Need help with SWMBOs newest toy.

[CatalinaWOW]

My wife recently purchased a long time goal, a long arm quilting machine.  She got a good deal from a dealer going out of business on a floor demonstrator.  Unfortunately when I downloaded a firmware update from the manufacturer and installed it the machine was effectively bricked.  Something glitched during the update and now it displays a BIOS screen, then goes to a splash screen and then does nothing further.  Going to authorized service dealers we have found no clues how to fix this, and so far the US national customer service and the European mother ship have not been able to come up with a solution either.  Every few days we get a message saying they are working it, but no answers.

I have independently gone to the software vendor, who responded "Oh, that is an old Linux model and we can't fix that anymore."  But we can sell you a current version for somewhere between $1200 and $2500.

SWMBO is getting impatient to have her new toy operating.  I want to get this fixed under warranty, but am losing faith that it will occur anytime soon.

The problem seems fundamentally simple.  The computer is a 7 inch touch screen device with a single ten pin interface to the rest of the machine.  It should be possible to re-image the memory of the machine and assuming that it was a power glitch or other similar problem that cause the failure everything should be good to go.  Of course if there is a hardware failure that is all out the window, but it was working normally before the upgrade procedure.

I don't want to break into the case until all warranty hope is gone, but in the meantime I would like to prepare.  The upgrade was delivered in a .gz file.  I have opened it up and it is clearly generated by some version of Qt.  The manufacture date of this base on software dates and comments from the software vendor was probably in the 2011 to 2015 time frame.

  I have several questions.

1.  Does anyone recognize the machine?  There are almost no identifying markings on the outside.  There are only four ports/connectors, 1 USB, 1 SD Card, 1 audio and one marked DC IN which has two high current contacts and ten obviously used for signaling.  This last connector is the only one used in normal machine operation.  The USB port is the approved entry point for the upgrade process and the SD Card is used to store stitch patterns and the like.
2.  Anyone recognize the connector?  Or better yet have any typical pinouts?
3.  Anyone know how to open the case?  It appears to be a pretty common snap together thing, but it would really help to know where the snaps are.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.  I apologize for the quality of the attached pictures.  They are just quick snaps from a cell phone.

[xrunner]

Don't know anything about it. But I would reckon it's a snap fit plastic case. You can open them by prying apart around the seam. Be careful.

[BrokenYugo]

Attack through the USB port? You imply it runs linux, try a keyboard and see if you can get a terminal or boot menu.

[fzabkar]

@CatalinaWOW, do I understand you correctly? You are asking if any of us recognise your machine, implying that you have no idea what it is or who made it. Yet you were able to download an update for this unknown model from the manufacturer (?), and you even found an authorised service agent. I don't get it ...

Could you upload the firmware update? Maybe one of us will have better luck in extracting useful info from it.

[CatalinaWOW]

Attack through the USB port? You imply it runs linux, try a keyboard and see if you can get a terminal or boot menu.

Good suggestion.  Perhaps I can get the attention of the BIOS while that screen is up.  I had already tried all combinations of the four buttons that comprise the entire normal hardware interface to the system.

Any suggestions beyond Return, ESC, ^s,^e, ctrl-alt-esc, F1, F8 and F10?

[CatalinaWOW]

@CatalinaWOW, do I understand you correctly? You are asking if any of us recognise your machine, implying that you have no idea what it is or who made it. Yet you were able to download an update for this unknown model from the manufacturer (?), and you even found an authorised service agent. I don't get it ...

Could you upload the firmware update? Maybe one of us will have better luck in extracting useful info from it.

Thank you for looking.

I was not as clear as I could be.  I omitted manufacturers names because I don't want to bring premature diatribes down on them.  I am still hoping for a warranty repair.  Well I guess some diatribes might be in order since they seem to have lost the archives/skills to deal with older equipment that is still on dealer shelves.

The sewing machine is a Pfaff PowerQuilter p3.  Software is provided by a company called EZQuilt.  The computer involved is an OEM 7" touch screen display bolted to the front of the machine.  It interfaces with the machine via the single 10 pin connector mentioned in my post.  I don't know whether Pfaff or EZQuilt specified this display/computer, but my conversations with the support departments have gotten further with EZQuilt.  They were the source of the comment about it being an old Linux machine that they can't do anything with.  EZQuilt was also the one to offer to sell me a new, current version of this display/computer for $1200 to $2500 dollars depending on options.  I haven't pursued that option enough to know if the interface is unchanged so that it is just a swapping operation, or if more surgery is required.

I am hoping someone will recognize the OEM module and have enough information to make an attack easier.

The software upgrade is too large to upload on this forum, but is accessible at: https://www.pfaff.com/en-US/Support/221

Oh, by the way,  I did note the firmware/software version when it was working and it was in the range that the above page says can use the upgrade.  As another aside those large dollar amounts mentioned above may be why it is taking so long to get a repair through Pfaff.  They have that option but don't want to swallow that kind of cost and are probably both looking for a cheaper solution and arguing with EZQuilt and perhaps others about who owns the bill.

[static333]

I looked at the warranty statement in the manual:
https://www.pfaff.com/SiteMedia/PFAFF/Products/Machines/creative-line/technique%20book/PowerQuilter-p3-Manual_EN.pdf

and the company who handles the warranty is SVP Worlwide: https://www.svpworldwide.com/
Call them for instructions.

[fzabkar]

I found two payloads in Intel hex format, LS2_HP_424.hex and V4MC_408.hex. I used HxD (freeware hex editor) to import the hex data into .bin files.

It appears to me that the target architecture has a 32-bit address bus and 24-bit data bus (data bits 24 - 31 are always 0). Note that there are large areas in the .bins which are not touched by the firmware update, so you should not apply the .bins directly to the flash. HxD will identify those memory addresses which are targeted by the update.

https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

[artag]

You could try plugging a USB keyboard into the USB port. It might see it and change the boot sequence to provide a shell.

It would be interesting to see the boot messages, but it sounds as though they cover them with a splash screen. Can anyone suggest a way to stop it doing that ?

What's the upgrade process ? Put the upgrade files on a USB stick and boot with that present ?

I used to think Pfaff was a high quality manufacturer. My wife's pfaff (also quilting but not long-arm) gave her endless mechanical trouble with silly little things like needle threading, as did her friend's. She replaced it with a Taiwanese Janome machine. I think Pfaff must outsource all their design and don't actually understand their own products.

 

[CatalinaWOW]

No response to plugging a USB keyboard into the port, with any of the likely keystrokes I could think of which might pop it into a maintenance mode.  It was a good idea, but no luck so far.

I am setting up to monitor the USB port and see if it possibly comes up in serial mode during the boot sequence.  That may give another way in.

When operating normally the machine operates via the touchscreen display.  A row of icons across the top allows selection of sub-screens.  One of these is a maintenance menu which allows a number of diagnostic tests and also has a software update button.  To update the software the upgrade .gz file is placed on a USB thumb drive (alone, in the root directory) and the upgrade button is pressed.  The machine then processes the file with a couple of progress messages (extracting files, loading SW etc.)  When this completes another screen appears saying that the update is complete and telling you the machine needs to be restarted.  A restart button is included on this screen.  Those interested in the detail appearance of these screens will find them in the owners manual on the Pfaff website, and can also find YouTube videos going through the screens. 

When I performed these operations the machine went to a blank screen and did nothing else.  After a while (I am guessing 5-10 minutes) I gave up and powered the machine off.  Upon repowering it is in its current bricked state.  It displays a text screen giving a BIOS version number and copyright notice, then goes to the splash screen and does nothing else.  For up to one hour, which is the longest I have tested it. 

fsabkar - thank you for your efforts.  Unless I find a way to get it to respond to a terminal I will not be able to try any of the above until I actually physically break into the display.  The Pfaff support people continue to email me every few days saying they are still working on my issue, so I don't want to poison that option.

[BrokenYugo]

Shift (try both), and once running CTRL-ALT-F1,2,3... (terminal session) come to mind, but I'm not a super experienced linux guy and haven't messed with the more embedded stuff much. Don't forget to try both holding and spamming.

There may be a communication bus of some sort on that connector too, can you get at the other end (PCB?) without destructive/evident disassembly so you can sniff that as well?