Fixing your Bricked V2

Som of you have bricked your V2 in the last few days and you're supposed to send it to me to fix. The first unit arrived today and since if found out what went wrong and didn't have the instructions to fix it the "right" way, I decided to try another way which surprisingly enough worked.

You may laugh all you want, but there is a good chance it will work!

You'll need a bath towel and a hot water bottle.


Connect the USB cable to the Flashscan, but not to the computer yet. Fold the towel so it's just over twice the size of the hot water bottle and place the Flashscan keypad down on one side of the towel. Fill the hot water bottle with 170 degree water and place it on the Flashscan and fold the towel over it. Wait about 15 minutes, plug it in and try again. If it seems to work, make sure the water is still warm, wait another 2 minutes and try flashing the new boot block when Paul uploads it.

I cheated as I have a stock of the do not remove warranty stickers. I opened it up and warmed it gently with a heat gun.

Make sure the Flashscan gets warm, if not warm the water bottle back up.

I know it seems absurd, but electronics run faster at higher temperatures and the problem is a race which can possibly be won at slightly elevated temperatures.

There are limits to how hot you should get your Flashscan

Ira

Very Interesting

Ira, that's very clever, shows a very deep understanding of electronics... :cheers:

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Originally Posted by joecar

Ira, that's very clever, shows a very deep understanding of electronics... :cheers:

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Huh.... I always thought electronics worked faster when cool..... Maybe like denser molecules closer together....

You learn something new every day!
Chuck CoW

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Originally Posted by Chuck CoW

I always thought electronics worked faster when cool

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They can be run faster when you keep them cool as they won't start glowing, but they will run faster when hot. The faster they run the hotter they get and you end up with a runaway thermal failure in extreme cases. which is why all the effort on keeping things cool. In this case, one piece has a crystal and runs at a constant speed and it was in a race with a part with an internal oscillator which when warmed up was able to win the race.

Worked for me, no idea if it will work for anyone else. Conceptually I have the tools to actually fix them no matter what but Paul was busy ignoring me so I "had" to experiment.

What I really want to know is if this works for anyone else. I'll have another unit tomorrow to try it on but I was hoping to avoid them all coming to me.

Ira

Nice job Ira.....You have my respect:cheers:

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Originally Posted by Ira

but Paul was busy ignoring me so I "had" to experiment.

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Well Ira did tell me to try it and well, no I didn't try it.

I was thinking along the same lines as Chuck though, I always thought stuff ran faster when its cold - but after Ira's cool (no pun intended) explanation, I now understand the relationship between over-clockers and jacked-up cooling systems.
I'm suitably impressed. :cheers:

Regards
Paul

wish i had read this before sending mine back over to you paul, but its on its way now anyway. Would have still needed to come back over to you anyway to get the usb power input fixed.

Well, I've now repaired 3 of the bricked V2s. 2 of them came back to life with a bit of warmth, one with a heat gun and one resting on top of the espresso machine for 20 minutes. The third one required I do it the hard way. If you can flash the bootblock with a bit of warmth, you might still have to do it a second time again later. Took a couple of tries before the second one took and I had to put it into bootloader mode with the Ctrl key and flash everything a second time after having already flashed the new bootloader and firmware. Didn't need heat the second time but it did need the second attempt before it was right.

Ira

Do you think there are any risks from doing this? Overheating some of the pieces? Reducing the life of some components?

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Originally Posted by Kevin Doe

Do you think there are any risks from doing this? Overheating some of the pieces? Reducing the life of some components?

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The goal is to jut warm it up a bit, sitting on the espresso machine makes them warm when I pick it up, less than it would get sitting on a car seat in the sun. if it works, cool, if not, I have other solutions. Most electronics are rated for operation at a minimum of 85 degrees C which is less than that.

Ira

And to make sure your V2 looks as good as it functions, follow Ira's instructions for applying Zaino polish.

I lost a rubber foot :( :( :( i need an exchange of my v2! Joking of course!! i really like it.. it took me a while to take the plunge... I really liked my v1... nice piece of hardware... mine didn't brick so it means i have a fast and snappy one :P

If you lost a rubber foot, then remove the other 3 feet... :D... mine has always been "footless"...