[BUG] Unresponsive motherboard after trying to flash OG firmware

[paulbeard]

Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.
The firmware didn't load or was perhaps incompatible with this unit (it has the blue/yellow display) as it is now bricked. Will power on but no functionallity, no heating, no stepper motors, connectivity through USB. Can it be re-flashed from the SD card?

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start printer
   This is all it takes. The firmware didn't allow me to print, the SD card was not readable (some files showed up, bot not all and I couldn't make out if it was naming issue or what). I decided to drop back to the OG firmware and now the printer is bricked, no firmware version showing in the About panel.

pronterface and cura cannot connect, they don't see a device at the end of the connection. The touchscreen works but few of the commands do.

Expected behavior
A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

I expected it to print at least as well as it did with the OG firmware.

Photos of the print / output of the terminal
If applicable, add photos or console outputs to help explain your problem.

I wish there was something to share here.

Printer (please complete the following information):

• Firmware version: [e.g. v19.02.08]
• Printing method [e.g. SD, USB (OctoPrint, Cura, ...)]
• Model [e.g. i3 Mega, Mega-S]

M503 Output
Please paste the complete output of the M503 command here.

N/A. it can't communicate.

[davidramiro]

Is the red LED on the motherboard on?

Try turning off the power supply, disconnecting USB, then setting the jumper on the motherboard from DC to USB and connecting USB again. This might get you a connection and the ability to flash.

[paulbeard]

The red light is on until/unless I move that jumper. No connection either way. The power supply fan blows regardless. Moving the jumper means no screen to go with no red light. I have the little USB flashing dongle on its way to me, in case that's all that's needed here. Is there anything else I can try in the meantime?

…

On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 1:11 AM David Ramiro ***@***.***> wrote: Is the red LED on the motherboard on? Try turning off the power supply, disconnecting USB, then setting the jumper on the motherboard from DC to USB and connecting USB again. This might get you a connection and the ability to flash. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#141 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7N6PE6LA333UKG5JJ7Q3LX4E4EFANCNFSM6AAAAAA5FIG34Q> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

[paulbeard]

Any other thoughts here? I am looking at the menu LCD but nothing really works. The only real win here is the end of that chime but right now I'd be glad to hear it again. Neither Cura nor pronterface can reach it. I have the little cable to access the chip directly and re-install a bootloader or firmware but I don't know how optimistic I should feel about that. Is this something other people have seen?

…

On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 5:23 PM paul beard ***@***.***> wrote: The red light is on until/unless I move that jumper. No connection either way. The power supply fan blows regardless. Moving the jumper means no screen to go with no red light. I have the little USB flashing dongle on its way to me, in case that's all that's needed here. Is there anything else I can try in the meantime? On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 1:11 AM David Ramiro ***@***.***> wrote: > Is the red LED on the motherboard on? > > Try turning off the power supply, disconnecting USB, then setting the > jumper on the motherboard from DC to USB and connecting USB again. This > might get you a connection and the ability to flash. > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#141 (comment)>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7N6PE6LA333UKG5JJ7Q3LX4E4EFANCNFSM6AAAAAA5FIG34Q> > . > You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: > ***@***.***> > -- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

-- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

[davidramiro]

Those Atmega boards are seldom bricked beyond repair, so a flash via serial has good chances of reviving it. That being said, just flashing a (correct) firmware hex without bootloader should never have the board lose the ability to flash via USB like that, so either something went wrong while flashing or there was some preexisting defect.

This is actually the first report of a "brick" like that if you search through the issues on here, so I'm really not sure how to help. Are you positive that you used the correct original firmware? There are many versions of the i3 Mega out there nowadays and the 2 versions I provide on my webspace might be outdated.

[davidramiro]

https://www.anycubic.com/pages/firmware-software

Worth noting that there are driver packages provided for each version of the printer, so maybe that might be worth looking into.

[paulbeard]

Thanks for the reply. I pulled the firmware from AnyCubic, I think, but the real problems were with whatever I updated with. I think I picked the right hex but maybe I missed something. There are several variants of this model, as it turns out. The firmware update was when the touchscreen became inop and where I can't reconnect via USB. Wishing there was something like the hard reset sequence on open firmware compliant routers as an option here…been down that road many times. When that serial cable arrives, I'll see if I get some resolution. My best bet may be to get a modern motherboard for it, and skip all this. Best case is if I have a stock anycubic mega s and after running it alongside a Prusa, I have to think about that. I'll look at the anycubic site again to see if I missed anything or if there is any update.

…

On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 8:57 AM David Ramiro ***@***.***> wrote: Those Atmega boards are seldom bricked beyond repair, so a flash via serial has good chances of reviving it. That being said, just flashing a hex without bootloader should never have the board lose the ability to flash via USB like that, so either something went wrong while flashing or there was some preexisting defect. This is actually the first report of a "brick" like that if you search through the issues on here, so I'm really not sure how to help. Are you positive that you used the correct original firmware? There are many versions of the i3 Mega out there nowadays and the 2 versions I provide on my webspace might be outdated. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#141 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7N6PCZMKPHH724WPHIJ43X5LP67AVCNFSM6AAAAAA5FIG34SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTONBTGI4DKMBZGI> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

[paulbeard]

Well, I seem to be at an impasse here. I can connect the board via a USBtiny dongle to a machine that supports avrdude. I get a green light on the USBtiny device and power LED on the trigorilla board but finding the serial port in macOS is beyond my skills. Lots of searches and nothing had worked: the USBtiny shows I assume the USBtiny is connected properly or the LEDs wouldn't light up. I'll have to look around to find out how to get this all working. This obviously precludes buying an upgrade board since I would be in the same situation with it. I realized this is beyond the scope of the firmware development process but maybe you can think of some way to unbrick this thing or get another working motherboard. Maybe the board itself is damaged in some way, I have no way to tell. It does boot and display the UI but nothing except changing pages within it. ioreg -p IOUSB -l -b | grep -E "@|PortNum|USB Serial Number" will reveal the USBtiny… +-o ***@***.*** <class IOUSBHostDevice, id 0x1000a62fc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (5 ms), retain 18> but nothing useful appears in /dev Thanks for any info you can share.

…

On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 4:33 PM paul beard ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for the reply. I pulled the firmware from AnyCubic, I think, but the real problems were with whatever I updated with. I think I picked the right hex but maybe I missed something. There are several variants of this model, as it turns out. The firmware update was when the touchscreen became inop and where I can't reconnect via USB. Wishing there was something like the hard reset sequence on open firmware compliant routers as an option here…been down that road many times. When that serial cable arrives, I'll see if I get some resolution. My best bet may be to get a modern motherboard for it, and skip all this. Best case is if I have a stock anycubic mega s and after running it alongside a Prusa, I have to think about that. I'll look at the anycubic site again to see if I missed anything or if there is any update. On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 8:57 AM David Ramiro ***@***.***> wrote: > Those Atmega boards are seldom bricked beyond repair, so a flash via > serial has good chances of reviving it. That being said, just flashing a > hex without bootloader should never have the board lose the ability to > flash via USB like that, so either something went wrong while flashing or > there was some preexisting defect. > > This is actually the first report of a "brick" like that if you search > through the issues on here, so I'm really not sure how to help. Are you > positive that you used the correct original firmware? There are many > versions of the i3 Mega out there nowadays and the 2 versions I provide on > my webspace might be outdated. > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#141 (comment)>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7N6PCZMKPHH724WPHIJ43X5LP67AVCNFSM6AAAAAA5FIG34SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTONBTGI4DKMBZGI> > . > You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: > ***@***.***> > -- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

-- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

[paulbeard]

Well, after a lot of faffing about, I was able to get the stock firmware reinstalled. Pretty sure I have followed the exact same steps at least once before but we've all been there. The remaining issue is being able to get a terminal/serial connection to the printer to send the M502/M500 commands to reset it. Nothing seems to be able to do that. Cura and PrusaSlicer can handle the firmware updates but they use different names for the ports they use. No luck with Pronterface either. And the last/most recent firmware from Anycubic (1.1.15) returns errors when flashed.

…

On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:56 PM paul beard ***@***.***> wrote: Well, I seem to be at an impasse here. I can connect the board via a USBtiny dongle to a machine that supports avrdude. I get a green light on the USBtiny device and power LED on the trigorilla board but finding the serial port in macOS is beyond my skills. Lots of searches and nothing had worked: the USBtiny shows I assume the USBtiny is connected properly or the LEDs wouldn't light up. I'll have to look around to find out how to get this all working. This obviously precludes buying an upgrade board since I would be in the same situation with it. I realized this is beyond the scope of the firmware development process but maybe you can think of some way to unbrick this thing or get another working motherboard. Maybe the board itself is damaged in some way, I have no way to tell. It does boot and display the UI but nothing except changing pages within it. ioreg -p IOUSB -l -b | grep -E "@|PortNum|USB Serial Number" will reveal the USBtiny… +-o ***@***.*** <class IOUSBHostDevice, id 0x1000a62fc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (5 ms), retain 18> but nothing useful appears in /dev Thanks for any info you can share. On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 4:33 PM paul beard ***@***.***> wrote: > Thanks for the reply. I pulled the firmware from AnyCubic, I think, but > the real problems were with whatever I updated with. I think > I picked the right hex but maybe I missed something. There are several > variants of this model, as it turns out. The firmware update was when the > touchscreen became inop and where I can't reconnect via USB. Wishing there > was something like the hard reset sequence on open > firmware compliant routers as an option here…been down that road many > times. When that serial cable arrives, I'll see if I get some resolution. > My best bet may be to get a modern motherboard for it, and skip all this. > Best case is if I have a stock anycubic mega s and after running it > alongside a Prusa, I have to think about that. > > I'll look at the anycubic site again to see if I missed anything or if > there is any update. > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 8:57 AM David Ramiro ***@***.***> > wrote: > >> Those Atmega boards are seldom bricked beyond repair, so a flash via >> serial has good chances of reviving it. That being said, just flashing a >> hex without bootloader should never have the board lose the ability to >> flash via USB like that, so either something went wrong while flashing or >> there was some preexisting defect. >> >> This is actually the first report of a "brick" like that if you search >> through the issues on here, so I'm really not sure how to help. Are you >> positive that you used the correct original firmware? There are many >> versions of the i3 Mega out there nowadays and the 2 versions I provide on >> my webspace might be outdated. >> >> — >> Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub >> <#141 (comment)>, >> or unsubscribe >> <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7N6PCZMKPHH724WPHIJ43X5LP67AVCNFSM6AAAAAA5FIG34SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTONBTGI4DKMBZGI> >> . >> You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: >> ***@***.***> >> > > > -- > Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/ > -- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

-- Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

[paulbeard]

There were a few lingering problems to sort out…the heating/thermistor wires were disconnected (they were glued to the display daughterboard so when I pulled that to get to the serial interface, they came with it. Figuring out where they went took some doing.) Anyway, it seems to be 100% operational now, wrapping up an 11 hour print job.

So I am back where I was two weeks ago. But a little more cautious and somewhat mystified. There are quite a few firmware options here, some very specific to the revision of this machine. and the ability to connect via serial to send the reset commands is not very reliable but did work yesterday. Advice? Guidance? Should I even persist in this, given the varied models of this machine?