Comeback

er9x is the best known firmware. It has a superb range of features and is well supported by the community. Well worth trying out.
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nsf
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Comeback

Post by nsf »

Hello guys.
First I would like to apologize if is this is not the right place for the post, but didn't know where to open it.
I'm an rc enthusiast for some time, but in 2014 or 2015 I took a break in the hobby for several reasons.
Now I would like to come back but after 4 or 5 years a lot has changed and I'm really lost, so I was hopping that you guys could help or point me to the right direction.
I have 2 9x radios with some mods (made by me) and would like to put them back to use, but they have an old firmware.
One is pretty much stock, but is running an old version of opentx (r2768) from 2013-09-29.
The other one is a bit modded. It has an internal frsky module/transmiter (DIY), a sky9x board (bought from skynorth), and some other stuff, mostly cosmetic. It runs opentx - r2688 from 2013-08-05.
Nowadays what firmware do you guys recomend for both radios?
And how do I flash it? I remember using epee or companion 9x, but after all these years a lot of things must have changed.

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Hi, welcome back to the hobby. I also once stopped for a bit longer than that. Couldn't afford model aircraft and real aircraft at the same time :) Guess what won.. [emoji14] :)

OpenTX seems not to develop for those radios anymore. Er9x/ErskyTX (former Ersky9x) still does.
You can find the latest versions for both at www.er9x.com

João

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks for the help João. Hummm, let me guess... :)
I have been in that page, but, as a I said, I've been away for so long that I dont know what firmware is appropriate for each of the boards :shock: .
I guess that ER9X (revision 821) is for the turnigy 9x (and similares) with stock board, but how do I know my board is suported? It's a 2011 or 2012 radio. And what version should I choose?
What about ERSKYTX (revision 221), is it for the sky9x board sold by Skynorth back in 2012? How do I know it's the right one for my sky9x board?
Do I need to flash just the firmware or I have to flash something else? I remember, back then when I installed custom firmware, like opentx, I installed something else?
Sorry for all the questions, but it´s like starting from scratch, and trying to avoid briking my radios :D .
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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

For the 9x radio, it depends on what processor it has. You can probably configure eepe to try to read the existing firmware to a file and see it eepe.complains about a wrong signature for the selected processor. You can set as the original m64. It there is no error, it means the radio has an m64. If is throws ab error, please post it here. We might be able to guess what kind of processor it has. The other option is to remove the back and read what is written on the processor :)

For the skyboard you need to download the ErskyTX firmware. Then use the file ersky9xs_rom.bin (I think it.is the right file name).
Do you know if your sky9x radio has a bootloader? Try powering it ip with both horizontal trims held towards the center of the radio. Check if at least a bootloader version number is displayed.
Depending on how old the installed firmware is, you might have to install the co-processor firmware as well. But one step at the time. You can do that later using the radio's maintenance menu. :)

I hope my post is not confusing because I should be in bed now and am really tired :)
João

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks João.
I just opened the rádios and the stock 9x has an atmega 64A.
The modded one, tried as you suggested, holding the horizontal trims toward the center when powering the radio, and nothing happens. It boots normally to the installed firmware. Don't know if it helps, but it's a sky9x arm 3.0 board with an atmel ATSAM3S4C chip.

Does this image helps?


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Image

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

It looks like you might need SAMBA to flash the radio, as it looks like it doesn't have the bootloader installed. That firmware looks really old as well. Do you remember how you flashed it last time?

For the 9x with the Atmega64 you need to download the firmware for it. Does it have the telemetry mode done? Does it have a voice module? if so, which one?

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

As for the one with the sky9x board, can't remember how I first installed the firmware. If I'm not mistaken I think that apart the firmware I also installed something else, eprom, maybe...
As for the other 9x it has no mods. The only thing added was the lcd backlight and a ps2 connector for firmware instalation.
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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Ok, then for the 9x you need the er9x standard firmware.. The first one on the list.

For the skyboard you might need to install SAMBA on your computer first. I can't remember where the tutorials are though :(
Please try searching the forum.

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks again João.
And how do I install er9x standard firmware on the 9x. I have been reading my old posts and it seems that I used companion9x to install the firmware.
For the sky board, you are right. The install was with samba. For the most up to date firmware do I need to use samba aswell?
One more thing. What's the major difference between Er9x/ErskyTX and OpenTX?
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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

nsf wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 10:22 am
And how do I install er9x standard firmware on the 9x. I have been reading my old posts and it seems that I used companion9x to install the firmware.
Download and install eepe and eepskye from www.er9x.com.
Use eepe to install the firmware on your 9x radio.

Code: Select all

For the sky board, you are right. The install was with samba. For the most up to date firmware do I need to use samba aswell?
You will because it looks like your tradio doesn't have the bootloader installed. After you install ErwskyTX and the bootloader, you won't need SAMBA anymore.

Code: Select all

One more thing. What's the major difference between Er9x/ErskyTX and OpenTX?
There are many major differences, but i think the most important is that it seems that OpenTX does not develop for any of your radios anymore.
Also, ErskyTX allow for more hardware implementations on your radios, like for example more switches, etc. Not so much on the original 9x with m64 because of hardware limitations.. But still you could build a voice module for it that would also allow a couple more switches I think.

There are more hardware mods available for the skyboard though.. Bluetooth for example is one of them..

I also like more the menus implementation in ErskyTX.. More user friendly in my opinion.. :)

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks.
If using a mac do I need both (eepe and eepskye) or eepe is enough for flashing the stock 9x
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Re: Comeback

Post by MikeB »

eepe is enough for er9x. You will need to have AvrDude installed as well. I'm not sure if installing eepe on a MAC includes this.
I'm not sure that SAM-BA has ever been available for a MAC!

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks Mike. I was referring to er9x for the stock board. For the sky9x board I will have to use a windows machine. Samba does not exist for Mac.
I will give it a try during the weekend and will let you guys know how it goes. [emoji3]

Just a little update.
After some time installing drivers and software I manage to install er9x in the stock 9x, but... I then went to update to the latest version and I got an avrdude error and the radio is completely dead :| .
Is there any way to bring it back to life or it's just for parts now ?
I did exactly the same thing as the first time. I don't know why the error. The only thing different was adding the revision number after the name of the file (er9x). Could this be the problem?
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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

what you mean by completely dead? No sounds/beeps? Please try to connect a receiver and see if it can move a servo.
What about if you connect it to eepe and try to read the firmware or eeprom. Not flash, just read.

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

It's completely dead João. After installing the required drivers and software I manage to flash er9x, but in the version page (can't remember what was it) it showed a date from 2016, so I went to er9x site and downloaded the latest standard version. I added the revision number to the file name (er9x-r821.hex) and did exactly as before to flash it. The process begun and after a wile avrdude window reported an error and closed (not eepe) and the radio died (the screen went off and didn't came back on, like before after finishing the install).
Now connecting it to the computer or with a battery nothing happens. Nothing on the screen. Using eepe can't connect to the radio.

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Hmm, weird.. so it flashed OK once then?
Do you remember what error that was?
You didn't use the -F option on the extra arguments box in eepe, did you??
Never use that.. It can brick your radio.

João

EDIT: Do you have any arduino board? This could be used as a 1Mhz oscillator if your radio did get bricked...

Make sure the batteries are charged. It wouldn't the first time that the problem was a flat battery :)



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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks João. Yep, the first time went fine. Had some problems with the drivers installed from zandig because eepe (avrdude) was not recognizing the USB programmer. But found some drivers for it, I think in some arduino page, and after that all went fine. I even made a backup of the eprom and the old firmware before the flash. And no, didn't mess with any configuration in eepe. All I did, was change the port to USB.
In second time, we'll...
Couldn't see the error. I just noticed an error in avrdude window and then it closed.
Yes, I have an arduino board. Can I use it to bring it back?
Battery is not the problem, it's charged. Tested it on another radio.
I have a brand new 9x board here (I think it's working) that I pulled from the radio that has the sky9x board but if I could bring this back on would be great. Besides, I don't want to mess with the new one without knowing what went wrong with this one so it doesn't happen again.

Edit:
The problem seems to be in the latest revision (r821) that's in er9x site. At least for me, or I'm doing something wrong.
I managed to bring it back and reproduce the error, that happens every single time I flash the latest version.
I went to eepe and reseted the fuses. After that there was nothing on the screen but I could flash the firmware, so I installed r820 and all went fine. The radio booted as normal.
I downloaded r821 again from the site and took the risk to flash it again and the same thing happened. Avrdude shows an error (checksum mismatch) and the screen stays off. Connected to the pc nothing shows, the same with a battery plugged in.
Here's a screen shot of the error.
The other picture is of the version that's working. Is this the latest one? I'm doing something wrong?

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

You don't need zadig for flashing the firmware.
eepe installs with AVRdude.
Please go to the "Burn" menu / Configure, and point the AVRDUDE location to the avrdude.exe that is inside eepe's installation folder. See if that fixes the problem.

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks João. The path is set correctly in the burn menu to AVRdude. Zadig was for the USB programmer since usbasp drivers are no longer available in the site, that now points to zadig.
Besides, if the problem was the path how does it flashes one version and not the other?

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Not sure.. Let's see what Mike say about this..

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Hmm, how did you download the file? Did you right click and select "Save Link as"?? What file did it save? er9x.hex??

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Yep. Right click in er9x standard and choose "save link as" . It saves the file as er9x.hex

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Re: Comeback

Post by jhsa »

Hmmm, I don't have any m64 radio to try flashing it :( My only 9x radio has an m2561..
As I said above, let's see what Mike has to say about this. Perhaps he has an idea of what is happening and why..

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Re: Comeback

Post by ReSt »

I would download the code again.
The error message says, avrdude detected a CRC error in line 1374 of er9x.hex
(the last byte in a line is the CRC check byte of the databytes of that line)

1374 is hex 55E so either the line that starts with :1055D or the next line :1055E
should be the line that forces the error.

from my download:
.....
:1055D0004D2D6D2F82E10E943F6780915406081384
:1055E00005C04AE26D2F81E00E94AF644FE06AE798
.....

according to the error message there should be a value of 0x32 instead of 0x49 (where I have 84 or 98)

but my file that I just downloaded has totally different values there (it's either a different file or yours has incorrect data due to download errors ???)

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thank Reinhard.
But I downloaded the file several times, in different machines, and from different internet providers and the result is always the same error.

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Re: Comeback

Post by MikeB »

I just downloaded the file and I see the same data as ReSt, which also matches the "master" file I have on my PC.
My downloaded file is 169K (172143 bytes).

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Re: Comeback

Post by ReSt »

Edit your er9x.hex file with a simple editor e.g. "Write" and verify the two lines I pasted in the above post.
Only to verify, if your file is the same as ours (at least at that position of the file).

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

Thanks guys.
Reinhard, it seems that you were right. I verified the file in an editor and lines 1374 and 1375 were not the same as yours.
So I downloaded the file again, and before flash I checked it, and now those lines show the same values as yours, so I tried to install it.
All went fine, no erros this time, but...
No matter how many times I install the file, the version info in the radio is the same as I had before.
VERS: V1.747-Mike
DATE: 30.11.2016
TIME: 13:41:02
SVN: er9x-r820

It should change, right, because I'm installing r821

Edit:
Just tried another version (er9xProv822k) downloaded from Er9x test versions topic, from the forum. It flashed without issues, and the version screen in the radio updated accordingly. So, I went to er9x site, downloaded r821 again, and installed it. No errors, but this is what keeps showing in the radio:
VERS: V1.747-Mike
DATE: 30.11.2016
TIME: 13:41:02
SVN: er9x-r820
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Re: Comeback

Post by MikeB »

That is actually correct, I made a mistake with setting the version number when I built the file and didn't realise until some time later.
The date and time are correct for r821.

There are some updates in later test versions here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4598.

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Re: Comeback

Post by nsf »

So Mike, that's the latest stable version, but the number is wrong, correct?
That topic is the one I went to get the version (er9xProv822kI) mentioned in the last post.
Is that test version the latest one availiable?


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