Posts by AruM

I see. Although I've never managed to rip a microUSB-port off of a pcb, I can understand why this could be easier done than with miniUSB. Btw, is the same true for USB-C jacks? Could that be an alternative for a possible chameleon v3 (don't know if that will be a thing in the future, though)

Anyway, the high res pictures will take another two days or so. Continuing to go with murphy's law, my smartphone - or more precisely it's camera - was the next thing to break down. So I have to wait my brother can come over and help me take high quality pictures...

It's great (and in my case also somewhat unlucky) to hear that you only had one Chameleon v2 repair so far, and therefore cannot make any guesses on the repair cost. I thought maybe they are fairly similar to V1 and you could take your guesses from their or just your general repair experience. Don't get me wrong, I really don't need any exact numbers, just a ball park guess, if a repair could easily be the same as a new unit. Then it wouldn't make any sense,...at least economically

Mhhh, maybe I could indeed try out a new MiniUSB-cable. I have three lying around and I know that at least two of them worked for the Chameleon in the past. Unfortunately, I have no other device left, that uses MiniUSB for data-transmission...

But you never know,...it's at least something I could try. Still wished the Chameleon would use MicroUSB, since I (and probably most people) have dozens of cables lyring around with that connector. But you probably had your reasons for chosing MiniUSB, I guess.

Just ordered two datacables with that connector just to make sure.

I will certainly try to post highres pictures of the pcb on the weekend. Thanks for that advice, maybe you guys can spot something.

I'am not sure when it comes to repairs, though. It's nice to hear that you don't charge for unsuccessful repairs, but that still gives me no idea of the possible costs that would come with a successful one.
I know it's probably hard to guess as long as you don't know excactly what's broken and needs to be repaired. But maybe you can provide me with a min to max range, based on what chameleon repairs amounted to in the past? That would be helpful. Thanks again.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Jens.

You're certainly right when it comes to the value of the chameleon for the price. Still, over 200 EUR, although little for what you get, is still a lot of money for some people. Back then, I had the feeling the person selling it to me had financial trouble,...which quite frankly was the reason why I was looking into buying one second-hand myself.

Anyhow, thanks for your suggestions. I already tried all those steps in the last few days. I removed everything including the battery, tried various USB-cables, inserted them at various angles, gently wiggled around like an idiot, tried different monitors...Nothing worked.

The green led turns on, then the red one - no flickering on any of them - but nothing on the screen and no connection in Chaco.

I also checked the device manager like you suggested, but it displays no new devices upon connecting and there's nothing marked with a yellow triangle either.

I also took the time to inspect the solder joints under a maginfyinger, but couldn't detect anything obvious (I'm not a pro, though).
That's why I thought maybe it could be a broken IC or something. But you're the man and you know your stuff. If you say it's unlikely, then that's probably true.

You wouldn't happen to have any other advice for me, would you?

Otherwise I fear my Chameleon is just busted

Oh man,...that sounds bad,....and expensive .

But thanks, anyway, Tobias.

Thanks for replying so fast, Tobias.

Do you mean the microcontroller needs reflashing using the methods mentioned in the manual (with the hex-file provided by you guys)?
Or do you mean like really broken so that the controller itself needs relacing?

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions, but I already tried ALL of them. For real. I spend literally a dozen hours with this problem already and really hope Jens can help

Hey guys,

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a second-hand Chameleon v2 sometime last year. I fiddled around with it a few times, only using the C64-Core in standalone mode. Then I stuck it in the closet for far too long.

Last weekend I decided it was time for a little nostalgia.

I flashed the newest firmware (Beta-9p) using Chaco on Windows 10 and finally tried to flash some additional cores to it. I went for the Vic20 Core that was linked in the wiki, flashed it in slot1, inserted a freshly formated SD-Card afterwards, lanched the core aaaaaaand....nothing!

The Monitor went black, the green and red leds on the chameleon stayed on, that was it. I restarted the device a few times. NOTHING, the monitor stayed dark!

I instantly tried to reflash the core but then discovered that no version of Chaco (I tried several) could connect to the Chameleon anymore. Chacocmd says "USB initialization failed" and the Chaco-GUI-Version just gives me "ERROR: No Chameleon found on Bus".

I think by now I tried the most obvious fixed mentioned in the manual.

- disconected everything that was not necessary

- restarted countless times (also with all mentioned buttons pressed - individually of course - on the keyboard and chameleon itself)

- Chaco and Chacocmd in different versions 3 diffent machines (Windows and Linux)

- tried different monitors, cables and power supply....

Nothing,....and I'm ready to throw in the towel. The last thing I stumbled upon in the manual was the section about reflashing the microcontroller on the board, which I haven't tried because it mentions something about a necessary hex-file. Could that be the solution?

I would highly appreciate if someone could share some advice. I really don't know where I went wrong and would absolutely hate to throw my chameleon out.

cheers

Aru