Bricked my Orange Menu iTracker with Beta Texet Software

robingo88

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wanted to share my tale not to complain, but as a word of caution...

thanks to all of the excellent information on this site, i purchased a GS1000 that turned out to be an iTracker with the SMH4.35.2101512A firmware from Galileo Technology Ltd.

it arrived on wednesday and i took it out for a spin and it seemed to work just fine...

then yesterday i decided to play around with it and grabbed a copy of the Texet DVR-1GP TXH4.35.220512.bin from this site, and renaming the file to vfirmware.bin, was able load it and all that worked great as well! (with the little bit of testing i did.)

then i decided to grab the 'beta' Texet software from September, and there my story has a sad ending...

i downloaded the file with the spreadsheet and the Sept 4 firmware file with the texet.bin name, and loaded it on the camera, and it booted just fine. i was able to run through the menus and see the additional settings that weren't in the original firmware or the latest Texet release firmware, but when i tried to record anything the camera would lock up. I reset the camera a couple of times and this happened each time. so i figured i would downgrade to the 220512.bin file, but before i did i looked at the beta firmware version and it said TXH3.36B.300812.

i got a little nervous that it was a TXH3 rather than a TXH4 number, but went ahead with loading the 220512.bin file.

when the camera restarted it played the tones and loaded the start up screen, but then the screen went black and the final tone continued to go 'ding ding ding ding' over a black screen, and wouldn't stop until i pressed the reset button.

i tried to use the USB Direct method to see if i could talk with the A2S processor directly and load the older firmware, but although i could get the camera into a USB Drive mode, i could never get the camera into a USB Direct mode, and none of my windows machines were able to find applicable drivers.

so as far as i can tell, the unit is officially bricked (at least for me) - probably should have stayed with the 220512.bin file (which would have at least given me the set-time-by-GPS feature)

if anyone wants this unit (perhaps you're enough of a geek to actually reprogram the A2S) let me know and we can work out a deal... or if anyone has an idea as to how to unbrick it using my average skills (and Windows XP or Windows 7 neither of which could find appropriate drivers for anything except USB Mass Storage Mode) i'd be grateful as well.

again, no complaints here - a wiser fella than myself once said, "sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you"

cheers!
robin
 
Hi Robin,

Sorry to hear about your problems with the firmware. I think I will remove the test software link from the main site because it appears to be too risky. People have unbricked their cameras using the DirectUSB software so that is your best bet.

Here are some tips. Try to use a computer running XP. If you can't find the driver after the camera is connected to the computer, you might be able to install the driver manually.

1.With the Direct USB software installed and your camera connected, click Start.
2. Place your cursor on "My Computer." Right-click and select "Properties"
3. Click "Device Manager"
4. Select the "Unknown Device" and right click and select "Update Driver"
5. Select "Browse my computer for driver software"
6. Choose "Select a driver from the list"
7. Choose "Have Disk"
8. Click the "Browse" and select the following file Bulkusb.inf in the folder c: \ Program Files \ Ambarella \ DirectUSB \
9. Select Ambarella Evalution Board and then "Next"
10. Now should see driver installation successful

Here is one set of Russian instructions on using the DirectUSB program to unbrick these Ambarella devices. DVR_Instruction_reburn.pdf Google translate provides a good translation for this.

Let us know if any of this helps. I will see if there are any other ways to unbrick it as well.

Dash Cam Man
 
Hi, DCM! thanks for the advice... i'll try over the weekend to see if i can get my Mac/Parallels Windows XP implementation to work properly (and will look through the Russian PDF) and report back... i'm not much of a Windows geek, so it may turn out that someone can get a good deal (from me) for this unit, which they can repair easily, and i'll start over and be less aggressive with the updates (nah, i'll probably try and still push the envelope!)

appreciate the support and all the great info on your site.

cheers!
robin
 
Hi, DCM - well, i dug deep into the world of Windows for a few hours this morning (XP) but was unable to get my camera successfully connected and recognized... i was able to do the Snap/plug/Reset dance and have my computer show an Unknown device connected to the USB chain, but when i tried to use the Bulkusb.inf file, Windows threw an error saying "The Specified Location Does Not Contain Information About Your Hardware".

so... i'm guessing that someone who really knows Windows (and can reconfigure drivers and .inf files) can probably make this work, but i've already spent about 5 hours on this (maybe more... :oops: ) and at this point i can't justify spending any more time...

if anyone on the board is such a Windows guru and would be willing to try and unbrick my unit (for return postage and a six pack of micro brewery beer, or the cash equivalent) lemme know and i'd be super grateful!

otherwise, i think this time, i think the bear ate me!

cheers
robin
 
Hi robin,

I am sorry to hear that. I will see if there are any other tricks and tips to unbrick and will post here. These firmware updates are tricky for the Chinese cameras since there are multiple manufacturers with slight differences in hardware. Most of the time the firmware updates go well but there are exceptions.

Dash Cam Man
 
Sucks that your cam is bricked. If you just got it this week why not see if the vendor can help you out. They might replace it, accept a return, give you some of your money back or give you a big discount on another camera.
 
johnmustang said:
Sucks that your cam is bricked. If you just got it this week why not see if the vendor can help you out. They might replace it, accept a return, give you some of your money back or give you a big discount on another camera.

great minds think alike! :)

i actually contacted Galileo and asked if they could offer some kind of accommodation, but their reply was "shipping costs have gone up and its difficult for us to offer you a discount" (which is a pretty standard line of BS i've gotten, before, from asian suppliers who aren't really willing to help but don't want to say 'no')

they did ask if i needed an entire new kit or just the dvr, and i said 'dvr alone' would be fine, but i haven't heard back...

my feeling is, this is all on me, so if they're willing to help, that's great, but i wouldn't lie about what happened...

just goes to prove, "You're never too old to do something stupid!" :!:

i'll let you know what happens with Galileo (and if anyone is a Ambarella expert, drop me a note)

cheers!
robin
 
Hi Robin,

There is one other way you might be able to unbrick your device. The Ambarella chips have an Ambarella Shell (ambsh) that can accept commands. When booting the camera it looks for a file called autoexec.ash on the SD-card.

You can create a text file and name it autoexec.ash. You can then use the prog command to update firmware. (Make sure there is a line feed at the bottom of the file) Here are a few options to try:

firmfl prog d:\vfirmware.bin

Above is the simplest command to update firmware - your autoexec.ash file should only have 2 lines of text, the one above and a line feed at the bottom of the file

firmfl prog d:\vfirmware.bin >> d:\flashlog.txt

Option 2 above provides a log of what happens - your autoexec.ash file should only have 2 lines of text, the one above and a line feed at the bottom of the file

rm a:\autoexec.ash
firmfl prog d:\vfirmware.bin >> d:\flashlog.txt
rm d:\autoexec.ash
rm d:\vfirmware.bin

Option 3 removes the autoexec.ash file from camera, programs the firmware, provides a log of what happens and cleans up the files - your autoexec.ash file should have 5 lines of text, the 4 lines above and a line feed at the bottom of the file

On the SD card you need to have 2 files only in the root directory. The vfirmware.bin file and the autoexec.ash file. When turning the camera on the first time, wait a few minutes. If nothing happens, turn off and repeat again. The first time the camera may be writing the DCIM directory.

Let us know if you try this out.

Dash Cam Man
 
hi DCM - thanks again for trying so hard to help out, and for all the great info on this board!

sorry for taking so long to get back but i've been traveling and didn't have a chance to try the final solution - this morning i prepared a card with the two required files and put them into my cam and started it up - got the log on screen and then the bing bing bing... waited for a minute and pressed the reset button and then tried again with the same result... tried a couple of more times and then noticed that the camera wouldn't even start - took out the card and found a bunch of log files and other temp files, so the camera tried to do something but for whatever reason the firmware didn't take and now the camera won't even turn on to the start up screen and the bing bing bing...

so i'm officially giving up (actually can't afford to mess around with this camera any more!) and will toss it all in the trash and order a new model from aliexpress and start all over again!

for the record i tried to load the original firmware that came with the camera (that i had backed up and renamed) and now i wonder if i should have tried the Texet firmware instead, with the other name, but no way to know and at this point i have an honest-to-goodness plastic brick (first time in a long time)...

no worries - learned a lot and will be more careful with my next cam.

cheers!
 
robingo88 said:
hi DCM - thanks again for trying so hard to help out, and for all the great info on this board!

sorry for taking so long to get back but i've been traveling and didn't have a chance to try the final solution - this morning i prepared a card with the two required files and put them into my cam and started it up - got the log on screen and then the bing bing bing... waited for a minute and pressed the reset button and then tried again with the same result... tried a couple of more times and then noticed that the camera wouldn't even start - took out the card and found a bunch of log files and other temp files, so the camera tried to do something but for whatever reason the firmware didn't take and now the camera won't even turn on to the start up screen and the bing bing bing...

so i'm officially giving up (actually can't afford to mess around with this camera any more!) and will toss it all in the trash and order a new model from aliexpress and start all over again!

for the record i tried to load the original firmware that came with the camera (that i had backed up and renamed) and now i wonder if i should have tried the Texet firmware instead, with the other name, but no way to know and at this point i have an honest-to-goodness plastic brick (first time in a long time)...

no worries - learned a lot and will be more careful with my next cam.

cheers!

Hi robin,

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out. Upgrading firmware always has some risk. My advice to others, if your camera is working fine you should avoid updating the firmware. I know it is tough to do since I'm sure most of us love to tinker with these electronic gadgets!

Dash Cam Man
 
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