TTD Forum

Hi Guys,

I'm an active user on the AU forum but was told there are more hardware experts here.
I picked up a cheap non working TRF-7160 online, ( I have a number of them). It fails to boot,
all I get when power is turned on is a small power button symbol on the front display.
The hard drive spins up. All PSU output voltages are +/- 0.2V. When powered down the word
'WAIT' is displayed followed by the clock which seems normal. I tried loading the firmware with
the recovery technique, USB in rear port and pressing a front button when powering up but no luck.
I suspect the mainboard is gone or the firmware is corrupted but it has provision for a RS232 connector,
the pins on the board are present. Can the firmware be loaded through the RS232 port in this state?
Topfield must have put the provision there for a reason. Maybe Topset? I just have to dig out an old PC with a serial port.

Regards,
James

Hi James,

the boot process consists of two stages: the loader and the firmware. The first part is the loader, which initializes part of the hardware and then loads and launches the firmware. One of the first things the loader does is to write “L33021” (if that is your system ID) to the front panel and because this doesn’t seem to happen in your case, the loader doesn’t come far if the CPU is starting up at all.

A firmware file only contains the firmware part. The loader is installed at the factory and then never touched again.

Assuming that your Toppy has a similar hardware design to ours, the serial interface can only be used to check the boot process or to configure the loader. So you can use it to check if the CPU at least tries to start up (3,3V, 115200 Baud, n, 8, 1 IIRC).
Reinstalling the loader is a rather complex process. There is another connector to get access to the flash via the CPU but you need some special hardware for this I2C interface (EZ USB FX2), the software Broadband Studio (which you might get from some shady Russian sites) and a configuration file for the exact Broadcom SOC on your mainboard (which might be unobtainable).

If the communication between the mainboard and the front panel is broken, you might get a similar effect but if the Toppy boots up silently, you should see some reaction on a TV.

There are some voltage regulators for the processor which you might check (see the yellow notes on this photo) but this again depends on the design of your mainboard.

Cheers,
Alex

Thanks Alex,

I did not try the output to a TV as the guy I brought it off said it was dead. I will try tomorrow.
I have a spare front panel which I can also try. I will have to make an RS232 connector when I
return to work after the Xmas break. I work in aviation so I can get cannon plug pins which
should do the job. I have also found an old laptop with a serial port.

Cheers,
James

Hi Alex,
Today I plugged the unit into the TV but no change. Nothing is displayed on the TV.
I swapped the board into another working 7160 only to find the front panel connector is different.
The key ways and lock mechanism are different but the color coding and number of wires is the same.
I can only find 2 voltage regulators as well, TP_D4 & TP_D8. Only 2 inductors are present as well.
I don't think it's worth the trouble to continue. I got it very cheap and the SMPS has been used to revive
another unit and I now have a hard drive plus the front panel which may be the same as some of my other
spares just not this one. Many thanks for your assistance.

Cheers James

Alex,

I found another one of my spare units with the same front panel connector and transposed it with
the same end result, no boot up. I think I'll just use the board for spares. i.e the tuner.

Thanks,
James

James,

did you at least measure around the voltage regulators if there are plausible voltages? 5V on the input side and something between 1V and 3,3V on the output side.

Otherwise I’m running out of ideas. You could capture the output of the serial console but I’m not sure if this would be helpful apart from finding out if the CPU is more or less dead.

Cheers,
Alex

No Alex, I didn't test for any voltage output. The problem I have is if there is no output it would be incredibly hard
for me to replace such small components. My hand is just not steady enough. I did find the third test point though, it's on the
opposite site of the board. I will plug the board back into the PSU tomorrow and check for outputs. I gather from you picture
that I should see 1.8, 1.2 & 3.3v at the test points?

That’s correct. The main question is if there is any voltage at all. If not, chances are high that the power switch for the main 5V is broken (the lower 8-pin device below the HDD power connector on the above photo). If the voltages look good, I would say it’s game over.

I would not spend too much time in a Toppy with this issue (only power button symbol in the display).
I had one SRP-2100 and two SRP-2410 with a similar failure mode in my hands, but I was not able to repair them.
All of them won't boot sometimes, one of them in could condition, one of them in hot condition, the 2100 got a new mainboard.

But this is something you could check out, heat up the main processor with hot air (80-120°C), may be the Toppy will boot then.
It's also a way to verify the tuner issue (e.g. no signal at T1).

Hi Alex,

Voltage checks carried out, all good.
D4 - 1.8v, D8 - 1.2v & D5 - 3.3v. Both 5v & 12v present at hard drive connector and 5v at serial port.

Alter Sack,

I may try the heat trick as I need to try and reflow a TRF-2400 that I have.

I meant to ask, do you guys have any experiences trying to reflow the BGA chipsets?
I'm planning to use a Leister controlled heat gun and either a thermocouple setup or IR
heat sensor gun to monitor the heat rise on the chip heat sink. I'm told to aim for 200°C.
I'm only doing this as the 7160 board is dead and the 2400 is pretty much unusable.
The picture will freeze for 3 - 5 seconds, the sound continues normally then picture will
speed up and sync with the sound again.

I’ve once removed a CPU but because I’ve never intended to put it back on it wasn’t controlled and therefore, I can’t provide any data.

james66 hat geschrieben: ↑

So 29. Dez 2024, 06:33

I meant to ask, do you guys have any experiences trying to reflow the BGA chipsets?

The user MS_the_Chip was able to rescue 2 of 3 boards with the tuner issue by reballing the BGA.
You can read his experience here, it's in german, but very interesting including x-ray pictures.

I read the article using google translate. Very interesting, however reballing is beyond my scope.
There are local companies that can do it but I can't justify the cost. I'll have a go at using my amateur
technique of reflowing. Thanks for the replies.