Apex classic repair question

[Nomadic1]

A couple of weeks ago, my apex classic controller (wasn't CLASSIC when I bought it!) ceased to work. We had a brief power flicker at the house, and when things came back online, the display unit would only show a blue screen. All the outlets were doing random things that were not in my program. The yellow light on the head unit flashes for a few seconds, then goes solid green. The green LEDs on the variable speed port come on and stay solid, as does the yellow LED on the ethernet port. No attempts at resetting, unplugging stuff from the bus, etc., according to the manual will change this.

It does not show up on my network, so I cannot reflash it with the apex utility. I am capable of SMD rework, and have read a thread here on RT2 in which the user replaced a flash chip on the controller and that fixed their issue. I do have a programmer to reflash this chip before installing it. During my research, I could have sworn I had come across a thread somewhere (or a video) in which TFTP was used to reflash the unit, but now that I look for it, I'm coming up blank. It was something along the lines of setting up a TFTP server on your laptop, putting the firmware in the download directory for the tftp, connecting your apex to it via lan cable, then powering on the apex, at which point the bricked apex, in bootloader mode, will seek to establish a tftp connection and download the firmware to the unit automatically. If anyone has information about this, please post a link.

Thanks!

 

[rtparty]

@_AV is probably your best bet

 

[Nomadic1]

Thanks, but I am not looking to pay someone to do this, as I'm perfectly capable of this kind of repair myself.

 

[rtparty]

Who says he can’t help answer your question?

 

[Nomadic1]

Not saying he can't...maybe I took your suggestion the wrong way, as in send it in to get it fixed by his service. My apologies.

 

[Nomadic1]

I think I confused this with a wireless extender I recently repaired via TFTP.

 

[_AV]

There is no reflashing the main controller via TFTP. You would need the firmware with bootloader for the controller chip used in apex and a suitable programmer for atmel.
But, if your status led works, chances are the issue is not with the main controller.

 

[Nomadic1]

Thanks, @_AV . I am hoping that replacing the NOR flash @ U18 as another member here has detailed fixes the unit. I've removed it with my hot-air station and tested it in my programmer, but it will not erase and pass blank check, so I'm thinking this is likely the issue. I ordered a replacement from Mouser and it should arrive today (but that's subject to change due to hurricane Francine's arrival here where I live).

 

[Nomadic1]

So I replaced the NOR flash, and the apex now shows up on my network again, albeit with a bunch of garbage characters for its name. The apex utility will find it, but, my username and password no longer work, nor do the defaults. The screen on the display unit still stays solid blue. @_AV is there any other workarounds here?

 

[Nomadic1]

I removed the flash again, put it into my programmer, and erased it, then soldered it back in. Flashed successfully and updated the web pages! Thank you to @theatrus for his helpful thread on the subject. Another apex revived from the dead!