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Easytouch V1 to V2 "brain transplant"

 A few years back I posted about the difference between an Easytouch 1 and 2... basically the Easytouch "revision 2" is a newer hardware revision but uses the same exact board and components as the Easytouch 1, except for the microcontroller which has 128k of flash instead of 64k.  This means you can update a revision 2 board with the latest 2.x firmware versions.  You can see the original article here.

Since posting that article, I've wanted to swap the microcontroller on a "V1" Easytouch with one that will make it a "V2" Easytouch... I finally did it and it works!  Figured I'd document the process in case anybody else felt like tinkering...

To do the swap, my first step was to get a microcontroller with 128k flash... I had an Easytouch V2 remote with a bad keypad, so I cut it open to grab a donor chip. The indoor, outdoor and wireless controllers all use the same microcontroller but they have different firmware.

The reason I used a donor chip was that I didn't know if the bootloader was part of Pentair's firmware file, and the thing won't run without a bootloader!  My hunch was that the bootloader was contained in the firmware file... since the firmware update routines appear write to ALL flash locations on the chip, I figured it must contain the bootloader code - but I wasn't confident enough to use a new blank chip on my first go.

To pull the v1 and donor chips, I first added some lead solder (lower melting point than the lead free stuff) and lots of flux to all the pins. I then used my hot air gun with this QFP tip to remove the chip:

Here's my V1 board with the chip pulled off. just gotta go around with some solder wick and clean up the pads:


Here's the old chip... see the 9S12A64 marking (the "64" indicates the flash size).  Pretend you don't see the capacitor that came off with the chip... I swear I used a heat shield!


Getting ready to scavenge the donor chip. Not really sure why I used the heat shield again since this is now a donor board:


Donor chip fitted on the old V1 board (still have to clean up the flux a bit):


After re-fitting the LCD and updating the firmware to an Easytouch V2 Outdoor 2.190... I powered it up, and it lives!  Guess I gotta pull the old "firmware 1060" sticker off the back now...


It works with a blank chip!

I can confirm that the process works when using a fresh chip rather than a donor... I had an Easytouch V1 indoor controller with a bad comm chip, so I soldered on a new blank chip when I pulled the LCD to replace the comms.  I updated the firmware to 2.190 and use it for testing on my bench.

Repair Tip:  Another great thing about being able to swap the chips is that in the past, a board was "not repairable" if the microcontroller was dead (i.e. from a lightning storm)... but now the board is fixable, albeit with a bit of extra time and effort.


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