User Manual

9XR Pro: Communicating with a Computer – version 1 5
Restoring a “Bricked” Transmitter with SAM-BA
Occasionally a problem may occur with the firmware that causes the transmitter to stop working.
To correct this situation, it is necessary to erase and re flash the main processor chip with fresh
firmware.
Re-flashing the Atmel chip requires the use of a separate program, SAM-BA; it cannot be done
by the methods explained earlier in this document, as the bare chip does not have the capability
to flash firmware. Note that SAM-BA only runs on a PC.
The “unbricking” process using SAM-BA is described in a separate document, available at:
http://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=70
Here is an outline of the two steps in the process:
Step 1: Erase the chip
While turning ON the transmitter, use a paperclip or similar to press and hold the small round
Erase Button beside the USB connector, under the rubber flap on the bottom of the transmitter.
As the transmitter powers up, the Atmel ARM processor chip will be reset to factory defaults.
Caution: Pressing the Erase Button completely wipes the firmware off the chip; it does
NOT restore the transmitter to original firmware.
The EEPROM model memory is a separate chip and is not erased when the Atmel processor
chip is erased.
Step 2: Re-flash the chip with new firmware using SAM-BA
To do this, you need to install, on a personal computer running Windows, the SAM-BA program
from Atmel, the maker of the transmitter’s ARM chip. Once installed, SAM-BA communicates
with the transmitter via a USB cable and can be instructed to re-flash the ARM chip. The
firmware then gives the transmitter the ability to load updated firmware from the SD card without
further use of SAM-BA.