BlackBox suddenly stopped working?

[Pomax]

I was flying with my T-Rudders yesterday with everything working fine, today I applied the 2.16 firmwware and the blackbox no longer seems to work: it has no lights, no matter which USB port I plug it into, and the T-Rudders themselves no longer show up... zBootloader no longer sees it, and windows doesn't either when it's plugged in. What are my options? =(

(I tried different USB cables, too, but those don't help either)

[Victorus]

Have you tried hardware activation of FW upgrade?

[Pomax]

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that when it doesn't show up as a connected device anywhere? zBootloader only shows my joystick and my module cluster, the rudders are literally gone.

[Pomax]

Ah, found viewtopic.php?t=4436 and was able to connect it with the reset button pressed, and have it show up in zBootloader for reflashing.

- Using _BlackBox3_Unified_v2_16_0.vkb leaves it dead. It light up during flashing, then after resetting there are no lights, and it doesn't show up in windows, or VKBDevCfg
- Using _BB_Mk2_TRudder_v2_16_0.vkb makes it light up during flashing, then after resetting it show as connected to windows, shows up in VKBDevCfg.exe, but there are no lights on the blackbox and the rudder pedals do nothing.
- Using _BB_TRudder_v2_16_0.vkb also makes it light up during flashing, then after resetting it show as connected to windows, shows up in VKBDevCfg.exe, but there are no lights on the blackbox and the rudder pedals do nothing.

Flashing with 2.14A:

- Using _BB_Mk2_TRudder_v2_14_A.vkb has the same effect as 2.16 MK2 firmware
- Using _BB_TRudder_v2_14_A.vkb has the same effect as 2.16 MKI firmware

(I have the black version that came with the T-rudder MK IV, so as far as I understand it that means the MK2 should be the firmware that "should work"?)

[Pomax]

Using the information from viewtopic.php?t=3204 I think I fixed things:

- used zBootloader to flash the MK2 firmware to the black box several times, because it would switch from rudders to just "NJoy32 platform v00.56" several times,
- once it showed as rudders in the VKBDevCfg app, I reset it using the "default" button

This finally got it back to working, with a blue and green LED and three axis showing rather than six, as well as the blackbox showing in the "external devices" tab.

(I tried this several times so I guess the solution is "just keep doing it until it works"? =S)

[Pomax]

looks like T-link no longer works though: T-link shows the pedals pressing 0 to 100% just fine, but if I add a brake button on my stick, or I press the brake "test" button, T-link doesn't brake, it still just sends rudder information:

just rudders:



pressing the brake "test" button, or the brake button on my stick:



How do I fix that?

[Pomax]

It also looks like there's still a problem with the blackbox itself, as VKBDevCfg can't communicate with it:



I'd really appreciate support on this issue.

[Victorus]

Please explain what do you want to do using T-Link? Show screenshots of External tab with devices

[Victorus]

I prefer and use zLink2. Trim MCG axes with throttle encoders.

[Pomax]

The official VKB website gives me T-Link, so that's what I'm using. I don't know what "zLink2" is, but it's not on https://www.vkbcontrollers.com/pages/downloads so I'd like to stick with VKB's applications.

As for what I want to do: I want to be able to use differential braking, where you bind a button on your controller to be the "switch to braking instead of rudders" button so that with the T-link enabled, pressing that button switches the behaviour from rudders to brakes (with neutral pedals being 50%/50%).

The Global -> External -> External devices UI:



(only #1 has an entry, #2 through #8 are "None")

[Victorus]

What generic virtual device have you connected? No one. AdrHi and Lo =0. Pedals are NOT external device. Their Mars sensor is connected directly to controller (BlackBox).
Here https://mega.nz/file/VBN2wIZR#UXXWFXe4Ch-YQvIac6yYpreIoCV0SP0Qo_PXxzWWw9s you can read about Zlink. Extended version of TLink.
Here [url]alex-oz.strana.de[/url] you can find up-to date FW&SW

I suggest you use brake-v (one of) function to realize differential brakes. Please show your settings (screenshots of vkbdevcfg).

[Pomax]

> What generic virtual device have you connected? No one. AdrHi and Lo =0. Pedals are NOT external device.

I am showing you what VKBDevCfg shows when I have the devices listed at the top of the screenshot connected with the T-Rudder device selected. If that looks wrong to you, then please explain what I might be able to do to fix things. I bought these rudder pedals a year ago, they've been working just fine since, including with T-link set up for differential braking, then I flashed them to the latest firmware a few days ago and they broke. And even after managing to get them back to a state where the rudders seem to at least work, the blackbox clearly isn't working "properly" because, as you say, VKBDevCfg doesn't think they're there, and differential braking in T-Link does nothing. So: how do I fix that?

Heck, ignore T-link entirely: the config tools says it can't communicate with the rudder's blackbox unit in the "test -> external devices", where it shows with a big red X on it.

Stick: everything seems fine



Module cluster: everything seems fine



Rudders: blackbox seems very broken

[Ron61]

In the zconfig.ini file, add the line Test Misc Enabled=1 to the [Common] section.
After restarting the configurator, go to Test-Misc and click on the green triangle.
The green square opposite the pedal axis should light up, if the red one is on, the sensor is not connected to the BB.
Check the cable and show the Profile-Axes tab.

[Pomax]

Looks like that's green:

[Ron61]

The fact is that the 7th axis is divided by pedals and SEM. Perhaps by disabling the virtual axis on the SEM, the pedals in T-Link will start working. The second option is to use Z-Link2 to work with the GNX and then adjust the differential brakes.