GC2 restarts every time I swing

[ks-man]

I've had my GC2 for about 5 years and never had an issue. Now when I swing instead of capturing data, the GC2 simply restarts. It will then look fine, notice the ball but as soon as I hit the ball it will restart again.

I'm wondering if this is the flash having gone bad (I've never replaced it) although from what I've read when you have a bad flash it just displays dashes. I am going to search around if I can find my spare flash module to see but until I can find it I wanted to see if anybody around here has experienced this. Thanks.

[ks-man]

Wasn't the flash. I found the spare one and the same thing happens. It must be something with the camera mechanism as it is fine until I hit a ball and then immediately restarts. I tried calling Foresight on Wed. but never got a call back. Guess I'll have to try again on Monday.

[Ronsc1985]

You can try removing the battery and reinstalling along with disconnecting the charger from the GC2. It's a long shot but removing all the power from the machine is really the only way to absolutely reset the software. After that reload the firmware which is available on the Foresight web site.The latest is 4.0.0.15.

The GC2 really doesn't have an off switch that removes power. The on/of button is simply a software input which shuts the machine down, If you drop a bit or two in the firmware there is no absolute recovery except removing all power and reloading the firmware. You can try just reloading the firmware if you don't want to remove the battery.

[andygg1986]

My guess is that the power supply has gone bad so it is no longer charging the battery. If you have a multimeter, measure the voltage by putting the red probe in the hole in the end of the connector and the black on the side of the connector. The other thing to check is the battery voltage shown on the GC2 screen during startup. When the power supply stops working the battery doesn’t charge. Then it gets down to low 6V range which is just barely enough juice to start up. As soon as you hit a shot it sucks power to recharge the capacitor that fires the flash, and that pulls the voltage too low to stay on anymore and it ends up restarting.

[ks-man]

Thanks for the suggestions. Still isn't working. I fully discharged the battery and then tried disconnecting it to do the reset suggested. When I plugged in the power cable and started it up the first two shots displayed dashes which it wasn't doing before but then on the third hit it did the restart. I'm already on 4.0.0.15 so I didn't try reloading the firmware.

Regarding the battery, during startup it says that the voltage is 8.53. I don't have a voltmeter so I can't measure the voltage being output by the power supply however the battery is holding a charge for a while when there are no hits.

Not sure what else there is to try. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of Foresight and they'll have some ideas without me needing to send it in.

[Ronsc1985]

Thanks for the suggestions. Still isn't working. I fully discharged the battery and then tried disconnecting it to do the reset suggested. When I plugged in the power cable and started it up the first two shots displayed dashes which it wasn't doing before but then on the third hit it did the restart. I'm already on 4.0.0.15 so I didn't try reloading the firmware.

Regarding the battery, during startup it says that the voltage is 8.53. I don't have a voltmeter so I can't measure the voltage being output by the power supply however the battery is holding a charge for a while when there are no hits.

Not sure what else there is to try. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of Foresight and they'll have some ideas without me needing to send it in.

The idea in reloading the firmware is not to upgrade firmware to the latest version but rather to correct any possible bit errors in the flash memory where the firmware resides. The writable devices used to store the firmware eventually leak the stored charge off the transistor gates used to store the bits. It's easy/fast to rewrite firmware. This is kind of like chicken soup for a cold. It may not improve the situation but it can't hurt.

[ks-man]

Tried to reload the firmware but didn't help. I've e-mailed, left a voicemail and requested a callback from Foresight but haven't heard anything. Does anybody know how long it typically takes for Foresight to respond?

[mmlincon]

I would just keep calling. I've typically been able to get a person. Just need to catch someone who is free. They should respond to emails though.

[mthunt]

Tried to reload the firmware but didn't help. I've e-mailed, left a voicemail and requested a callback from Foresight but haven't heard anything. Does anybody know how long it typically takes for Foresight to respond?

Did you try another power supply? Sounds like a power issue.

[ks-man]

I don't have a spare one. Is there a generic one I can buy on Amazon to try?

[mthunt]

I'm sure you can. You can also remove the battery and see if the same thing happens. I assume no one will return your call? Do you know anyone with a GC2. Try their battery. Super easy to replace.

[ks-man]

Finally got an email response from Foresight. They are saying it is a processing error that needs to be returned for diagnostics. I ordered a new power supply from Amazon that was mentioned on another thread that should arrive on Saturday. I will try the new power supply and if it doesn't work then I guess I will need to send it in to Foresight. Here is the link to the power supply I bought.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use my GC2 to play TGC. Do I need to be concerned if I send in my GC2 to Foresight they will upgrade it to a firmware that won't let me play TGC with it or have they not been doing that with old GC2s?

[Ronsc1985]

Finally got an email response from Foresight. They are saying it is a processing error that needs to be returned for diagnostics. I ordered a new power supply from Amazon that was mentioned on another thread that should arrive on Saturday. I will try the new power supply and if it doesn't work then I guess I will need to send it in to Foresight. Here is the link to the power supply I bought.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use my GC2 to play TGC. Do I need to be concerned if I send in my GC2 to Foresight they will upgrade it to a firmware that won't let me play TGC with it or have they not been doing that with old GC2s?

If you actually reloaded the firmware what version was it? If not the latest then get a copy of that level firmware from a forum member if you don't have it

[ks-man]

I have a few of the older versions so I figured that worst case is I could try and just reload one of the older versions. I just want to make sure that there is nothing that Foresight could do to prevent it from going to an old version.

[ks-man]

I received the power supply I linked two posts up but it doesn't seem to work with my GC2. It connects and looks like it is on but the battery voltage says 6.6 both with the new power supply and when nothing is plugged in. It reads about 8.53 when using my old power supply. I'm surprised this one isn't working since other people on this forum got the same one but who knows. I guess my best bet is to send it in to Foresight for diagnostics unless anybody has another suggestion. Thanks.

[grant2145]

Have you tried taking the battery out and using the GC2 without it?

[ks-man]

No. Any particular reason why that would make a difference?

[grant2145]

There could be some sort of battery charging protection circuit causing issues. Taking the battery out might bypass the charging circuit.

[wbond]

I received the power supply I linked two posts up but it doesn't seem to work with my GC2. It connects and looks like it is on but the battery voltage says 6.6 both with the new power supply and when nothing is plugged in. It reads about 8.53 when using my old power supply. I'm surprised this one isn't working since other people on this forum got the same one but who knows. I guess my best bet is to send it in to Foresight for diagnostics unless anybody has another suggestion. Thanks.

Do you have the correct voltage selected? If you have a cheap multi meter you can confirm what is coming out of the new charger

[ks-man]

A quick follow-up. I got the new power supply working (thanks wbond) but unfortunately that didn't fix the restart error. I also tried running it without the battery and still no luck. So here is what I've tried:

1) A new power supply
2) No battery
3) Flashed the firmware (down to 4.0.0.12 and back to 4.0.0.15)
4) A new flash

Was wondering if anybody had any other suggestions or if it is time to bite the bullet and send it back to Foresight.

Thanks!