Products > Test Equipment
Anritsu MS2721B internal CF card missing
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thm_w:

--- Quote from: brainstorm on April 13, 2020, 10:06:59 am ---Here's a followup on my repair efforts if somebody is interested:

https://blogs.nopcode.org/brainstorm/anritsu-ms2721b-spectrum-analyzer-repair-part-2/

... r2/ghidra give quite a bit of insight on how to repair the boot process on my instrument (i.e when the CF card is "not good"), hope it helps someone else in my situation!

--- End quote ---

Thanks for writing out all of this information.
analogRF:

--- Quote from: brainstorm on August 23, 2019, 09:01:19 pm ---I purchased the same unit over ebay a while ago and also had the internal CF missing (with slightly broken holder as if it was removed by force). I wrote up my experience trying to boot it up with a firmware update image (with limited yet encouraging success) over here:

https://blogs.nopcode.org/brainstorm/anritsu-ms2721b-spectrum-analyzer/

TL;DR: I managed to dump the uncompressed memory contents to poke around with a few of the VxWorks functions to diagnose the underlying problem(s).

I think it would be of very high value (to me, perhaps others), if some of you owning the instrument could:

1. Connect it via ethernet to your home router or equivalent and power it up.
2. Telnet into it via the DHCP-assigned IP address.
3. Run a few of the commands outlined in the blogpost and paste the output back over here.

I'm specially interested on the VxWorks shell commands: DoRAMTest, sysSelfTest, sysOptionUpgrade and dumpEEPROM... to start with :)

You can either run the python script published on my blog to retrieve a ton of callable-from-the-VxWorks-shell functions and offsets or ask me about the .csv if you are interested.

/cc @Thedon, from your photos, you seem to have a fancy version of the unit with GPSDO and extra RAM daughter board? Interesting!

Cheers!

--- End quote ---

have you had any success yet? I have read your blog and it seems you are still stuck as I am  |O :palm:
I can only think of two possible causes, one is a hardware problem like a bad RAM or other chip and another is a corrupted flash rom or eeprom
on the board. For instance when I turn it on, it shows OS Build 2.04 while I am putting OS 3.78 on the CF card. I think during update, it loads the OS into a flash rom or something and I am guessing that mine is corrupted perhaps due to a failed update?

the two biggest problems that I have (aside from the unit not booting!) is that first of all when I get to the bootstrap mode (emergency recovery) I cannot update the OS from USB  |O the USB stick is in there but no matter what, when I select Update OS from USB, it does not do anything. I used 4 different USB sticks

the second problem is with the ethernet connection. if I connect to my router and turn it on, it never shows up on my network. If I go to recovery mode and manually force it to get IP address, then it does get IP and I can ping it but I cannot telnet to it and the Master Software on my laptop cannot recognize it. Any idea? any suggestion?
analogRF:

--- Quote from: brainstorm on April 13, 2020, 10:06:59 am ---Here's a followup on my repair efforts if somebody is interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseEngineering/comments/g0g8w2/vxhuntervxworksradare2_a_spectrum_analyzer_repair/

... r2/ghidra give quite a bit of insight on how to repair the boot process on my instrument (i.e when the CF card is "not good"), hope it helps someone else in my situation!

--- End quote ---

it seems my instrument is stuck at about the same point as yours but how come you can telnet to it so easily? Mine does not even show up on the network and only if I go to the recovery mode I can force it to get IP and even then, still telnet does not do anything. when I telnet, it clears the terminal screen and that's it...nothing else shows up on terminal
analogRF:
I finally got the god damn thing fixed  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Here is what you should do
1-install the Anritsu Master Software Tool (MST)
2-go to Product Update and download (retrieve) the firmware file inside the MST so it is ready
there you will see a button "Emergency Repair", click on that and it will explain what to do but I will tell you
3-connect the instrument to ethernet and turn it on in Recovery mode (hold softkeys #1-3-5 and power on)
when you are in the Bootstrap mode, choose Update OS using Ethernet and it will change to a blank screen with
one red statment saying it is waiting for Ethernet downloading connection...
4- in the MST enter the IP address of the instrument and click on Install New OS Now. and then just sit back and DO NOT TOUCH anything
no matter how everything seems weird or dead. (the message on the instrument screen will not change until much later) but it is actually
accepting the new OS from your computer
5-after quite a while the instrument will flash a new message saying the transfer is complete and it starts programming the ROMs on the instrument with new OS and it will finally go back to the first bootstrap screen
6- reboot the system and enjoy  ;) ;)

However, the only problem that I have right now is that the tracking generator option is nowhere to be seen  :-// |O |O |O |O
my instrument passes all self tests and works perfectly but the tracking gen is not anywhere...

hope you can find a way to bring that back  :'(
analogRF:
brainstorm,
can you find a way to dump the eeprom? I am sure all options as well as cal data and serial number are stored in there
I tried your dumpEEPROM command but it didnt work although it seems it was recognized by the OS but didnt dump the EEPROM
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