Testo Datalogger 175H1 - Firmware upgrade went wrong - Dead

[Sorama]

hi guys (and girls),

So I succeeded in f*cking up a rather expensive datalogger (temperature and moisture) while upgrading it to new firmware.

I did the firmware upgrade using a Windows VM within my MacOS and during the upgrade the virtual machine (VM) disconnected/lost connection (I think) and the display of the logger went blank and seems dead.  Not a single reaction of the (single) button to light up the display.

When restarting the software utility for firmware upgrade, this tool does not see the logger anymore (neither in pure Windows environment).

As I am not into flashing/software/processors in general ( I used to repair audio for a few decades in the past century) I'm a bit lost in how to solve this.

What could have happened? Bootloader gone?
firmware wiped but no new version?
What would be the purpose of that 10 pin header/connector?

I did some basic measurement on the pcb and noticed than the xtal of the processor (a TI MSP430F5529, datasheet: https://www.ti.com/product/MSP430F5529) is not running, nor another small xtal.

Included some pictures of the pcb ...
logger is running on 3 * 1,5 V batteries (in series)

Anyone out there to help me understand what happened, what are the chances to revive and how would that go?
FYI, I have two other identical (running) loggers.

Tnx

[Sorama]

anyone?

It seems there is no oscillation going on at the xtal.
No ingoing, no outgoing, except for 1 time there was oscillation (at the right frequency of the xtal: 4MHz) but it came out of nowhere and a few minutes later disappeared ...

I don't see how an interrupted firmware upgrade can break the oscillation.

Vcore is ok I think (1,95V), DVCC1 and DVCC2 = 3V
PUR = 0V
VSSU = 0V

[Jeroen3]

Chips often boot on internal oscillator.
Since you've bricked the firmware, the external oscillator is never started.

If there was no physical method to enter the bootloader, you may need to manually pull some pin up. Quick glance at the datasheet mentions PUR.

The default USB BSL evaluates the logic level of the PUR pin after a BOR reset. If the PUR pin is
pulled high externally, then the BSL is invoked

However, they also mention a password...

The BSL password is equal to the
content of the interrupt vector table on the device.

If erase was successful this is all FF.

And you need a binary of course.

[Sorama]

Chips often boot on internal oscillator.
Since you've bricked the firmware, the external oscillator is never started.

If there was no physical method to enter the bootloader, you may need to manually pull some pin up. Quick glance at the datasheet mentions PUR.

The default USB BSL evaluates the logic level of the PUR pin after a BOR reset. If the PUR pin is
pulled high externally, then the BSL is invoked

However, they also mention a password...

The BSL password is equal to the
content of the interrupt vector table on the device.

If erase was successful this is all FF.

And you need a binary of course.

tnx.

But how do you explain that the firmware updater nor the other software for reading the logger, don't see the device anymore when connecting though usb?
even if the firmware is broken, the BSL is not and should be available to download new firmware, no?

Even windows device manager doesn't see the connection of the usb device.
How can I check/measure the processor is running?

I do have the binary of the firmware, which is a txt file (see attach).
It seems (at least, I think so) that there is a some file (BSL) for the bootlader to be uploaded first when doing firmware upgrade: see attachment.

What about the header/female connector on the pcb??
I followed the pins of this connector (why would this connector be there? ) and these are the pins (of the processor) that are available:

processor pins:
P1 + P39)  A4
P18 VCC1
P71 TEST
P74 TMS
P72 TDO
P73 Tclock
P23 TA0.1
P22 TA0.0
P75 TCK
P76 RST

[Jeroen3]

If the original firmware is no longer available, the button "Set logger to usb load mode" doesn't work anymore and you need to set specific hardware pins to a defined state to enable the rom bootloader when the chip exits reset state.

You can try the reference implementation of ti?:
https://software-dl.ti.com/msp430/msp430_public_sw/mcu/msp430/MSPBSL_Scripter/latest/index_FDS.html

[Sorama]

If the original firmware is no longer available, the button "Set logger to usb load mode" doesn't work anymore and you need to set specific hardware pins to a defined state to enable the rom bootloader when the chip exits reset state.

You can try the reference implementation of ti?:
https://software-dl.ti.com/msp430/msp430_public_sw/mcu/msp430/MSPBSL_Scripter/latest/index_FDS.html

tnx to @Jeroen3 for this info.

I went this route and ordered a cheap usb programmer for TI msp430 processors from olimex.com (Bulgaria).
After reverse engineering the available processor pins at the 10 pins connector on the pcb of the datalogger and wiring them to the (also female) connector of the programmer, I was able to reinitialize the bootloader and flash the original firmware again to the datalogger.

And behold...it's alive !

I now got a 390€ datalogger extra.

[Jeroen3]

Great news!

Funny that TI considers bootloader something you need a specialized adapter for.
This one? https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/BSL/MSP430-BSL/

I now got a 390€ datalogger extra.

Such is life.