Bricked mini 0801

[Tobi@s]

Aw this sucks...

but something between the camera and DirectUSB like drivers, usb cable, usb port...

Seems to be right
Have you tried it on another computer?

 

[miji2]

Would anyone have pointers/links or e2b backup of older firmwares? I have one of the early Mini 0801 which I believe came with 20130110 firmware (with GPS and no internal storage). The dvr is now bricked but able to be addressable via Direct USB. None of the available FW ELFs work tho (ie. I can DirectUSB flash, but the cam does not boot up afterward) as they seem to be made for the second batch of the devices. The only ELF I'm able to successfully flash is the amboot_q2.elf from the Ambarella_Q2 package .. which I believe is just a blank bootloader version.

 

[niko]

Yes you have to connect 4 and 5 pins. Look at the picture. I made it this way.

Thanks for sharing a good idea. I "stole" it and made very little improvement along with high res pictures:
Direct USB Cable Easy DIY for Bricked Mini 0801

 

[Pivo]

Oh crap... I also bricked my 0801 (GPS, no internal storage).
I was updating it with the firmware "20131230-GPS-Internal CARD". The only thing now works is the red LED. The screen is constanly black. My computer doesn't recognize it anymore. I have installed the DirectUSB drivers but it can't find the mini in any mode.
So the next step is to connect pin 4 and 5 of the USB cable but what is/are the next step(s)?

Hope you can help me!

 

[Tobi@s]

Connect it again and use DirectUSB

 

[Pivo]

Hahah, OK, thanks for the extremely quick reply!

 

[miji2]

My computer doesn't recognize it anymore. I have installed the DirectUSB drivers but it can't find the mini in any mode.
So the next step is to connect pin 4 and 5 of the USB cable but what is/are the next step(s)?

Let me know if you had any luck getting it recognized. Mine used to be recognized before, but I haven't found an ELF file which was working for me. Now, when I plug the device using the same OTG cable setup, it never gets recognized. Since this computer has not been used since last time I tried unbricking, the only thing I can think of is Win7 patches along the way?

 

[Pivo]

I connect pin 4 and 5 but still have te same problem.
"Found 0 AMBA device!" is the only message I get with a red LED and black screen.

I installed the drivers on Windows 7 x64.

 

[miji2]

Well, digging deeper, I the reason mine is not detected properly .. it's now hard bricked itself apparently.

usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 46 using uhci_hcd
usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 47 using uhci_hcd
usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 48 using uhci_hcd
usb 2-1: device not accepting address 48, error -71
usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 49 using uhci_hcd
usb 2-1: device not accepting address 49, error -71
hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1

ie. it's not even responding to USB enumeration requests any more .. thus won't load any drivers.

For comparison, here is what linux shows when connecting my 0803 using the same cables:

usb 5-3: new high-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-pci
usb 5-3: New USB device found, idVendor=4255, idProduct=0008
usb 5-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 5-3: Product: A7L
usb 5-3: Manufacturer: Amba
usb 5-3: SerialNumber: 123456789ABC

BTW, if you want to check your device in Windows, MS has a USBView debug utility available which will show you the Vendor ID of your device. If it shows "unknown device" but detects a proper vendor ID (4255), then HW is fine and you're having driver installation issues. Mine showed "Enumeration failed" for that unknown device.

 

[Pivo]

I give up...
How can I dig deeper when I can't find the device in the DirechtUSB software. I try every option (board, DRAM, edit, ect. ect.). But nothing helps.
Flasing phones with custom roms are no problem at all. But this little bastard, arghh....

Isn't there a YouTube tutorial of something?

 

[Tobi@s]

I connect pin 4 and 5 but still have te same problem.
"Found 0 AMBA device!" is the only message I get with a red LED and black screen.

I installed the drivers on Windows 7 x64.

Did you disable Driver signature enforcement? Had to do this on Win7 x64. (set testsigning to on)

 

[Pivo]

Yup, did both again. Still nothing

 

[Jeremy]

Hello,

I seem to have bricked my Mini 0801. I tried to load a FW that I attempted to modify with the Ambarella tool from Tobias (the newer one, not Rom Kitchen)

The camera asked if I want to update FW, it said processing, then I heard a weird sound from the speaker and it went dead.

Seems bricked. When I turn it on, I just get a black screen with blue light and nothing else. I got a USB OTG cable + the Male to Male cable and when I plug the camera into my computer with this, the red light comes on only.

My computer (Windows 7 - 32bit) makes the "new device sound" but it's different. It's not the traditional "plugged in" or "unplugged" sound; it's more of a triple tone sound; it doesn't sound like a successful sound, more like something is wrong.

I tried following the unbricking instructions on the Mini 0801 FAQ, but the instructions seems a little half-baked, and seems to assume one already knows how to use the DirectUSB software.

When I click "Connect" in DiretUSB, it just says:

"Found 0 AMBA Device"

Sometimes it says:

"Found 1 busses, 0 devices changed
Found 0 AMBA device!"

Same message when I select a .inf file or a .elf file and click "Download" (using the FW Programming option and "Verify" is checked). I can't get any further than this...

Also, when I plug in the camera with the OTG cable, my Device Manager does not list the "libusb-win32 devices/Ambarella Evaluation Board 1.2.3.0".

Please Help

Thanks!

 

[Jeremy]

Got it!

My Device Manager was finding it under "Other Devices/A4"

I had to select this and manually update the Driver from the "Driver" folder in Tobias's recovery zip package. This allowed the "libusb-win32 devices/Ambarella Evaluation Board 1.2.3.0" to appear the next time I plugged it in.

Then I just followed the steps on the FAQ using the files linked there (the DirectUSB and the .elf provided in the "0801-244-2212-Burning-Software" folder.


My goal here is to make my own firmware with a custom image and no startup sound.

 

[Flage]

hey guys,

yesterday i discovered, my cam is no longer working (it was mounted in my car all the time and the last recording was from early april)

After truning it on, it stays like on the pic. Everything looks normal but black screen.

I also can't access the menu, so i can't do a factory reset.

I'm running fw 20140308 and it worked for the last half year.

any suggestions how i can get it back to work?

Thx