[solved] FC-6 Controllers wont boot, only shows Firmware version

[Old_Soul]

We'll know if GC resells it because the buyer will most likely find this forum and come ask the same question.... That's what I would do anyway.

 

[Rick]

Yeah - problem is I can't flash a new FC firmware because the FX3 doesn't see any FC controllers

It is a bit surprising that there isn't a method to flash the FC independently via Fractal-Bot, as it does have a USB port. Maybe the need for that capability will be noticed from this type of thread. After a long, long history with the Axe FX family of devices, I'm just a few months in on using the FC controllers. I knew they updated via the "host" unit, but I was unaware they could not update or back up on their own.

Learning something new every day!

@Admin M@ or @BryantP - Question for you, sirs. I see the USB port of the FC is reserved for future use, but is there any plan to allow firmware updating through the port via Fractal-Bot that you could share?

 

[Bman]

I'm getting the exact same error when trying to upgrade my FC-6 FW from 1.11 to 1.12 (orig)- AxeFX3 (orig...not Mark II). I recently upgraded the AxeFxIII FW to the 23.00 series and noticed that there was odd things happening after upgrading to FW23.00 Beta 2 Public. I tried to upgrade the FC-6 to 1.12 and through Fractal Bot and got the same error where hundreds of dialog boxes appear and you have to use the task manager or end the process.

I rebooted, left it at FC-1.11 and was able to use both the FC and FW23.00 Beta 2 Public but had some lag in the FC-6 every now and then. Today I tried to update to FW23.00 Candidate 2 (beta 7) and the FC-6 would not work at all. So I tried installing FW 1.12 (original), directly downloaded from Fractal's web page and the multi-dialog error happened again (and again x3). Unplugged all, including FC, rebooted with Fas Link plugged in and tried it without Fas Link plugged in. The FC-6 was stuck on the ver. screen showing 1.11.

I just re-installed FW 23.00 Public and things seem to be working to where I can play and use the FC unit. There's is some lag in the FC unit, like I noticed back in when FW 23.00 was available. Right now I'm just happy that I can play. I was sweating bullets for a couple of hours thinking this would be a daylong, maybe month long trouble shooting effort.

I hesitated to post because usually someone has posted the same issue and it's resolved somewhere in the forum, if you bother to find it. If that's the case here, I apologize for not being able to find it. But this post that I quoted displayed the same problem I was seeing and the correspondence is relatively new.

I can live with 23.00 Public. I don't play live (much) and as far as I can tell it's functioning at a level that I can deal with. I would like to upgrade the FC-6 unit to the latest firmware. But I'm worried about attempting it. Right now I'm going to back up all (23.00 public, presets, global etc.) and hopefully play on while keeping an eye on this thread. Note: I have NOT done a full system hard reset. I'd be willing to do the full reset after I back up if the community/fractal team thinks that it would be beneficial or it would help troubleshooting since as far as I can tell @visualsuplex and I appear to have the same error. I'm reluctant because I don't want to be without my Fractal. The wife is going out of town for a week and half. It is CRITICAL that I'm able to jam....lol.

Update on the problem I was/am having: I was not able to install FW. 1.12 until I updated to the latest USB FW. Prior to upgrading the USB Firmware, when trying to install FW 1.12 from 1.11, I would get the error in the image below. Now that I've upgraded to FW 23.04 and FW 1.12 my FC-6 switches fine but is slow to change layouts or light up the buttons to represent the scene or preset I've changed to. The switching is fast on the AXE fx 3 (Mark 1) but the FC-6 is slow to catch up, if that makes sense. I'll keep digging today to see if anyone else has already resolved the slow switching. I may go back to 23.00 beta to see if it's slow on the FC-6. The FW 23.00 beta seems to be 'ground zero' for when everything switches smooth. The FW releases after that have all given me problems with the FC-6.

Takeaway so far: Make sure your USB Firmware is up to date prior to upgrading the FC firmware. Hopefully that helps someone w/ similar issues. Hopefully I can resolve the 2nd issue (latent FC-6 display).

 

[unix-guy]

Update on the problem I was/am having: I was not able to install FW. 1.12 until I updated to the latest USB FW. Prior to upgrading the USB Firmware, when trying to install FW 1.12 from 1.11, I would get the error in the image below. Now that I've upgraded to FW 23.04 and FW 1.12 my FC-6 switches fine but is slow to change layouts or light up the buttons to represent the scene or preset I've changed to. The switching is fast on the AXE fx 3 (Mark 1) but the FC-6 is slow to catch up, if that makes sense. I'll keep digging today to see if anyone else has already resolved the slow switching. I may go back to 23.00 beta to see if it's slow on the FC-6. The FW 23.00 beta seems to be 'ground zero' for when everything switches smooth. The FW releases after that have all given me problems with the FC-6.

Takeaway so far: Make sure your USB Firmware is up to date prior to upgrading the FC firmware. Hopefully that helps someone w/ similar issues. Hopefully I can resolve the 2nd issue (latent FC-6 display).

View attachment 130731

Have you contacted support? Tried different cables?

 

[Bman]

Have you contacted support? Tried different cables?

I have not...to both questions. I wouldn't think it's the cable because the latency was not there on the 23.00 beta FW. It may be that a Fractal Fas Link cable would improve the situation. I'm assuming that my FC -6 was shipped with a FAS-Link because of this from the Fractal web page: "Connecting the FC requires a FASLINK™ XLR cable, not included but available through this store."

I'm blindly assuming I bought the FASLINK cable when I bought the Axefx3/FC-6 bundle 3 years ago. I could be wrong. The cable doesn't have any Fractal branding that I see on the cables currently on their web site.

It's odd that the switching is immediate but the display lags which is a better trade off if the opposite were happening. FW 23.00's release has been incredible as far as the seamless switching of scenes and presets. I'll reach out to support if I can't resolve it or if it becomes too inconvenient.

Thanks for responding with your suggestions. I appreciate it. I can certainly try a different XLR cable to check that box.

 

[Bman]

Found the issue:

It's related to the CPU %. My preset was pushing the limit at about 89% with a red warning. I noticed on the simpler presets the switching and display was more immediate. Cleaned up my main preset to knock down the CPU to 84% and I'm back in business.

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future. I haven't seen any posts on the forum that point this out but I also haven't looked.