Espressobin - lost bootloader - so which image; 1CS or 2CS how many chips?

[DonJuane]

Hi I am trying to get my board restored.   Following a simple power on reset, which I have done many, many times in the past.   I have never worked with this or any other board at this low a level before (UART restore - whatever that is.) The entire memory of the bootloader has been wiped out for no apparent reason. I am wondering if this is a common problem after seeing 3 other people reporting it on the espressobin forum? 

 

All I have is the E and > appearing on the serial console.   I am following this page:

http://wiki.espressobin.net/tiki-index.php?page=Bootloader%2Brecovery%2Bvia%2BUART

 

In the image choices I can download, it offers a boot image of 1G DDR3 (my version is V5 and 1G sticker on the board) but I don't know how to tell if I need the 2CS or 1CS firmware because I don't know what chips to look for on the board to see if I have a 1 Gig chip or a 2 512M chip model which the only indication of my memory is via a round sticker stuck on the LAN connector labeled "1G".

 

I am looking for the best boot image to run with OpenWRT (no offense).   Thanks in advance!   (I am very low skilled in this area so please have mercy.   I also need a copy of the WTPTP executable for Windows 10 if anyone has it.   Espressobin now demands anyone who wants the Windows tools to register for their customer portal and this portal requires anyone who wants the tools to sign a non-disclosure agreement by contacting their sales team.   Plus, they don't answer online inquiries or their telephone.   Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

[Technicavolous]

On 11/30/2020 at 3:27 PM, DonJuane said:

 

All I have is the E and > appearing on the serial console. 

So when you boot it while attached to a serial terminal, do you see any quick text go by before you get to that point? Do you see an option to hit any key to stop loading? it's quick lasts 2 seconds ... you're certain you messed up the flash?

 

The UART method is difficult for people who say they have no experience in this 'low level' activity - perhaps the SATA method will work for you?

http://wiki.espressobin.net/tiki-index.php?page=Bootloader+recovery+via+SATA

 

Most likely you have the 1gb 2 chip version. You can tell by identical chips on the top and bottom sides of the board.

In this post is a pic of a board with 1g2cs - I was pointing out that mine did not have emmc in this particular post.

 

 

This post shows top and bottom pics of a 1g1cs board.

 

To be honest, in several cases where I'm told a board has been 'completely erased,' carefully following the instructions on the Armbian Espressobin download page has been successful

https://www.armbian.com/espressobin/

 

I can only help you with Armbian. I have a couple of these boards and they are working flawless for me, although I have them set up at almost the lowest speed it can go (800-800).

 

Let us know if you get Armbian running on your board. If nothing else it will prove the hardware for you.

 

 

[DonJuane]

After the power on reset, watching the console, all that is presented is the ">" and if I press enter I get "E".   If I key in a "?" I get that Uart message that I posted which is this:   I have also pressed the board reset and the result is the same, only below is seen.

>?
h/? - print this help screen
r yyyyyyyy - read register/memory at address yyyyyyyy in hex
w yyyyyyyy zzzzzzzz - write zzzzzzzz to address yyyyyyyy in hex
j yyyyyyyy - jump to address yyyyyyyy in hex
x y - change the boot mode, where y is in hex
a - UART control passed to AP CPU ROM
c - UART control passed to CM3 CPU ROM
>!