KHG DIY or Alternative Reagent

[laythy]

I'd love to see one of the locked up units to see what they did.
It'll be something stored in NVRAM, not a fuse burn.

Unfortunately (fortunately) I don't know anyone nearby who has ha

u think its in the nvram? i can get it read and see what comes off it? what do i need haddware wise to read it? i think my younger brother program adrinu and have readers etc. i been off the programming loop for ages lol.

 

[laythy]

I'd love to see one of the locked up units to see what they did.
It'll be something stored in NVRAM, not a fuse burn.

Unfortunately (fortunately) I don't know anyone nearby who has had that problem.

you in the US? i could send you mine if you local.

 

[gbroadbridge]

u think its in the nvram? i can get it read and see what comes off it? what do i need haddware wise to read it? i think my younger brother program adrinu and have readers etc. i been off the programming loop for ages lol.

First step is to determine the MCU that the device uses.
If it's a Microchip Technology MCU, you could potentially use an ICD4 to probe it.

There are lots of possibilities in terms of hardware some more tricky than others, which is why I said I'd need to see one

I'm not local by a long shot

 

[Jposch]

I really do think if they got rid if that lock and cut reagent price down to like half, they sell more units, as there would be less frustrated current users, and more people recommending them.
I totally get the subscription model. I hate it, but I get it. Just stop robbing people, and then punishing them for working around your extortion.
I'd really like to get 1 or 2 more, but this reagent BS leaves me not wanting to. I have no desire to buy a full controller just to run an automatic alkalinity test, so neptune can also pound sand. The hydros Isolated Vessel looked promising, but idk where that went (or didn't)

 

[laythy]

well, now i got it to lock up completely lol. i tried to downgrade the firmware thinking maybe it will work. got v8 and started installing and all i get now is the screen showing the solid line across the whole thing.

 

[Sean Clark]

well, now i got it to lock up completely lol. i tried to downgrade the firmware thinking maybe it will work. got v8 and started installing and all i get now is the screen showing the solid line across the whole thing.

Can you show us what board you have?

 

[Sean Clark]

i have obtained an original krs and when i started using it my khg gave me rf-err which is basically telling me im using non original liquid lol.

How did you come to this conclusion of the meaning of the rf-err?
Do you have a reference?

You need to run older firmware if your unit was built with firmware v9.003 or later. @Sean Clark has an old, but upgraded unit. And seems to not have that lock "feature."

This may be true.
Full disclosure, I am on my third unit.

The first one was among the first us release. No issues.

The second was a replacement of the first due to the original board not being able to allow for firmware updates. This was an early production oversight. No issues otherwise.

The third was a replacement due to an unknown hardware failure. The unit was sent in for "repair" and was sent back as "repaired" but I soon found out that it was actually Replaced with a different unit even though I was told in writing that it was repaired not replaced.

This is the unit that I am still running.

 

[laythy]

rf-err in the user manual states that the unit is locked up and need to be sent for unlocking. 100 bucks extortion fee lol. i tried flashing to earlier formware and the above is what happened. here is my board.

 

[laythy]

btw i tried to flash firmware from sd (assuming im doing it right) and nothing is happening. at this point im gonna try to get a new mobo for it i dont want to send this to be unlocked that way i can further investigate this. but in all honesty i dont even want to get the khg to work anymore if im gonna he forced to buy their reagent i might as well use trident.

 

[bozo]

btw i tried to flash firmware from sd (assuming im doing it right) and nothing is happening. at this point im gonna try to get a new mobo for it i dont want to send this to be unlocked that way i can further investigate this. but in all honesty i dont even want to get the khg to work anymore if im gonna he forced to buy their reagent i might as well use trident.

were you able to unlock it?

 

[bozo]

Are we able to downgrade to a lower firmware?

I'm on 9.1R20 on the Model M version. 2 Pump model. No doser.

Thanks!

 

[Jposch]

Are we able to downgrade to a lower firmware?

I'm on 9.1R20 on the Model M version. 2 Pump model. No doser.

Thanks!

Yes. A link to download old Fw is posted in this thread...somewhere. lol

 

[Jposch]

Are we able to downgrade to a lower firmware?

I'm on 9.1R20 on the Model M version. 2 Pump model. No doser.

Thanks!

Assuming you haven't bricked it yet. I will not be even slightly surprised if new firmware releases do something to lock the unit if tou attempt to downgrade firmware to a point earlier than when they implemented the authentication.

 

[bozo]

Assuming you haven't bricked it yet. I will not be even slightly surprised if new firmware releases do something to lock the unit if tou attempt to downgrade firmware to a point earlier than when they implemented the authentication.

I just set my KHG up and now I'm downgrading to 9.003

I said screw it lol. Was pretty scared. Hopefully it turns out ok

KHG Firmware Changelog

docs.google.com

 

[bozo]

 

[Jposch]

Been running that one for almost a year with diy reagent. Approximately 10ml/gallon of rodi of HCL/MURIATIC ACID. the 32.5% or 20° baum. Adjust the khg offset to match salifert. Initially, it's very close to match your diy reagent pH to the oem stuff.

 

[coralbeauties]

Assuming you haven't bricked it yet. I will not be even slightly surprised if new firmware releases do something to lock the unit if tou attempt to downgrade firmware to a point earlier than when they implemented the authentication.

What is the authentication you mentioned? I have been running older firmware with diy reagent for years. If I upgrade the firmware I risk problems with using diy reagent?
Thanks
Jeff

 

[Jposch]

What is the authentication you mentioned? I have been running older firmware with diy reagent for years. If I upgrade the firmware I risk problems with using diy reagent?
Thanks
Jeff

The optical sensor used to detect the droplet size and increase precision also supports fluid composition detection, and shortly after that was implemented, code was added to use the technology for authentication.

 

[DanyL]

If anyone is willing to donate a locked KHG for research purposes, I’m up for the task to reverse it, though I live in Israel - so I’m not sure if shipping costs worth it.

I don’t own one, and decided to go with the KHD instead when I was looking for a device, but it stumbles me that no one found a solution for this problem yet.

I did have a quick look at the fw, it seems to be based on AVR which was confirmed by the picture above (atmega2560).

Next thing I can do is to try and build qemu with avr emulation so that I’ll have some way to debug it as well, and slowly reverse the code - but an actual device would be tremendously better for that purpose.

 

[bozo]

What is the authentication you mentioned? I have been running older firmware with diy reagent for years. If I upgrade the firmware I risk problems with using diy reagent?
Thanks
Jeff

Which firmware are you using and which KHG model do you have?