How to Recover from a Bad Firmware Upgrade on Anet ET4 3D Printer
Hey, Karl here with a really quick how-to. This how-to is to help everyone who has bricked their Anet ET4 printer after upgrading firmware on the printer. Anet reached out for a review of the ER4 and I recently gave one printer to a buddy of mine and he showed a lot of enthusiasm. I thought it would be interesting to do a review from someone less experienced. I asked him if he would like to do it and he accepted. I wanted to help him with unboxing and initial setup so we fired up a YouTube Livestream. The build went smooth but because the UI is lacking finish I went searching for updates. It is not uncommon to flash firmware, and after a little googling I found updated firmware and was hoping to fix the UI. We followed the directions but the machine got hung at the logo after rebooting. Damn. After a little more searching found directions from Anet showing how to recover. It required a specific version of J-link software and I was unable to find it. I believe it is not free after reading posts. No one would upload it to the FB files section and had to be shared directly. Unfortunately due to holiday and the coronavirus outbreak in China I didn’t bother to contact Anet and set out on my own to resolve the issue. After some searching, I found one user who took a firmware snapshot of a working ET4 with an ST-Link V2 debugger and thankful he shared it with me. I will share the process and files below.
Why
I was curious why the firmware didn’t work. Some people in the Facebook forum had no issues but a lot did. After we got stuck I joined the FB group and starting searching. It turns out that everyone said to format the SD card before flashing. What we experienced was the printer getting stuck at the boot logo. I put the SD card in my reader and connected it to my PC. It needed to be formatted and everything was lost. I suspect Anet SD cloning process left the card in a bad state.
What is needed
I wasn’t sure I was going to be successful so I bought the cheapest ST-Link debugger on Amazon: $6.29 shipped with prime and 2-day shipping. Here is a link to ST-Link Utility and 2 versions of the firmware. If you want to download utility direct it is here. Original recovery instructions are also included using J-link software. I also used a USB extension cable I already had.
I used the included jumpers connecting GND SWC and SWD. Notice the notch on the pinout diagram of the st-link adapter. Turn the printer on.
Picture pulled from Anet instructions
Open one of the bin files
Click on Target->Program
That’s it. Super easy and no proprietary hardware. Big thanks to Michal for downloading the original img. Happy printing!
I had this problem as well, I emailed ANET and they suggested I used the JLINK tool (I have the tool mentioned here not j link). ANET emailed me a firmware file (.bin) and a .hex file. I tried using the HEX file and used the “program and verify” option in the STM32 utility and pointed it to the HEX file and now my printer is working again. here is the Hex file, hope that helps https://drive.google.com/open?id=1h7th4c-whtm_fzmBC_WRe7bdt8cS1ZvK
Man, you saved me, i was going crazy because I tried to update my printer using j-flash but it was stuck in the white screen, your file helped me a lot, thank you!
I bricked my ET4 and being a smart ass I flashed the firmware provided by Anet in their website, this ended up blowing up the bootloader as well! (I used a raspberry pi that was lying around to program the board using OpenOCD) On closer inspection, the reset handler for the ARM controller was at 0x080102A1 (second 32-bit word in the binary, little-endian) in the website binary, D’oh! This means the website binary is meant to sit at an offset, presumably at 0x08010000! Should have noticed sooner! This is 0x08000229 in your binary, so it works! Thanks for taking the… Read more »
Hi Mohit, I´ve read your post about raspberry and openocd, maybe I´m doing any bad because I can´t, could you send me a link where this option will be explained? thanks in advance¡¡
Mitch
4 years ago
I’m trying to accomplish this. But every time, I get a message “No target connected.” How can I fix this? Would love to get this ET4 to stop being a paper weight.
please, can someone make a copy of the printer firmware because i did the firmware installation procedure and my printer now has a white screen. arm accepts the firmware but nothing else does.
Karl
4 years ago
Ok I think I see why several comments talk about white screen after flashing with the tool I reference in the article. You can’t flash the file provided by anet with this tool and flasher. Please use one of the hex files I provided. It’s a bit for bit image of the storage. The image provided with anet is not a full backup.
Is it possible to get the hex file into the printer with the help of the update function in cura?
Bishop
4 years ago
Thia was a great tutorial, thank you!!
junior
4 years ago
I updated to the latest firmware (1.1.5) and now power loss recovery does not work. Would anyone have a solution? Thanks
Jesse Kelly
4 years ago
Karl, All this discussion is way above me! I have no clue but hope to avoid this bricking scenario. I have an Anet Et4 that I bought about 3 months ago and just fired up. Before I upgrade the firmware is there any instructions on exactly how to do it so I can avoid what everyone is going through? Tks
Kill Joy
4 years ago
waste of my time, followed the vague short instructions and all it did was lead me to a white screen.
In that case you probably re-flashed it with the un-useable 1.1.5 (in your case, and mine) just accept that its no use to you and relash with 1.1.2 and wait with the rest of us until ANET get there act together and support this otherwise unpoular, average printer; something that they are clearly not that enthused about doing…
Kay so here’s my journey. I have a ET4, ordered a silent board but they sent me a et4+. So i flashed to a standard et4 with your help and it worked fine .. then after I upgraded with the Anet 4.1.1.2. Much beter. Now I have used your process to flash merlin 2.0 onto it .. awesome ..
Igor
4 years ago
I have “anet et4 pro”. And after firmware update I had a break. May be you have the normal “et4 pro” firmware?
Hi, thank you very much for this guide. Have you a original firmware for Ets4 Pro? Thank you
John
2 years ago
Hi
How can I restore the original bootloader, also? And where can I find it?
Many thanks!!!
Neil Mills
2 years ago
Outstanding just recovered my ET4X many thanks
Tim
8 months ago
Hi, I thought I’d put the Marlin software on it, but it doesn’t know the right end switch. Can I get the original on it again with this software and way, as I can’t find an anet bootloader anywhere.
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Great article! Thank you!
Hi, I’m testing but I can’t connect, could you upload a video?
Sure. Double check your connection and make sure the printer is on
The connections are correct and the printer is on.
What could it be?
Hola, lo pudiste solucionar? yo tampoco soy capaz de conectarme, el cableado está bien y la impresora encendida.
after updating, the printer has a white screen, can you tell me if you have any settings in the recording program?
I had this problem as well, I emailed ANET and they suggested I used the JLINK tool (I have the tool mentioned here not j link). ANET emailed me a firmware file (.bin) and a .hex file. I tried using the HEX file and used the “program and verify” option in the STM32 utility and pointed it to the HEX file and now my printer is working again. here is the Hex file, hope that helps https://drive.google.com/open?id=1h7th4c-whtm_fzmBC_WRe7bdt8cS1ZvK
Man, you saved me, i was going crazy because I tried to update my printer using j-flash but it was stuck in the white screen, your file helped me a lot, thank you!
You are a life saver bro!! Thank you so much!!
Thank you a LOT!!! You have saved my reputation 🙂
muchas gracias, eres un verdadero heroe
gracias por el archivo .hex me funcionó y pude sacar mi impresora de la latencia. Muchisimas gracias de nuevo.
thank you
I bricked my ET4 and being a smart ass I flashed the firmware provided by Anet in their website, this ended up blowing up the bootloader as well! (I used a raspberry pi that was lying around to program the board using OpenOCD) On closer inspection, the reset handler for the ARM controller was at 0x080102A1 (second 32-bit word in the binary, little-endian) in the website binary, D’oh! This means the website binary is meant to sit at an offset, presumably at 0x08010000! Should have noticed sooner! This is 0x08000229 in your binary, so it works! Thanks for taking the… Read more »
Awesome. I knew it would help. Big thanks to Michal for the original img.
hello, could you explain how you connected to the anet et4 board with the raspberry pi, to repair the frimware?
Hi Mohit, I´ve read your post about raspberry and openocd, maybe I´m doing any bad because I can´t, could you send me a link where this option will be explained? thanks in advance¡¡
I’m trying to accomplish this. But every time, I get a message “No target connected.” How can I fix this? Would love to get this ET4 to stop being a paper weight.
Did you figure out?
After I followed these directions my printer went from the ANET logo being frozen, to just a white screen.
I wonder if they made a revision of the board.
You must flash the img I link to in the article.
please, can someone make a copy of the printer firmware because i did the firmware installation procedure and my printer now has a white screen. arm accepts the firmware but nothing else does.
Ok I think I see why several comments talk about white screen after flashing with the tool I reference in the article. You can’t flash the file provided by anet with this tool and flasher. Please use one of the hex files I provided. It’s a bit for bit image of the storage. The image provided with anet is not a full backup.
with the .hex file, the printer is up and running again.
but to delete the chip before saving the .hex file
Thank you for your help
Is it possible to get the hex file into the printer with the help of the update function in cura?
Thia was a great tutorial, thank you!!
I updated to the latest firmware (1.1.5) and now power loss recovery does not work. Would anyone have a solution? Thanks
Karl, All this discussion is way above me! I have no clue but hope to avoid this bricking scenario. I have an Anet Et4 that I bought about 3 months ago and just fired up. Before I upgrade the firmware is there any instructions on exactly how to do it so I can avoid what everyone is going through? Tks
waste of my time, followed the vague short instructions and all it did was lead me to a white screen.
In that case you probably re-flashed it with the un-useable 1.1.5 (in your case, and mine) just accept that its no use to you and relash with 1.1.2 and wait with the rest of us until ANET get there act together and support this otherwise unpoular, average printer; something that they are clearly not that enthused about doing…
Any clue if it will work with a usbasp ?
I searched and searched for a way without this programmer with no luck
Kay so here’s my journey. I have a ET4, ordered a silent board but they sent me a et4+. So i flashed to a standard et4 with your help and it worked fine .. then after I upgraded with the Anet 4.1.1.2. Much beter. Now I have used your process to flash merlin 2.0 onto it .. awesome ..
I have “anet et4 pro”. And after firmware update I had a break. May be you have the normal “et4 pro” firmware?
well I have just got a brand new et4 pro board for replacing,I could try to get the original image, but I dont know how
same, i need et4 pro firmware
Did Power resume problem solved
Hi, thank you very much for this guide. Have you a original firmware for Ets4 Pro? Thank you
Hi
How can I restore the original bootloader, also? And where can I find it?
Many thanks!!!
Outstanding just recovered my ET4X many thanks
Hi, I thought I’d put the Marlin software on it, but it doesn’t know the right end switch. Can I get the original on it again with this software and way, as I can’t find an anet bootloader anywhere.