terratec Axon Ax100 mkII repair any technical advise welcome

[arman_mazaheri]

First sorry for disturbing you on that holly sunday of rest.

I got a Terratec Axon ax100 mkII, a second hand one i bought 6 month ago.

The problem begun first when the guy who sold me this gave me the wrong adapter, a 12V DC instead of 12V AC.

So the axon would seemed to work at first glance, but only the screen not the sounds obviously (because no AC output).

Since i didn't know where the problem came from i thought i had to update it to the last firmware... WRONGGGGG lol. I did and it worked first..... but stil no sound either.

Did it twice... then my axon was almost dead with only the classic "16 bars/black boxes" you see on the screen after an update, but freezing every time i rebooted the hardware.

So i guess the flash update gone wrong and i have to reprogram the eprom. So what are the correct steps on this issue?

I Found now a proper adapter power supply and the shop owner who sold me the adapter is one of the few in Paris know how the repair this and reprogram the EPROM.

He checked my axon and work on it for about 2 hours in front of me :

He tried to identify the EPROM on which there was the firmware or boot program. According to him the EPROM was "29LV160" on the circuit board of the axon.

But we didn't knew wich file to install on it so we would guess it was the firmware "7.28 update.axu".



SO MY QUESTION IS (sorry for the long introduction lol) :

1/- which file (boot program or firmware in .axu extension) is about to be installed on the the "29LV160" electronic component on circuit board of the axon (As liltle is my electronic knowledge, i guess he was talking about the eprom) ?

Is "29LV160" the good one to install the boot program into it?

2/- And which file is to be installed? the last update? a bot program? Where can i found it if it is not the 7.28 update?


3/- If you know exactly what is what and how to proceed you can save my life and close a guitar project i work on for the last 3 years ;-)

Sorry all this despair and thank you very much for all the message you put on yahoo midi guitar groups and axon forum !!! You are one off the last that can give an actual support for this incredible machine.

Have a good week end despite my message ;-)

Warm welcome from France !



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[Leigh Smith]

Post by arman_mazaheri
So i guess the flash update gone wrong and i have to reprogram the eprom. So what are the correct steps on this issue?

Normally the Firmware is reprogrammed via MIDI and the Axon AX-100 editor application. You shouldn't need to directly reprogram the chip. I very much doubt, if the problem you are seeing is "16 bars/black boxes" on the display, that the problem is the firmware - it's more likely to be a power supply line (likely a positive voltage supply Vcc) which has blown because of using a DC supply.

Post by arman_mazaheri
I Found now a proper adapter power supply and the shop owner who sold me the adapter is one of the few in Paris know how the repair this and reprogram the EPROM

You need your tech to verify the positive and negative voltage supply lines. Normally the easiest way to check this is to use the pinout of a known chip and check that. Typically (but not always!) pin 1 is Vcc. Also inspect the circuit board as there are usually test points on the board (I haven't looked inside my AX-100 for a long time), and also the connectors from the power supply board are the best point to check. Ideally he should check it with a CRO for voltage stability in addition to a Digital Multimeter.

Post by arman_mazaheri
He tried to identify the EPROM on which there was the firmware or boot program. According to him the EPROM was "29LV160" on the circuit board of the axon.
But we didn't knew wich file to install on it so we would guess it was the firmware "7.28 update.axu".

That is most likely in a format other than the formats normally needed to program an EPROM with a standalone programmer, which is typically Intel Hex format or Motorola S-records (showing my age!). Again, I would check the voltage supplies are stable before suspecting the EPROM. If despite all that you still suspect the EPROM, then I would suggest reading the contents of the EPROM first, before attempting to overwrite it. That will tell you if the EPROM is still functioning (otherwise you need to purchase a new EPROM). If all the values in the EPROM are 0xFF or 0x00 then yep it's toast, but an EPROM is typically the hardest thing to replace so be careful.

Leigh
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mailto:***@leighsmith.com
http://www.leighsmith.com





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[arman_mazaheri]

Hi Leigh ! Thank you for your technical explanations, that helped me a lot. But reading this i got to tell you that the tech guy i hired has tried to reprogram the eprom directly so erasing the content of the specified "29LV160" chip.

So if the eprom is still functional and after resolving the power supply issue will it be still possible to update it via midi and the editor?

Because even if the first adapter i had was DC i succeeded in applying the 7.28 update first.

That was at my second attempt that the freeze occurred.

I will transmit your observation to the tech guy who will intervene on the axon tomorrow.

Last thing ; and if the eprom is dead where can i find back a new one ? (sweet irony lol)

Fingers crossed.... thank you !

Post by Leigh Smith

Post by arman_mazaheri
So i guess the flash update gone wrong and i have to reprogram the eprom. So what are the correct steps on this issue?

Normally the Firmware is reprogrammed via MIDI and the Axon AX-100 editor application. You shouldn't need to directly reprogram the chip. I very much doubt, if the problem you are seeing is "16 bars/black boxes" on the display, that the problem is the firmware - it's more likely to be a power supply line (likely a positive voltage supply Vcc) which has blown because of using a DC supply.

Post by arman_mazaheri
I Found now a proper adapter power supply and the shop owner who sold me the adapter is one of the few in Paris know how the repair this and reprogram the EPROM

You need your tech to verify the positive and negative voltage supply lines. Normally the easiest way to check this is to use the pinout of a known chip and check that. Typically (but not always!) pin 1 is Vcc. Also inspect the circuit board as there are usually test points on the board (I haven't looked inside my AX-100 for a long time), and also the connectors from the power supply board are the best point to check. Ideally he should check it with a CRO for voltage stability in addition to a Digital Multimeter.

Post by arman_mazaheri
He tried to identify the EPROM on which there was the firmware or boot program. According to him the EPROM was "29LV160" on the circuit board of the axon.
But we didn't knew wich file to install on it so we would guess it was the firmware "7.28 update.axu".

That is most likely in a format other than the formats normally needed to program an EPROM with a standalone programmer, which is typically Intel Hex format or Motorola S-records (showing my age!). Again, I would check the voltage supplies are stable before suspecting the EPROM. If despite all that you still suspect the EPROM, then I would suggest reading the contents of the EPROM first, before attempting to overwrite it. That will tell you if the EPROM is still functioning (otherwise you need to purchase a new EPROM). If all the values in the EPROM are 0xFF or 0x00 then yep it's toast, but an EPROM is typically the hardest thing to replace so be careful.
Leigh
--
Leigh M. Smith
http://www.leighsmith.com

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[Ryan, David]

Arman,



The 29LV160 is flash memory. You can buy a replacement from Digikey.



I do not know the specifics on the MKII but assuming bad flash memory is
the problem you may or may not be able to fix it just by replacing it.
Since the update that Terratec posts is done through MIDI it requires
the AX100 to be working on some level. If that stuff is controlled by
code within the microprocessor/microcontroller and the micro is OK then
it may work. If not then it could be "bricked" in which case it would
need to be sent for repair (assuming there is some place to send it
these days).



If the micro does not use internal storage and relies on the flash
memory for everything then it may be possible to read the flash memory
of a known good unit and then program your flash from that.



Thanks,

Dave



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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