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V2 A600 - Upgrade Without a USB Blaster ??

Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
06 Mar 2018 21:33


Hello! love my V2, great card, but is there any update on upgrading, without a USB blaster? I can see why you have chosen to make it mandatory, as it's the only way to recover the borked card,  but when i bought my card and was told, "register your vampire for free future core updates", i didn't think this meant that i had to have a blaster, or make changes to the product with a soldering iron, something i am not too confident in doing.

Can I upgrade my core without a USB blaster thing? or without having to solder anything?

thanks :)


Leigh Russ

Posts 151
06 Mar 2018 21:35


The version that can be flashed without a blaster was released a while ago.

EXTERNAL LINK 
You may need to upgrade your capacitors if it doesn't boot. You will still need a blaster if you want to try the x12 core


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
06 Mar 2018 23:26


thanks for that Leigh, i downloaded the A600 EXE update, as in your link, and the instructions in it are for the A500. so kinda confused now.

Is the upgraded caps only for the X12 upgrade, which, i am not gonna touch, or is that for the 2.7 upgrade in general?




Leigh Russ

Posts 151
06 Mar 2018 23:59


I did point out to them that the instructions file is incorrect. They advised however that the instructions are also valid for the v600

Regarding the caps, it's likely to be needed for x11 too. You won't really know until you try it, hence why it's best to have a blaster to be able to unbrick it if required

Before I don't the capacitors on mine, I managed to downgrade mine to core 2.5 without a blaster by holding both mouse buttons on boot to enter he early startup menu. Then disabled the caches (to enable turtle mode) which allowed me to boot. I could then flash 2.5 without issue (it just takes a while due to turtle mode) then all good again


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
07 Mar 2018 01:36


thanks again, if it needs a caps upgrade just for the vanilla 2.7 release, which, i have been waiting an eternity on, then i am not gonna be best pleased.

Part of me buying one was the promise of future updates, that where "so easy to do", so, if the upgrade to 2.7 x11, still requires a soldering iron in hand, then i am gonna be really angry. If these boards where built with caps that where not up to the task, and i mean even for the vanilla x11 upgrade, then they really should be recalled and fixed, or at the very least, release a new update, that's stable on the Vs A600 without any modification required. What's worse, is to be told, "try it and see", how the team can release an update that *might* bork your V2 card, is a bit asinine at best, and dangerous at worse.

I dont wanna solder my card, i dont see how i should, the update should work fine all cards, because if it doesn't, then, it's not really an update is it, and does soldering the card void any warranty?

i love the work the team have done, but to wait this long, and this is the first update for my A600 card, and to be told, "you might brick it without changing the caps", is shocking.


Leigh Russ

Posts 151
07 Mar 2018 01:44


I have a few stability issues with mine at present even after upgrading my caps. Gunnar has advised to try loading the SAFE core on it to test it further. This appears to be the same core but running at X10

Need a blaster to flash it though else it could also be worth a try should the x11 one not work


Renaud Schweingruber
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 378
07 Mar 2018 06:55


Knight Stone wrote:

thanks for that Leigh, i downloaded the A600 EXE update, as in your link, and the instructions in it are for the A500. so kinda confused now.

Fixed typo in instructions. Basically they are exactly the same on both V500 and V600.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
07 Mar 2018 07:18


Knight Stone wrote:

  Hello! love my V2, great card, but is there any update on upgrading, without a USB blaster?
 

 
I would strongly recommend that you buy a USB-Blaster.
Every owner of a VAMP should have a USB-Blaster ($4) and DIGITAL-VIDEO Repeater($2).
 


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
07 Mar 2018 08:12


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Knight Stone wrote:

  Hello! love my V2, great card, but is there any update on upgrading, without a USB blaster?
 

   
  I would strongly recommend that you buy a USB-Blaster.
  Every owner of a VAMP should have a USB-Blaster ($4) and DIGITAL-VIDEO Repeater($2).

thanks for that, if every user should have one, can you post a link to a blaster and repeater you would recommend?




Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
07 Mar 2018 08:24


Knight Stone wrote:

Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
Knight Stone wrote:

    Hello! love my V2, great card, but is there any update on upgrading, without a USB blaster?
   

   
  I would strongly recommend that you buy a USB-Blaster.
  Every owner of a VAMP should have a USB-Blaster ($4) and DIGITAL-VIDEO Repeater($2).
 
 

 
 
  thanks for that, if every user should have one, can you post a link to a blaster and repeater you would recommend?

ALTERA USB_Blaster you can find for example on EBAY.
Search for:
"altera mini Usb Blaster"
you should find them for around $3-$4 from china including shipping

DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater also on Ebay
Search for "4k*2k DIGITAL-VIDEO Repeater" they should be around $2-$3 including shipping.

What else do you use with your VAMP?
Do you use a CF card?

I can highly recommend a 32 GB CF card to use this new Apollo OS.
I got my CF cards from Amazon (SANDISK Ultra 32GB)



Angel Valdes

Posts 6
08 Feb 2021 03:43


Hi Gunnar,
I did purchased the USB Blaster, but never knew about the video repeater. What is it for? and I can not find it in ebay, could you please share a link to an example?
Thanks!


Edgar Fink

Posts 47
08 Feb 2021 10:35


I am also curious, why is a DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater recommended?


Antony Coello

Posts 153
08 Feb 2021 12:53


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIGITAL-VIDEO-Repeater-Extender-Amplifier-4K-X-2K-Female-to-Female-Signal-Booster-DC/293994572944?hash=item4473712c90:g:MAAAAOSwLEJgG-ze
   
    Look at photos for explanation!  :)
 
  * REMEMBER* to change DIGITAL-VIDEO in the above link to haich dee emm eye! ;D

Im guessing you dont know that that 4 letter acronym is copyrighted, so this forum replaces any occurences of that with 'DIGITAL-VIDEO'.


Edgar Fink

Posts 47
09 Feb 2021 09:30


Thanks Antony.

I still don't get why the repeater is recommeded, though. I have a perfectly working V1200 setup without one.

Is it because the signal from the vampire is not strong enough for all tvs/monitors and needs to be amplified?


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
09 Feb 2021 13:33


Some TV/Monitors are more sensitive than others. I have one Vampire setup on a newer Samsung and it's flaky without a repeater or in my case I use an H.D.M.I/SCART to H.D.M.I scaler box. However an older 4:3 LCD on my other setup is perfectly fine with just a direct connection.


Michael Piano

Posts 39
09 Feb 2021 15:34


I just bought one of these to share the second 32 inch monitor on my PC with my Vampire v4 as well as TheC64. It also splits out the audio from the DIGITAL-VIDEO. My monitor sound wasn't cooperating.

EXTERNAL LINK

posts 16