Let me start from the very beginning of the story...
So, this soldering iron had served me faithfully for many years. It was an indispensable tool in the field of system administration. Did an Ethernet cable get severed? No problem. Did a connector burn out on a semi-truck? The soldering iron came to the rescue! And so it went, right up until I received my next service call. It was an urgent job; I was rushing to pack my gear and grabbed a damaged USB Type-C cable on my way out... That’s when the soldering iron decided to take a vacation—or, more precisely, it simply stopped turning on. After running some diagnostics, I discovered that the main chip—a GD32F103—was overheating intensely the moment power was applied. I set it aside to deal with later, when I had more time.
Fast forward to this past month: I ordered a replacement chip—the exact same model, though from a different manufacturer (essentially an "original copy"). But how to flash the firmware? I ordered an ST-Link V2 programmer for STM32 chips. I hooked up the connections, initialized the chip, and then—bam!—I realized I couldn't find the original bootloader anywhere... Then I stumbled upon this article. It offered everything: a custom firmware and a custom bootloader.
Naturally, I tried asking the original vendor for the stock .bin file—specifically the section starting at address 0x08000000—but they politely declined, citing trade secrets.
I wasn't able to read the data directly from the old chip either—though, fortunately, my programmer features short-circuit protection. Anyway, I installed your custom firmware, fired it up, and—lo and behold—it came back to life! However, there are a couple of minor issues I’d like to resolve to make this a truly "perfect" repair.
I should also mention that during the initial diagnostics—specifically while disassembling the unit and prying out the circuit board—I accidentally ripped the main display's ribbon cable. Consequently, I had to order a replacement and solder it in place.
And so, here is the result; I think the photos will give you a clear idea of the situation.
Let me start from the very beginning of the story...
So, this soldering iron had served me faithfully for many years. It was an indispensable tool in the field of system administration. Did an Ethernet cable get severed? No problem. Did a connector burn out on a semi-truck? The soldering iron came to the rescue! And so it went, right up until I received my next service call. It was an urgent job; I was rushing to pack my gear and grabbed a damaged USB Type-C cable on my way out... That’s when the soldering iron decided to take a vacation—or, more precisely, it simply stopped turning on. After running some diagnostics, I discovered that the main chip—a GD32F103—was overheating intensely the moment power was applied. I set it aside to deal with later, when I had more time.
Fast forward to this past month: I ordered a replacement chip—the exact same model, though from a different manufacturer (essentially an "original copy"). But how to flash the firmware? I ordered an ST-Link V2 programmer for STM32 chips. I hooked up the connections, initialized the chip, and then—bam!—I realized I couldn't find the original bootloader anywhere... Then I stumbled upon this article. It offered everything: a custom firmware and a custom bootloader.
Naturally, I tried asking the original vendor for the stock
.binfile—specifically the section starting at address 0x08000000—but they politely declined, citing trade secrets.I wasn't able to read the data directly from the old chip either—though, fortunately, my programmer features short-circuit protection. Anyway, I installed your custom firmware, fired it up, and—lo and behold—it came back to life! However, there are a couple of minor issues I’d like to resolve to make this a truly "perfect" repair.
I should also mention that during the initial diagnostics—specifically while disassembling the unit and prying out the circuit board—I accidentally ripped the main display's ribbon cable. Consequently, I had to order a replacement and solder it in place.
And so, here is the result; I think the photos will give you a clear idea of the situation.