NP-41 Emulator (may be)

[Chris Chung]

I had run some test w/ the USB-Serial interface.

For ROM loading:
They appears to be working correctly. I only loaded 1 ROM.
To avoid the possibility of corrupting the ROM spaces, I recommend to erase the ROM areas (A, B, C, and D) before loading them (1, 2, 3, 4).

For the bootloader:
You will need to get a bootloader image from me (np41v3.bin). I will put it up on a share drive later. The instructions are all good. And it is better to remove the battery and use the power from the USB cable. So you would press-and-hold [USER] key while plugging in the USB cable, when you got a blank screen, you should be in the bootloader mode. You then use a RealTerm to talk to the unit. Press any key once and you got a '?', press '@' and you will get a '>' and you can download firmware. Of course it is important not to interrupt the download. It would take about 1 min.

[*] However, currently after loading new firmware, NP41 will lock up at reboot, showing "MEMORY RESET" and cannot exit that. It is likely caused by the FRAM memory not cleaned up properly. There is a workaround and you will need to enter the serial menu (remove-insert battery) and do an erase ROM on all the 4 slots (A, B, C, D).

+mwthomasjr
Please let me know that you had exhausted your options and I will send you a replacement unit right-away. You will need to send back the problematic unit to me.
If you had access to a USB-Serial cable and is confident to try the bootloader, it is also a good option.

+Sylvain
Let me know the outcome of the additional key-press to identify if there is a genuine problem. Also do you have a USB-Serial cable?