As of the date of this post there have been at least two unfortunate "bricking" incidents when programming new firmware onto 7000DLE MKII units. Bricking is a slang term for a situation where both the normal and Bootloader FPGA images in non-volatile memory are corrupt and none of the normal programming tools (HPSDR Programmer or Bootloader) will work. The only way to reprogram a bricked unit is to open it up and use a JTAG programming pod (aka "USB blaster") with special software to reload the Bootloader image.
This post will explain the problem and how to avoid it.
Background
All electronic designs suffer from the problem of obsolescent parts. The Orion MKII SDR board in the 7K and 8K series radios is no different. When a part goes obsolete and is no longer available there is usually a simple answer in the form of a newer replacement part. Such is the case for the Orion MKII board when the original EPCS128A memory IC went obsolete. The board was revised with an almost identical EPCQ128A memory IC and these later revision boards are the ones used in the 7000DLE MKII units. In order for the unit to work properly with both kinds of memory ICs there is a jumper, J14, that must be correctly configured. For the older EPCS128A no jumper should be placed. For the newer EPCQ128A a jumper shoud be in position.
The Problem
If the jumper is incorrectly configured and an attempt to reprogram the unit with either HPSDR Bootloader or HPSDR Programmer is made, the contents of the memory will be corrupted and the normal programming tools will no longer work.
In this case the specific issue is that at least two 7000DLE MKII units were shipped from the factory with J14 missing when it should have been installed. The owners of those radios tried to upgrade firmware and were left with bricked units. Both were able to recover them using a JTAG programming pod but this is probably something best avoided for most people!
What you can do to avoid this situation
If you are worried that your unit may be missing its jumper you can remove the bottom cover of the chassis and look at the Orion MKII SDR board to confirm that the memory IC part number and J14 configuration is correct. J14 should be jumpered if the memory is an EPCQ128A. Below are two photos that show the location of the memory IC and of J14 (the blue jumper next to U15, it may not be blue in your unit).
- OrionMKII_EPCQ128A.jpg (1.3 MiB) Viewed 11119 times
- OrionMKII jumper.jpg (1.59 MiB) Viewed 11119 times
