DL1 not working

[lasseoe]

Hi,

After hooking up a newly purchased DASH1 my DL1 is not really working.

I hooked up the DASH1 and after plugging in the power the DL1 lights are as follows:
GPS Lock: blinking once per second
Status: On, solid
Power On: On, solid
Logging: On, solid

The DASH1 sits there forever saying "Auto Baud Rate" and nothing else happens, the DL1 seems unresponsive.

I then disconnected the DASH1, powered the DL1 back up and now
GPS Lock: On, solid
Status: Blinking rapidly
Power On: Blinking rapidly
Logging: Blinking rapidly

Again it's unresponsive.

When I hook up a serial cable and use Monitor Lite it's only reporting errors, nothing else.

Hope someone's able to help me, we badly need to get this working again as we're planning on using it for the 24h Nürburgring race.

DL1: April 2007, original firmware
DASH1: brand new
CF card: has worked just fine before.

- Lasse

[faraday]

I would be tempted to reflash the bugger.
I recall you have asked for firmware to be emailed a while back. Did you recieve a file and try that?
Hardware was changing back then - do you have a single black or two green connectors? There are at least two versions of the greenies.
Do you have the serial number handy?
Open a run file and look at the notes at the bottom of the Run Manager window.

Armed with this, ring up R-T (UK) and seek advice first hand.
Why waste time with an email or hoping for a cure in this forum?

I have numerous firmware files but wouldn't want to send you an innappropriate one. Maybe I'm already complicating matters by implying that firmware is series specific.
R-T do not have it for free download because we can too easily stuff things up. In an ideal world everything would be compatible, but...

I have certainly reflashed with the wrong hex and ended up with a unit behaving like yours. Ten minutes later it was back in service when the appropriate file was used.
Numerous DL1s have been purchased for a song on Ebay for the new owner to find them much as you describe. Reflashing has fixed them - but how did the units get into that condition?

There are numerous files hex files floating about.
What is the file naming convention?
Does this matter; after all, they can be renamed...


I am not implying that you have innapproriately tried to reflash your DL1. Surely, you and R-T share an interest in re-instating your unit ASAP. Why trust guesswork on the forum over seeking help direct?

Support is available, but you have to ask

[lasseoe]

Hi,

Thanks for replying, but I've not yet reflashed the DL1, I did load the reflash software and tried but it continously timed out waiting for the DL1.

I have the new generation, mk2, with one single black connector, and yup I have the serial number.

Also I purchased it directly with R-T (UK) back in April.

Opened a support case with them yesterday, unfortunately took a rather long time for them to get back to me.

Last I used the DL1 it worked fine, after I received my DASH1 and connecting it, it started acting up.

Will try and ring them tomorrow.

[lasseoe]

Ok so I tried to reflash again, but this time with a new file supplied by a support technician, first time around it failed at about 60%, second time it worked perfectly.

Very strange that it wouldn't flash before, the file was also supplied by R-T.

Oh well, it seems to work much better now.

[faraday]

Once in every Blue Moon, the world goes strange when it comes to R-T.
I believe that R-T is a very lean and innovative enterprise, which makes it possible for us to get such great value in what is a complex product.
I also work extensively with Motec. It is also a great product that has traditionally been great value in its market. Motec is no longer such a lean enterprise, but strange things happen with their gear too, from time to time.

Occasionally something goes wrong; perhaps it's an obscure bug that needs a rare combination of events to trigger. These "fixed with reflash" events are a case in point.
Perhaps R-T has an understanding of what is happening, but I tend to doubt it, as it is a relatively rare event. I look after four frequently used DL1s going back to 2004 for the first and it's never happened for me. On the other hand, an associate in Australia has bought four units (one a DL2) off ebay, of which three were affected.

Sometimes support from R-T is a little slow, but I gather there is just a handfull of blokes all performing multiple tasks. However, in my experience they are all eager to please which is why I suggested phoning. There is an expression in English that says the "Squeaky wheel gets the grease".
It is great if we can help each other and relieve R-T of the burden, but sometimes I fear innapppropriate actions, such as unnecessary reflashing, might compound the field issues.

I can't say that the later unit like yours behaves better or worse than earlier. I believe now there is a substantial change in the DL1s already shipping, in that they are 20Hz capable via raw output post-processing. To access this great feature requires a PC software "upgrade", enabled by a purchased license code.
I hope that R-T publish a serial number break point for this feature.
I would be surprised if this generation did not need a different firmware...

For me, reflashing has always finished 100% if it has started. Perhaps I have been lucky, but there was just the one occasion that I mentioned earlier when the wrong code put a DL1 in a trance. Of course, Sod's Law prevailed and that reflash was reported as 100% successful without errors
I wonder if Sod was an Englishman. He surely was a bugger

[Support]

You are right that when we get odd bugs like this we don't always know the cause. Invariably trying to fix a unit like this requires me to reprogram the unit so I can put it on the debugger, and the act of doing that fixes the problem.
With regard to the 20Hz units, this is set with a flag internally as it depends on which GPS is present. To find out which one you have, log a file and open it in the Analysis software. Go to the Run Manager and take a look at the Run details. If the firmware version is xx-6 then you have the 20Hz GPS module, anything less than 6 and you don't have it. The first number is the firmware version and is irrelevant for this.

Martin