Black box keeps blinking red

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Bigdumb
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Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Bigdumb » Thu Jan 17, 2019 0:26

I have been trying to set up my new Gunfighter pro , but can't seem to get the black box to have a steady green light. It keeps blinking red. What I have tried many times:
1. Run the VKBdevcfg.exe. as administrator.
2. Clicked on "Bootloader" icon & selected the Gunfighter pro file.
3.Clicked on "Flash" , then having the software say it installed the firmware.
4. Computer restart
5. Launch VKBdevcfg.exe. again, highlight "VKBsim Gunfighter"
6.Click on "Default from the "tools" tab
The instructions say the black box should have the flashing red light change to a solid green light, but it keeps flashing red.
What can I do?

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Thu Jan 17, 2019 18:51

Is #4 a typo? Are you rebooting your PC? That's not right. The stick itself will restart after the flash. It will restart after defaulting too.

First thing make sure the stick is properly seated in the base. Loosen the clamp on the grip, push down til it stops, rotate it to where you want it and re-tighten the clamp.

Now that you have the physical stuff checked. Make sure you have all of your software (EVERYTHING VKB) in a common folder. I have one on my desktop that I named VKB. This is important.

Now let's go thru the steps.

#1 is good. Make sure you click on the stick name in the upper pane.

#2 is good. On my PC VKBDevconfig will close(as it should. DO NOT RUN IT AND BOOTLOADER AT THE SAME TIME). Once you've verified its closed bootloader doesn't start on its own at least on my PC. Double click on it in that folder you made to start it. Ok you should have a green light in the bootloader letting you know it's ready to flash. Make sure you're flashing the right firmware for your base and grip combo. There are many different combos so make sure it's right before you continue. Select it. Click flash it. It'll do its thing. At the end of that process VKBDevconfig tries to start. I close out of both before continuing.

At this point your stick will have restarted. Open VKBDevconfig. Click on the stick name in the upper pane. The buttons in VKBDevconfig will now light up. Click on default. The stick will restart in the default state. Click on the name again. Almost there!

Last important step. Ya gotta calibrate. DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DOING THIS IN WINDOWS! In VKBDevconfig click on start calibr. On the gunfighter /MCG-Pro combo that I have the sequence is : move the stick left/right, forward and back. Now the upper middle hat, same. Lower left hat, same, pull brake lever and release it. Now flip the dual trigger up, pull full closed and release it. Click end calibr. The stick will restart. Click on the stick name in VKBDevconfig and you should be in business.

This sounds hard but once you've done it a couple of times it's no big deal.

Post back on how you did.
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Bigdumb
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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Bigdumb » Sat Jan 19, 2019 19:45

Yes, # 4 was my mistake. I meant device restart , not computer restart. The problem I've still been having is that everything seems to go OK, according to plan until clicking on "default". Then this doesn't happen (from the Gunfighter MK2 Quick Guide):

" From the Tools tab, click on the "Default" button in the top-left corner.
4. The device will restart with factory default settings; any previously red blinking 'Stick LED' on the
BlackBox should turn solid green"


Instead, the black box keeps the solid blue light & the red light continues to blink red. A message pops up that the stick needs to be calibrated. If I try to go ahead with the calibration, the axis slider show no movement at all when I move the stick around.

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Sat Jan 19, 2019 22:17

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm guessing it's a new stick? First time setting it up? I had the same head scratcher when I got mine. Search my posts and you'll see the first bunch were regarding this exact issue. Trust me! You HAVE to go thru the whole process or it's gonna do that. Don't even bother looking at axis moving in the test screen until you've gone thru the whole flash/default/calibrate process. You're not going to see anything moving in that test screen until you're done. It HAS to happen. Calibrate first.... Then test. Don't try to test while calibrating.

But even so... The device restart is an automatic part of the flash. If you're doing it manually that may be the issue too. Just let it do it's thing and move on to the calibration.
Gunfighter MkI w/MkIII update + MCG-Pro Grip
Avia S Cams
2x #30A Springs
FW:v2.13F
Devconfig: v92.78
Zbootloader: v2.01

Asus Strix X570-E Gaming
Ryzen9 5800X3D
Asus Strix 3080 12GB
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Bigdumb
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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Bigdumb » Sun Jan 20, 2019 21:45

Yes, you guessed right, I just got the stick. Sheesh ! I wish I could get it to work!
I'm not sure what you're saying. I've gone through the whole process, but the red light on the black box doesn't stop blinking no matter what I do. It seems that calibration can't happen until a green light appears. I've tried calibration first & then the rest of the procedure, but it doesn't make a difference. The red light continues to blink. I'm letting the device restart itself after flashing . The config program closes. When reopened, I always see a box pop up that says the stick needs to be calibrated. No matter if I calibrate then or after clicking the "default" button, the red light continues to blink.

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Sun Jan 20, 2019 23:34

OK let's start over. I have an idea and I'll get to that but let's try everything here in order.

First, check the connection of the grip to the base. I know we did all this already but just check it to rule stuff out. Put it back together.

1. Run vkbdevconfig as administrator.
2. Click on the stick name in the upper pane to highlight it. All the buttons on the tools and action tabs should light up.
3. From within vkbdevconfig click on the bootloader button. This will close vkbdevconfig but not open bootloader.
4. Verify that vkbdevconfig is closed before continuing. It should be.
5. Go to your vkb folder and run the bootloader app as administrator. Once started it should have a green light showing ready to flash. If it says device turned out with a red light it won't flash.
6. In the bootloader, browse to the FW you've saved in your vkb folder and click open.
7. Click flash it. Let bootloader do it's thing. When it's done it'll probably try to open vkbdevconfig. I always close it and make sure both programs are closed before proceeding.
9. Run vkbdevconfig as administrator and click on the stick name in the upper pane to highlight it so the buttons again light up.
10. Click on the default button. This will default the stick to a factory state profile. Let it restart before proceeding.
11. Once it's restarted, again click on the stick name to highlight so the buttons light up.
12. Click on the start Calibr button.
13. On the Gunfighter/ MCG-Pro combo that I have the process is:
1. Operate the pitch and roll axii fully
2. Operate the Master Mode hat fully (up/dn/l/r)
3. Operate the Gate Control hat fully(up/dn/l/r)
4. Pull the brake lever fully and let it go
5. Flip the two stage trigger fully up, pull it fully closed and release it so it goes to it's neutral position on it's own.
14. Click End Calibr.
15. The stick should restart and the lights on your black box should be two green and one blue all solid, not flashing.

OK after all that. if the stick is still flashing red I'm wondering if you're flashing the right firmware for your grip/ base combo. If you flash the MCG FW instead of the MCG-Pro FW, you'll have problems. Same if Gladiator instead of Gunfighter. Easy enough to mess up as they all come together in the zip file. Make sure you've unzipped that and are flashing ONLY the firmware for the stick and NOT the zip file itself. If you have any of that scrambled it may be a case of the software not being able to talk to the stick as it's not identified correctly. Check and be sure you're flashing the right FW. Could be you're doing everything right----but that. It could be something, however unlikely, in the physical connection as the flashing red light is an indication the grip is disconnected from the base but the above problem with the FW would cause the same thing. My stick did the exact same thing when I was trying to set it up the first time. The default step was something that was missing initially and I had to find out about it here. And that was after pulling my hair out going thru the calibration process that I had printed out in front of me a couple of dozen times! So...been there but! Once I did that and went thru all of the steps above it's worked fine ever since and as you can see in my sig I've flashed the FW many times. We can get to later beta FW and SW but let's get the thing up and running first!

That said, you never posted which firmware and which version of vkbdevconfig you're using. It'd be great if you could post a screen shot of your vkbdevconfig global and profile tabs so we can see. You can post the screen shot directly here. Don't use a 3rd party link. Just add it to your post. Up top there's a button for it says img. Could be an incompatibility between the firmware version and the version of VKBDevconfig you're using. Same with the version of firmware and version of bootloader.

I hope you never tried to calibrate this stick with windows directly as that will cause you some headaches. There's a fix for it that would involve tinkering with the registry to get it back and that explanation is beyond me. I hope ya didn't do that! They really oughta stick a card with a big red stop sight right in the top of the box advising against this so people don't get the idea to even try.
Gunfighter MkI w/MkIII update + MCG-Pro Grip
Avia S Cams
2x #30A Springs
FW:v2.13F
Devconfig: v92.78
Zbootloader: v2.01

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby AeroGator » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:18

Plus, please upload the pics:
the base connector shaft so the pins are close up and seen clearly, well lit, and sharp
the bottom of the grip so the contacts are seen
Best Regards,
AeroGator

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Ron61 » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:25

Drano wrote:3. From within vkbdevconfig click on the bootloader button. This will close vkbdevconfig but not open bootloader.
4. Verify that vkbdevconfig is closed before continuing. It should be.
5. Go to your vkb folder and run the bootloader app as administrator. Once started it should have a green light showing ready to flash. If it says device turned out with a red light it won't flash.


To exclude unnecessary actions, it is necessary to place the Zbootloader-C.exe file in the folder with the configurator.
Then when you call the flash driver from the configurator, the latter will close automatically. And after the firmware, the configurator will also automatically start.

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Mon Jan 21, 2019 17:29

Oh yes, I have all files VKB in 2 folders. One that I save downloads to and another "working" folder that has VKBDevconfig, bootloader, etc. The reason I advised as I did was that while config will close on clicking the bootloader button, the bootloader doesn't close after the flash is completed and config tries to run. As it's explicit in the manual that these two programs must not run simultaneously, I just make sure they're both closed before proceeding with config for safety's sake.

If the bootloader could have different process that allowed it to close automatically after flashing and delay the start of config for a couple of seconds now that would save all that effort. But even so it's just a couple of mouse clicks. Not a high price.
Gunfighter MkI w/MkIII update + MCG-Pro Grip
Avia S Cams
2x #30A Springs
FW:v2.13F
Devconfig: v92.78
Zbootloader: v2.01

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Mon Jan 21, 2019 17:46

AeroGator wrote:Plus, please upload the pics:
the base connector shaft so the pins are close up and seen clearly, well lit, and sharp
the bottom of the grip so the contacts are seen


I thought about the pins too but he probably has a Rev B and they're pretty well protected unlike my Rev A. If it ends up being a connection problem I'd be looking at the wiring harness in the base coming loose as a more likely culprit.

But as I said, I had this exact problem setting up my stick initially last year and it didn't stop until I'd gone thru the whole procedure properly. I thought it was a dud. Checked all the wiring. Everything was fine, but I missed a step in the software. Once I did it right it clicked and I've been running ever since.
Gunfighter MkI w/MkIII update + MCG-Pro Grip
Avia S Cams
2x #30A Springs
FW:v2.13F
Devconfig: v92.78
Zbootloader: v2.01

Asus Strix X570-E Gaming
Ryzen9 5800X3D
Asus Strix 3080 12GB
32GB Corsair Vengeance PC3600
EVGA G6 1000W
Reverb G2V2
Win10/64

Bigdumb
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 0:03

Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Bigdumb » Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:09

Thanks for the response again Drano. I am still not figuring this out. I the versions of software I have are VKBDevCfg-C_v0_87_0_5.zip, Z Bootloader- C v1_13 & _Blackbox_GF_MCG_PRO_v1_94_B... . I checked the wiring harness & all connections & think they're OK. Starting the conf.exe always first brings up a message that the stick needs to be calibrated .I have been closing this & clicking to the Bootloader icon. Flashing seems to go OK. It says the firmware was downloaded & looks like it's installed, but the last item on the screen after "reset" says:"Error write data :0". I don't know what that means.
When I follow the steps , now the "default" button doesn't do anything . After a box warns that all data will be replaced by default data, clicking OK just brings back a box that says the stick needs to be calibrated.
To make things even more confusing, a few times the black box lights have failed to light up at all when I first start my computer. I have fixed this by unplugging & reinserting the USB connector.
I haven't ever attempted calibrating the stick with Windows.
Attachments
vkbglobal.jpg
vkbprofile.jpg

Bigdumb
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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Bigdumb » Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:20

Here's the stick connectors.
Attachments
20190121_121839[2].jpg
20190121_122107[1].jpg

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Ron61 » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:36

Take screenshots with the Alt key pressed - you will only get the active window, not the entire desktop.
Take from here the extreme version of everything - firmware, configurator and bootloader. Install, flash and calibrate.

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby AeroGator » Tue Jan 22, 2019 6:55

Bigdumb wrote:Here's the stick connectors.

AeroGator wrote:so the pins are close up and seen clearly, well lit, and sharp
Best Regards,
AeroGator

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Re: Black box keeps blinking red

Postby Drano » Tue Jan 22, 2019 6:55

We'll get you going bud! I know it sounds silly but when the program tells you the stick needs to be calibrated did you ever try maybe just doing a calibration first? If that's what it's asking for yaknow. Try going thru the calibration steps I laid out. Close out of config and restart it and see if the calibration error doesn't go away. If it does then I'd say go ahead and go thru the flash/default/calibration thing again. but........

Before you do, go to the page that Ron61 just linked and get the newest files for the stick as he said. That may help. Don't mix some from there and keep the old ones. Get all new.

That write error thing doesn't mean anything. I think I used to see it too and I don't know if it stopped with bootloader v1.15 or another FW but I don't recall seeing it recently. Pay no attention to it just make sure bootloader is closed before vkbdevconfig is running. If the flash is successful you'll see the new number shown in that top pane of vkbdevconfig.
Gunfighter MkI w/MkIII update + MCG-Pro Grip
Avia S Cams
2x #30A Springs
FW:v2.13F
Devconfig: v92.78
Zbootloader: v2.01

Asus Strix X570-E Gaming
Ryzen9 5800X3D
Asus Strix 3080 12GB
32GB Corsair Vengeance PC3600
EVGA G6 1000W
Reverb G2V2
Win10/64


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