Unable to Flash Duet 6HC Firmware

tdm418

@Danal , @dc42 Please read on as I suspect that this situation might recur.

So I received a replacement board from MatterHackers and here's what happened:
Plugged the new board into the desktop via usb and it immediately recognized it as a Duet device and installed drivers. Huge relief.
As soon as the drivers were installed, the error message popped up about the "unrecognized USB device".
No problem, just short the jumper, push the reset, and it will be recognized, right??? NOPE!!!
All of a sudden I was reliving the exact same experience with the new board as the last one. Not recognized regardless of USB port, USB cable, or VIN power.
Tried it on the laptop and it recognized the port as Bossa, consistently. This was new. But every time I connected Bossa and tried to flash it, either Bossa locked up, threw an error message, or just refused the connection. But I was encouraged by the consistent recognition of the Bossa port by the Device Manager. Then I noticed that the laptop had had a pretty substantial windows update in the last couple of days, so it seemed appropriate to dig a little deeper.
Back to the desktop. Windows still didn't recognize anything, so I tried Opensuse. Tried putty, ssh, hardware recognition, and about 50 different commands that should have enumerated the Duet board as a tty device. Of course, nothing at all, no recognition, no active ports or devices, just... nothing.
I flashed an updated UEFI/bios, which seemed to have a bit of an effect. Meaning that it would occasionally, maybe 10% of the time, recognize the Bossa port.
So I started googling and reading blogs. Although they mostly consisted of more commands and diagnostics, one of the arduino blogs suggested moving the usb connection down by a level and running it off of a separate usb hub. This was kind of intriguing, first, because of both machines' different behavior after updating, and second, because I have always suspected that my desktop is just off a bit. It has a first generation Ryzen 7 CPU, and also what was a bleeding edge, first gen, X370 motherboard when I built it. But it always seemed to have weird USB issues, especially with the USB 3 integration, which was originally accomplisher by software, not hardware.
So I went to WalMart and bought the cheapest USB hub I could find, unpowered. Plugged it in, and I was able to flash both boards, the new one and the old “defective” one without a hitch. Also tried with the laptop, and after erasing the updated firmware, it also worked exactly as advertised.
All I can think of that there is a disconnect somewhere with the USB 3.0 protocol since this resolution worked across two very different machines, and the USB 3.0 seems to be the common denominator. Hopefully this will help someone else out, as it has taken a few weeks and probably over 300 attempts to get this ironed out.
Now that the board is functional, I’m sure that I’ll be hitting you guys up for help with something else. Thank you in advance…

dc42

@tdm418, thanks for your comprehensive report. This may well help someone else, in fact there is another user having similar problems right now.

Did you have any other devices connected to and powered from the Duet 3 when you were trying to flash it using Bossa, such as a RPi or a PanelDue?

tdm418

@dc42, no other devices. I did try to flash it utilizing the Pi, but that didn't work either.

A Former User

@Danal said in Unable to Flash Duet 6HC Firmware:

Install Pre-reqs sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libwxgtk3.0-dev libreadline-dev
Install bossa

git clone https://github.com/shumatech/BOSSA
cd BOSSA
make

pardon the necro threading, but just realized this could potentially be shortened to only build the command line version bossac if you wanna update the post to simplify (for those who would use a raspbian lite image)

apt update && sudo apt install -y git
git clone https://github.com/shumatech/BOSSA ~/BOSSA
cd ~/BOSSA
make bossac

dc42

@tdm418, did you solve the problem?

Danal

Thanks for your detailed description.

I can sum it up as: Windows is very weird about USB support. Most copies of Win on most hardware work OK. A few specific configurations are cranky as ... well, I can't think of a good metaphor.

What mystifies me is the Pi. That tends to "just work". So I'm curious: Exactly what model of hardware Pi, and where did the original SD card image originate? Did you happen to see if /dev/ACM* appeared (the bossa port)?

Thanks again for contributing toward future help.

Danal

@bearer said in Unable to Flash Duet 6HC Firmware:

@Danal said in Unable to Flash Duet 6HC Firmware:

Install Pre-reqs sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libwxgtk3.0-dev libreadline-dev
Install bossa

git clone https://github.com/shumatech/BOSSA
cd BOSSA
make

pardon the necro threading, but just realized this could potentially be shortened to only build the command line version bossac if you wanna update the post to simplify (for those who would use a raspbian lite image)
apt update && sudo apt install -y git
git clone https://github.com/shumatech/BOSSA ~/BOSSA
cd ~/BOSSA
make bossac

Ohhh... good point, THANKS!

Max3D

@Danal I had a problem where I was getting errors (bad command: Q0) from the DWC when the config.g file was loaded. After searching the forum I found a post that stated the DWC was reading the comments in the config file as code and causing errors. The problem was known in a beta release and the 'sudo apt update' & install commands from the Pi was unable to resolve the problem.

So, I am trying to do a BOSSAC firmware update from the Pi (after failing to connect issues using BOSSA on my Mac and Ubuntu laptops). The Duet 3 wiring has been completed endstops, steppers and fans. Duet 3 is powered from the 24v power supply and the Pi is powered via the ribbon cable. Duet 3 has been erased via the erase pins (jumped - powered - un-jumped).

Q: Can I connect the Pi to the Duet 3 with a micro USB and then flash the DUET with the BOSSAC command without causing more problems?

A Former User

@Max3D as you've erased the board there is little more trouble you can do with the usb port, at least when the pi is powered from the duet there is no chance if a usb ground loop so you'll be fine.

also maybe this bossac build can help?

MartinNYHC said in Duet 3 6HC - Firmware Upgrade - Flash locked:

bossac compiled for MacOS Mojave

Max3D

@bearer Sorry for the late reply. I'm having a problem with the bossac command now. I'm going to open separate topic since this problem seems to be getting more complicated than it needs to be. Thank you.