M5stack Fire bricked !!!



  • Someone said it is almost impossible to brick a fire unit. Well I did it. I have three core modules, faces, core2, and fire. I was updating them to 1.75 and I messed up. I was confused an burned the core2 image to the fire unit. Now the fire core is dead in the water. It is dark, no signs of activity. It will not communicate on the com port. The burner just times out, waiting for a packet header. My faces, and core2 units are ok. My fire unit is gone. Any ideas on how to get it to communicate again ?

    I am windows 10 pro on a Thinkpad T420. I bought the laptop to dedicate it to core development. It is set up for Arduino and UIflow. Both work well. Neither one will communicate with dead fire.

    I am stuck. Perhaps one of the more experienced engineers can duplicate the problem and then fix it. I don’t really want to buy another unit.

    Ted, a retired pc tech. I do the support work for the elderly at the retirement home where I live in Watertown Wi. Fixing all sorts of things, except iPhones.

    I am really embarrassed I can’t fix this. If it is a lost cause, please tell me.



  • Hello @teddygag.
    I have experienced this before with a Stick-C+. Maybe the same fix might work for you:
    https://forum.m5stack.com/topic/1815/bricked-m5stickc-after-bad-axp192-config/4

    I succeeded in reviving it with a simple paperclip :) But please do some research first on wether you might need to add a capacitor when doing the same with your Fire.



  • 1st thing to do is DON'T Panic!
    Next remove the base and module leaving only the firecore.
    Plug a usb cable in and connect just the core section into a computer, go into hardware reports and check usb devices.
    Do you have a USB to UART adapter?
    Try the instructions on this page to use an external adapter
    https://docs.m5stack.com/#/en/tool/usb_downloader?id=esp32-downloader