Not that I have that issue, but I have read conflicting posts about subject.
Example a B70 Phonak loses communication with an icube ii and locks.
Can a Hipro unlock it ? Reset it ?
Some say you can do it with a Hipro, others say you have to send it in to Phonak.
Just like to be prepared and know what resources to have on hand.
TIA
I think the HiPro is just a piece of hardware that provides the connection between the hearing aids and the HA mfg programming software on the computer. So it’s not a question of whether the HiPro can unlock a bricked Phonak aid. It’s more like whether the Phonak programming software can do anything to reset and/or unlock the bricked HA or not?
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So there is no difference between a direct connect hi pro over a wireless icube ii when trying to reset a locked aid ?
I was given the impression the wireless was useless at this point where a direct connect would do the job ?
Was reading this
Hearing aid stopped responding to Icube.IPFG says"system can't communicate with drive
Someone said a hipro can unlock it.
If using the HiPro will enable the HA to be unbricked/unlocked, it’s not because the HiPro has the smart inside itself to do it per se. It’s only because the programming software decides that it has to have the HiPro (or actually more like it wants to have a wired connection) so that it can unlock/unbrick the HA more safely.
That’s why a lot of programming software (like the Oticon Genie 2 for example) requires a wired connection either through the HiPro or MiniPro or ExpressLink (in the case of Oticon HAs) in order to do a firmware update, because the wired connection is the most stable connection not susceptible to interruption/disconnect like with wireless connection.
So if the programming software can unlock/unbrick an HA, it may use the same logic of requiring a stable/uninterrupted connection to avoid messing up the firmware further.
The iCube II is too new and we have not had many/any instances to know about hearing aids/HAs that were bricked when the wireless communication fails.
We do know that when iCube bricked a HA that a Hi-Pro could be used to fix it. We also knew not to give up on the failing/failed iCube communication, that maybe you could recover the wireless communications by unplugging/plugging-in-again the iCube.
We also know that Phonak later added a Reset feature to the Fitting Software so that the iCube could be used to reset the HAs to factory defaults.
The Software Reset feature works with iCube II same as it worked with iCube;
Target 5.2.1 Tools/Reset to factory Settings/iCubes
Target 5.2.1 Tools/Reset to factory Settings/Hearing Instruments
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Yes and no, but using a Hi-pro connection is advised for stability.
If Target can perform an overwrite which clears the issue, then as with all upgrades/eeprom remaps the wired connection is preferable as it eliminates stray wireless nonsense getting uploaded into the aid.
If the Aid is bricked beyond the powers of a simple re-flash and re-start then no, it’s got to go back to Phonak - where they’ll probably bin the circuit and send you out another one with the same serial number coded onto it.
Of the Sonova hearing aids that I have programmed, nearly all using the I-Cube1/2 I’ve had fewer than half a dozen ‘brick’ by the process. Of those I’d say 50% responded to a re-write and 50% didn’t.
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Yikes! I think when you say “re-write” I think you are saying that this tool in Target
Tools/Reset to factory Settings/Hearing instruments
only works about half the time and the other half of bricked HAs had to be sent back to the factory. Did I get that right?
I agree that a wired connection is preferable but the wireless communication protocol does have error detection to prevent picking up stray wireless nonsense. The glitch more likely to occur with wireless is loss of wireless communication by interference or by moving beyond the wireless communication distance.
Yes, sometimes they are scrambled beyond what Target/TrueFit can do. In that case Phonak will usually ‘replace electronics’ as part of the repair coding - which I assume means binning the chipset and the mics.
I’m not claiming that the 50% is representative of the actual reset vs. bin figure through.
I was told the biggest issue in this respect is when the chip has been exposed to ESD, sometimes the aid will work as normal, but when you try to re-program the EEPROM, one of the blocks that allows the communication is fried and causes a bad ‘write’ to the memory, thereby affecting the overall performance/bricking the aid.
Hmmmmm; Hearing Instruments/HIs that are impaired by ESD is a horse of a different color.
If you are trying to re-program the EEPROM (aka re-write, aka Firmware update, aka Tools/Reset to factory Settings/Hearing instruments), and, if the software that wireless communicates with iCube/iCube II is the part that has been damaged/fried then yes, the HI is bricked for wireless communication. Yes, the HIs could still work when only the wireless communication section of EEPROM got fried.
But it was bricked by sustaining physical damage. Not by simply losing wireless communication with your HIs due to interference or by moving out of wireless range.
For undamaged HIs that simply lost wireless wireless communications with the HIs, the Reset to factory defaults should work.
I thought I had messed up my Phonak Sky Q70 UP with my iCube II as the reset was not finishing and kept saying there was a firmware update. Went to the firmware settings and that wasn’t finishing either and kept telling me to factory reset the HAs before doing the firmware update. After about 30 tries, the HAs finally finished there factory reset and there was no firmware update available.
30 tries at what? Trying to do a factory reset? Maybe you had two updates (Firmware, Reset) competing to overwrite EEPROM? Do you know how long it takes to Reset to factory defaults, just in case you were being impatient?
Oticon Opn Firmware Updates takes almost half an hour!
About 30 tires at factory resetting the HAs.
I wasn’t being impatient as it tells me when it gets to 100% and you can hear the musical tune in my HA telling me it’s just turned on.
Oh, okay. For comparison to Oticon Opn did it take 30 minutes?
It took between 5 and 10 minutes.
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The two firmware updates I have done on my Oticon OPN 1 hearing aids have both taken about 3 or 4 minutes using the Expresslink 3.0 device.
On the MiniPro it took almost half an hour for me.
I’ve gotten several BIOS upgrades on my new computer. One took some time; another was brief. Assumed one did a full rewrite while the other made small changes. Would assume something similar with varied HA upgrades.