Flir i60 doesnt boot, windows error message

[robert_]

Today our i60 decided to give up on this life, apparently:

It powers on, goes to the flir logo screen, the grey blocks screen and then hangs while displaying this.
Doesnt react to any button presses, only way to turn off is to remove the battery.

I already had it open, nothing obviously damaged, backup battery is fine (tried to remove it, no change).
Looks like coprrupted flash?

Flir support is as unhelpful as always.

Oh, looks like we have a good day. A large Chroma AC Source just exploded and stank up half the R&D Building.

[Chanc3]

Give me 30 min or so, I believe I have a full copy of my i50 that may be of use to you!

[robert_]

WinCE runs pretty good otherwise, RNDIS works, so i tried to download all accessible files via ftp. Interestingly there are no config files to be found anywhere on the camera.
Now, as FlirInstallNet also works, i tried to install a more recent firmware (in hope it replaces whatever file is missing or damaged), and was able to install 2.19.1 with no error messages.
Now the camera boots up with what seems to be the normal 2.19 boot screen, only to hang at the end of the progress bar. Pushing any button then brings some Gui.exe crash message.
So, its still f..ed, just differently now.

Service menu is accessible via http (user flir, pwd 3vlig (NOT IRCAM as on the E series!)). I cant get any useful error logs out of it, however it diesont display any calibratioon info/date/whatever, as that seems to be just as missing as all the other config files. All component serials seem to be there, it can read all temperature sensors and EEPROMs. Self test passes but nothing that would generate an image does anything but crash/hang.

Dir listing FlashFS/system: https://pastebin.com/5nr2iipX
Dir listing FlashFS/temp: https://pastebin.com/1FAgq9jA  Looks like the result of some really corrupted FAT. Thats probably where all the calibration and config files went...



So i guess its f..ed up colpletely by now and probably will end up in the scrap bin pretty soon. Nice to see a 8 year life on that kind of equipment.

[Fraser]

This does sound like the cameras OS is operational but the calibration and configuration files are absent. I have met this once before on another type of camera. The system hanged waiting for the expected response from the flash RAM. In that camera, the video processing sub processor FLASH RAM was corrupt. Fitting a new FLASH IC could not recover operation as there were no valid files that could be loaded into it.

Sadly FLASH RAM is vulnerable to unpredictable failure. Some OS's do not spot a failed FLASH chip at boot as they check the OS ROM and RAM only.

Is the camera FFC shutter operating ? If not, the imaging core is effectively off-line. There are sadly many causes of a dead imaging core. It is worth checking for correct supply rails to the major components. Power related faults are quite common but thankfully reasonably easy to find and repair.

Sadly your camera may well be beyond recovery without FLIR's help. Repairs used to be a fixed price of £400 in the UK if the microbolometer is not involved. It may be worth asking FLIR for a quote for motherboard failure.

The camera still has spares value to people like me, so please do not discard it to the scrap heap. I happily buy dead cameras for parts.

Fraser

[robert_]

FFC doesnt do anything, except when i start the interactive self test.
I just discovered another interesting effect: If i press the power button before the progress indicator hangs completely. it will power down normally. After powering back up, it will go back to the previous screen, except the greyscale blocks in the background are now replaced by all black, and the FFC does operate (and continues doing so for a long time)! However, the camera still is unusable, the GUI completely hangs and doesnt react to the power button anymore.
So the camera core doesnt seem to be completely dead.

The camera doesnt belong to me, and when my employer decides to scrap it, it will not be easy to rescue it from the scrap bin, sadly.
Spending significant money on repair is not worth it, the i60 is not exactly a great TIC anymore.

[robert_]

Give me 30 min or so, I believe I have a full copy of my i50 that may be of use to you!

Got anything? Might be interesting to try, now that the camera is basically junk as we declined FLIRs repair "offer".

[Chanc3]

Apologies, totally forgot about this. I've uploaded a .zip file of everything I could get off the camera.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg2kg7zfn0ns9lk/FLIR%20i50.zip?dl=0

[robert_]

Thanks a lot!
Im having a try tomorrow.

just wondering:  .caps.config.image.settings.resIR int32 320
didnt the ixx Series have a 180x180 sensor?

[Chanc3]

That was me playing around! Can set that to 180.

[Chanc3]

Any luck?

[robert_]

Currently the camera is nowhere to be found.
Since it doesnt have legs by itself, probably somebody decided to hide/steal it, which is not really nice.
I hope it reappears soon, because i really want to try fixing it (or screwing it up further).

[robert_]

So the camera reappeared recently.
I did try copying over the missing files, which did seem top bring some improvement in behaviour, however, RNDIS now doesnt work any more (camera now is MSC only), so i dont have filesystem access anymore.
Gui.exe now crashes during boot, i even have an idea why, just i cant access the camera any more

Camera core seems to work, i can see a hot soldering iron (and a few dead, really cold pixels) before gui.exe starts.

Is there any way to force the camera to RNDIS mode when you cant access the menu?

[Fraser]

The Ex series have a serial data engineering port on the PCB. Mike investigated it in case it was needed for hacking access to the file system. The discovery of the hidden menu meant it was not needed in the end. The i60 may have such a serial interface as well ? You have to open the camera to gain access though.

If you find such a port, Mike may be able to comment on how it may be used to rebuild your cameras file system.

Fraser

[Chanc3]

Can you telnet into the camera?

[robert_]

If i could access telnet, that would imply there is some working network connection (i.e. RNDIS), which there isnt.

As for a debug serial, there probably is, but theres a total of at least 100 undocumented pins on 3 unused connectors.

[Chanc3]

Are you not able to do a restore of your backup?

[robert_]

Are you not able to do a restore of your backup?

As i said, i can not access the camera any more. All i get is MSC mode, seeing an empty sd card. I can put files there, but the camera obviously doesnt care.

[Chanc3]

Apologies! Yes, that is a tricky one! Not really sure how to get around this one, other than what Fraser suggested. Might just have call it a day

[robert_]

Probably will end up on ebay "for parts" soon, unless there is some magic key combination to enable RNDIS again.

[Fraser]

Take a look at Mike's teardown video. The engineering port connector is normally a flat ribbon type. Mike made up a little adapter cable to access it. It will obviously be at least 3 pins but, IIRC, the E4 used a connector with a few more conductors. In short, it is unlikely to be an unpopulated set of pads on the PCB.

Fraser

[robert_]

Take a look at Mike's teardown video. The engineering port connector is normally a flat ribbon type. Mike made up a little adapter cable to access it. It will obviously be at least 3 pins but, IIRC, the E4 used a connector with a few more conductors. In short, it is unlikely to be an unpopulated set of pads on the PCB.

Fraser

Ive got 2 types of large (>50 pins) board to board connectors on the bottom side of the main pcb (inaccessible unless totally taken apart), and another 14pin one that is accessible without much disassembly, cutout in the outer case covered by the serial number sticker.
Still, i guess it wont be worth investing countless hours...

Ive got a fully working E30/60 after all (sold the E4/8 recently, for more than i paid for the E30).

[Fraser]

As you said, it is not your camera, so there is a limit to how long you will want to spend on it. I buy faulty cameras for the enjoyment that I get from repairing them and learning about the design. If you stop enjoying the repair or 'time is money' then sadly the i60 is likely at the end of its life and headed for your employers disposal process.

The 14 pin connector that is covered by the case label will contain the service interface and likely a serial port that forms part of it.

Well done for trying to save this camera from the scrap bin, but not all poorly cameras can be saved 

Fraser

[Bud]

Ex cameras can be switched to RNDIS after connecting to USB and without booting the camera by using FLIRInstallNet.exe from Flir Tools software. You launch the exe, select the camera which is in MSC mode and run the attached .fif file, which will switch the camera temporarily to RNDIS until you boot it.
So after you upload the .fif , do ping 192.168.0.2 to make sure it worked, then connect using ftp with the following credentials:

user: anonymous
pass: NcFTP@

this gives access to the filesystem without booting the camera.

Do not know if that works with ix series , but you can try.

[robert_]

I did try FlirInstallNet already, it doesnt detect the camera. VID:PID is 09cb:ffff
The 14pin connector doesnt do anything during boot, ie no activity on any pin, all of them are either 3.3v/gnd supply (low resistance) or behave like inputs with a weak pull-up.