27/06/2026
New resolution. Post more! I try not to spam your feeds with the same repairs, but life in the workshop continues! Anyway, today, something genuinely interesting (for me, but I am a bit of a geek, so.....)
Zwifthub in for an age old problem. I connected my neo power supply to my (insert other trainer brand here) and now it doesn't work.
The connector on the neo adaptor is the most popular DC barrel jack. It'll fit loads of things. Doesn't mean it should!
Luckily I have had a zwifthub in for a while just in case. Today was it's day to shine.
I've built a standard workflow with neos and kickrs of working back from the Bluetooth chip and replacing power components which have released the magic smoke. Often the Bluetooth chip will also have given up it's electrical pixies to the cause. I can replace them. It's a bit fiddly, but doable. The issue is they're filled with firmware to make the chip run. On neos and kickrs I hold databases of firmware dumps I can use. No problem. On the zwifthub it's a bit trickier. The Bluetooth chip itself has copy protection built in. Wahoo and tacx decided not to implement it (kudos). Zwift, well they did. It means I cannot read the firmware from the chip, so I can't burn a new one, so game over.....or is it?
So much cleverer people than me identified that when the chip "boots" it tells itself that copy protection is on, and from that point onwards it refuses to talk to firmware dumpers. These clever people have worked out that one can interrupt the power to the chip just long enough for it to not read that one instruction. This allows us to read the flash and repair our blown chip.
Here's the kit in action... 15 seconds from locked, to unlocked. Each flash of the led is another attempt to get the chip to miss that one instruction. There are some very clever people out there!!
