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athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx asked

Pylontech US2000 dead after firmware update

Hello everybody,

after experiencing Internal Error problems with my new US2000C module, which I added to the two existing US2000B-Plus modules (link to the topic), I read on another forum that this might be a firmware issue.

I determined the firmware versions with BatteryView (link below). The US2000C had the firmware V1.2, both of the US2000B-Plus V3.4.

I found a post of Pylontech-Jeff in this thread in another forum.

Jeff wrote: "Now all firmware are compressed into a compressed package, the system will automatically select the most suitable firmware to upgrade your battery."

The Google Drive link contains the BatteryView software and a zip archive with the firmware. I was able to upgrade the firmware of the US2000C module to V1.4.

So I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade the firmware of the US2000B-Plus modules, too. I understood the quoted sentence of Jeff as the BatteryView software could determine if the archive contains a suitable firmware file, no matter which version of the US2000 range it is. WRONG!

So I started the upgrade and at about 83%, the upgrade process stopped with an error. The module can’t be started anymore. If I turn on the main switch, the led turns on, but it can't be started with the SW button. BatteryView can't connect to the module anymore.

I contacted the Pylontech service, but I didn't get an answer yet.

Does anybody know how to revive it again? How to get the correct firmware installed again?

Pylontechfirmware updateerror
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14 Answers
athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx answered ·

@cpjackso in another forum another user sent me the email address of Pylontech-Jeff. He sent me a special flash tool (not BatteryView) and an appropriate .bin file and provided instructions to revive the module. Unfortunately, it didn't work in my case (but it worked for the other user who provided the email address to me).

In the end I had to sent it to the official distributor in my country. It's been there for 3 weeks now and I'm still waiting for them to repair it. I'll post another answer when I get it back.

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velociraptor avatar image velociraptor commented ·

Could you please share this here or at least to me in private message. I've got a background in embedded software development so I'm prepared to open up the box, attach JTAG or whatever is necessary.

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athlonfx avatar image athlonfx velociraptor commented ·
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share it here for everyone. Can you send private messages here?
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donato-capobianco avatar image donato-capobianco commented ·

hi, even my us2000c battery does not turn on anymore after the update can someone help me with some more flashes

thanks .. I'm in a panic my battery is only three months old

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netrange avatar image netrange donato-capobianco commented ·

From my Mailcontact with Jeff from Pylontech:


Next time when you meet battery problem, please report to service@pylontech.com.cn first, then our service center will help give a solution.

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donato-capobianco avatar image donato-capobianco netrange commented ·

hello I already wrote an email 2 days ago to service@pylontech.com.cn but I haven't had any response yet

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athlonfx avatar image athlonfx donato-capobianco commented ·

You might find the content of this post useful ;). Contact Jeff directly, he normally responds quickly.

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donato-capobianco avatar image donato-capobianco athlonfx commented ·

How do I contact Jeff directly? do you have a direct email?

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netrange avatar image netrange donato-capobianco commented ·
... Read "the useful ;) post" ...
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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

This is a Victron community forum, not a Pylontech support forum.

But maybe @Ned Yu (Pylontech) can help here.

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athlonfx avatar image athlonfx commented ·

I know. But there is no Pylontech forum and this forum has been quite informative so far. I hope @Ned Yu (Pylontech) or someone else can help me with my problem.

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ athlonfx commented ·
Their support will get back to you, but DIY updates tends to void warranties, so fingers crossed you get a good result.

Be careful with following internet advice, sometimes it can bite.

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jacola avatar image
jacola answered ·

So, it seems there is a NEW US2000C version being shipped (that story with 8th and 9th serial number place), and those NEW US2000C devices need DIFFERENT firmware with DIFFERENT numbering. it is quite confusing.
I have
- US2000 (B plus), which apparently can be upgraded to 3.4
- US2000C, which takes 2.7
- US2000C, which takes 1.4

both 'C' version firmwares are in that .zip file. There is no firmware for US2000B, you need to download that separately.

I upgraded the 'old' 2000C with the 2.7 bin file and the 'new' 2000C by uploading the .zip file. They all survived.

Cheers

Johannes

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athlonfx avatar image athlonfx commented ·

Thank you for all the information. Unfortunately, the not so clever BatteryView (in these days I'd expect a verification in terms of compatibility) seems to have flashed the US2000C 2.7 firmware on one of my US2000B-Plus modules. Kind of my mistake, I guess. I tried several hours of self-reproach, but that didn't revive the battery.

As already mentioned, it can't be started and BatteryView can't connect to it. Do you have any idea how to flash the correct firmware again?

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jacola avatar image
jacola answered ·

well i am not a Pylontech specialist but i guess - case of send-in for repair.
so far i am holding off to flash my US2000 (B) because i rather want to be triple sure they take the 3.4 firmware i 'found' ..


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athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx answered ·

Hi everyone,


I made some progress on diagnosing stuff. The used microcontroller is the Texas Instruments TM4C123BH6PZ, which can be programmed via JTAG. The board itself PHANTOM_SA_CMU_V10R07 has a jack (J304) which has pins connected to the microcontroller, fortunately the ones needed for connecting to it via JTAG.

Firmware can be flashed using the Texas Instruments EK-TM4C123GXL Evaluation Board and Texas Instruments UniFlash software.

I successfully flashed (verified afterwards) several different firmware .bin-files, but none of them brought my module back to life. If I pushed the SW button, at least some leds on both boards in the module turned on, but that was it.

I've got the feeling that the microcontroller might need a bootloader which is not in the firmware .bin-files.

I haven't received an answer from Pylontech service yet (Maybe they're in a lockdown?!), maybe they can provide the correct .bin-file with the bootloader included.


I had the thought that I might be able to dump the whole memory of the microcontroller in the other US2000B-Plus module and flash it on the microcontroller of the broken one, but I'm still hesitant, because there'd be the possibility of breaking the good module, too.


I'll share the information of the service, if I get any. If I can bring it back to life, I'll happily share the necessary steps including the JTAG pinout.


Does anybody have an idea what else I could try?


Kind regards

AthlonFX

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jacola avatar image
jacola answered ·

@AthlonFX you are really getting into things ... well you could try to use jtag to read out the bootloader part, and combine it with the firmware image (or JUST use the bootloader part and see if that can work standalone).
I would not assume that the bootloader was toasted when you loaded via the BatteryView software, but the loaded software probably had a valid checksum/fingerprint but was not fitting the hardware .. in such a situation, often it would be enough to 'patch' one byte in the area where the software is loaded to invalidate the checksum and then hope that the bootloader will go into an emergency load mode.
but of course all speculations.

On my quest to update US2000B's, i have now flashed the first 2 batteries. The update also STOPS at 81%, and the coulomb dialog appears, but the devices seem to have no value set and i cannot set any value (get an error message). Batteries work, though, and show version 3.4
i stopped updating after 2 show the same behavior and contacted pylontech support, but no answer until now - so now i am stuck with an install with 2 updated and rest non-updated batteries. things work - but before i update them all i will wait for an answer.

Johannes

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

There’s a reason pylon and other manufacturers don’t want people mucking with firmware. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing, don’t do it. Its not an iPhone. If it isn’t broken, don’t try fix it. Its a really expensive mistake to void your warranty like this.


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athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx answered ·

@jacola could you provide instructions how to read out the bootloader part (or even the whole memory) of the microcontroller via JTAG? I think there's no option in Uniflash, but I haven't read the corresponding manual throughly so far.

If I could successfully read out the whole memory, I would happily provide you the file and the needed instructions including the pinout.

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jacola avatar image jacola commented ·
Well, i am not a TI or Uniflash specialist. You probably would need to read the datasheet of the chip and understand memory map etc, then use the address range learned to read out.

I think a full memory dump of the flash via jtag and then upload that to the broken battery could also be an option to revive it. reading it out via jtag should NOT break a working battery, but depending on where pylontech stores serial number info etc, you might have a true clone with overwritten serial number etc after the copy (in the new battery), which definitely voids warranty and could cause other problems (or not).
Maybe Pylontech sees your pain and sends you a new controller or exchanges the battery ;)

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athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx answered ·

I was able to read the whole memory of the microcontroller of the good module with UniFlash, it was quite easy (Memory pane, Export, range 0x0 to 0x3FFFF). After that, I successfully flashed the created .bin-file onto the microcontroller of the bad module.

The good news is the good module still works. But the bad module is still as dead as it was before. My guess is that the original flash with the wrong firmware somehow damaged the hardware.

@jacola do you have any other idea?

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jacola avatar image jacola commented ·
Well, quite possible that the image is 'signed' in some way or checksum'd with a cpu serial or the like. If you are still not giving up ;) you could export/dump from a second known good and compare those two 'known good' images to see if they are identical. i do not think the hardware is damaged ..

Another possibility might be that the cpu has some additional memory (not in the standard flash) where they might store a checksum. again, all speculation. if our fate and future depends on solving the puzzle i would get involved (i like those things) but it is very time consuming, and i guess you can kindly ask pylontech for a repair or replacement controller .. so that should be a much better path imho.

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athlonfx avatar image
athlonfx answered ·

@jacola I nether have another working US2000B-Plus nor do I know anyone with one of these (not to mention that it'd have to have firmware V3.4 on it). I don't like giving up, but in this case, I guess the best idea is to wait for the answer of the Pylontech service. I hope they help me with getting it working again. I'll ask them about the technical background too, because I'd like to understand what happened and why my approach didn't work.

At least the evaluation board was only 35 €, so I didn't "waste" a lot of money. If I ever want to get into microcontroller programming, I can start with this - there's a programmable TM4C on the board.

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cpjackso avatar image
cpjackso answered ·

Did you get any further with this? I have the same issue - batteryview sent 2.x .bin to my US2000C but it should have sent 1.4... Now my unit is unresponsive.

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nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

Remember to send the bill to all those posters on internet forums who give bad advice that inexperienced people insist on following.

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sesshoumaru avatar image
sesshoumaru answered ·

Just for my curiosity.
Why did you try to update the firmware of a working unit? Was there a new interessting feature or bugfix you needed? What kind of "internal error issues" you had? Rendering the unit not working?

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johanndo avatar image
johanndo answered ·

I wouldn't update firmware for the sake of having the latest number without any benefit. If it is not broken, don't fix it.

Read the change log before upgrading, often changes make things worse. A d never throw just something to your device and hope it will know if it can swallow it or not. Firmware updates wipe the storage and put a new OS on your device, it is just hex code, the system doesn't know if it is legit, it is the flash software that has to sort it out before uploading, and most is generic to alow big changes.

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sesshoumaru avatar image
sesshoumaru answered ·

Have the same issue, one of my US2000C sudden has internal errors and drops out.
I would like to check which firmware in on, based on serial number is has the new chip which causes trouble (E2).


However, which cable I have to use to connect? RS232 serial to USB? Can somebody give me a link (amazon?)... I read not all cables are working and I did not find an official supply :/

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Does it not report the version under the batteries details tab on the GX?
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sesshoumaru avatar image sesshoumaru nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Nothing under "Details", but under "Device" it says "Firmware Version: -.-"

I mean, I have 8 batterie modules.. if they have different firmware versions, maybe this is the outcome. But I cannot see anythng for the modules individually.

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ sesshoumaru commented ·
If the latest is master it should work, depends on the age spread.
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sesshoumaru avatar image sesshoumaru nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
I am on GX version 2.82.

Any help with a fitting able? I mean ... I might have to do the firmware update for the battery - sending them to the seller to make it sounds.... nonsensical...

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ sesshoumaru commented ·
We've made cables before that work perfectly with Batteryview. I don't recommend updating them yourself, it's a good way to ruin your warranty. Battery vendors are a bit tense about people fiddling with the software. Rather use official channels.
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sesshoumaru avatar image sesshoumaru nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

I wait for the sellers response.

Still it feels wrong to move that 25kg monster around, sending it somewhere, waiting x-weeks.... I hope you get what I mean...

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sesshoumaru avatar image sesshoumaru nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Neither the seller nor Pylontech are answering me.

Could you give me a link to where I can up that cable to connct the console port to my PC using USB? I have battery view already. I would want a done cable, nothing to fiddle around myself.

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