking for the most part while at work so my attention MAY have been slightly divided lol)