For any Orqa goggle owners, be aware that Orqa issued the following Public Service Announcement for their goggles a few hours ago. I guess this applies to anyone who already installed the latest firmware update on their Orqa goggles. The issue affects ALL of the Orqa goggles, not just the newest FPV.One Pilots.

Both Ivan and Tony Cake are warning NOT to switch on the goggles until a firmware fix has been released which suggests that the issue is actually more serious and not just a simple date/time or bootloader mode issue. I'm guessing that the issue can cause bricked goggles which would then require them to be returned back to Orqa for repair.

For any affected pilots, Orqa are requesting that you fill in a bug report using a form HERE so they can get back to you as soon as the issue is fixed and a new firmware version released.

EDIT #1 (29th April 2023): See post #5 for a solution for the FPV.One Pilot and FPV.One Race goggles that have already been bricked. There is currently still no solution for the original FVP.One (V1) goggles.

EDIT #2 (30th April 2023): See post #8 for solutions for ALL Orqa goggles that haven't yet been bricked. There is still no solution for the original FVP.One (V1) goggles that have already been bricked.

EDIT #3 (2nd May 2023): Orqa have now announced that this issue is time-bomb ransomware, Full details are in another thread HERE.

Source (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...8364437655

Orqa have now sent out the following email notification to all registered users...

[IMPORTANT] Do not power up your goggles in the next few hours!!

I just read the email Orqa sent and having Orqa goggles I jumped on Facebook to see what was happening.
 I guess Orqa have some type of wireless connection for time and date that is causing the problem.
 
  I’m curious how it could have happened without a firmware update.
  I’m using firmware from July 2022 which has been trouble free.
 However if I turn on goggles they will brick up is what I’m understanding.

(29-Apr-2023, 06:34 PM)Rob3ddd Wrote:  However if I turn on goggles they will brick up is what I’m understanding.

It's not exactly clear what has started causing this issue for people who haven't recently flashed any new firmware to their goggles. It reportedly has something to do with the WiFi module in conjunction with the date/time but it's weird that would it just start happening all of a sudden. I saw some people accuse Orqa of having their goggles "phone home" by stealth over WiFi and apply some changes to their goggles without consent, but that might just be people speculating. Maybe a bug has existed in the firmware forever and when the date flipped over to the 29th April 2023 it has triggered some kind of issue that has just been dormant in the firmware until today's date arrived.

It appears to be random when the bootloader screen displays during power up but once it happens there seems to be no way back and you are then stuck with your Orqa goggles always going into bootloader mode when powering them on. Re-flashing firmware doesn't seem to fix the issue so the only thing to do is to wait for an official announcement of a fix from Orqa, but 10 hours later that still doesn't seem to have happened yet so I guess they are struggling to pinpoint the root cause of the issue.

A number of racers are pissed because they turned up to races today only to find their goggles were bricked so they couldn't compete and had to pull out.

OK, so it looks like Tony Cake actually posted a solution for the Orqa FPV.One Pilot and FPV.One Race goggles 6 hours ago. There is however still no solution for the original FPV.One (V1) goggles at present.

People should be aware the real-time clock in their goggles is set to the correct date then the goggles will brick themselves and get stuck in bootloader mode simply by just powering them on. There doesn't appear to be anything you can do to circumvent the issue if your real-time clock has already crossed over into 29th April 2023.

As per the theory in my previous post this has been confirmed as a dormant bug in the bootloader firmware which has existed and been present for years and which only rears its ugly head when the clock ticks over to 29th April 2023.

The fix for the Orqa FPV.One Pilot (V2) goggles is detailed in the document linked to in Tony Cake's response below. It's quite an involved process and requires creating a boot image on an SD Card, disassembling the goggles, and then rebooting them 4 times while shorting out 2 test pads on the mainboard of the goggles.

Source (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...3894420102

Tony Cake Wrote:Ladies/Gents, firstly, sincere apologies to anyone who got burned by this goggle bricking today. We still didn't get to the root cause, but it appears that some buggy code written in the early startup days of Orqa caused this problem.

The team at HQ has been working around the clock to come up with a workaround. It is not pretty, but we do have something that will get FPV.One Pilot goggles back in the air, and FPV.One Race goggles will follow shortly behind.

The procedure may be found here: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FANf4nw...BHQIL5cUwo

Please don't worry about the warranty when performing this procedure, we will look after you. Also, it is pretty clear that face plate foam will get damaged during the procedure, and of course that will be replaced.

The procedure is rough around the edges, but has been performed successfully at the Ice Storm event (Thanks Chris Thomas for being the guinea pig).

For the FPV.One Race goggles, the required files will be distributed within the hour.

I looked over the procedure.
 It’s not that complicated but I’m going to wait until Orqa comes up with a permanent fix.
 
 I remember setting up the time and date on my Orqa so mine will be bricked if I turn them on now.

I don't think I've ever seen so many people get upset about an issue. I guess this has affected quite a lot of people, with some racers competing at events yesterday complaining that they ended up having to try and borrow other people's goggles that they weren't used to.

Strangely Orqa are saying the absence of a fix for the V1 goggles is due to the fact that the V1 goggles are harder to open, but there are already videos on YouTube showing how to tear them down so I suspect the lack of a fix is probably for some other reason. Maybe there aren't any corresponding test points on the mainboard that you can simply just bridge together like on the V2 Pilot and Race goggles. I wouldn't be surprised if Orqa end up asking V1 owners just to send their goggles back to Croatia for repair. If that is the case then it's going to upset even more people. I guess we shall just have to wait and see what they come up with.

Source (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...8851050273

EDIT: Hold off on performing the procedure below. Numerous people are reporting that this still ends up bricking their goggles (Facebook source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...9934372498)

For anyone who hasn't yet bricked their Orqa goggles by switching them on at or after 29th April 2023, Orqa have now come up with a solution to fix the issue without having to open the goggles up. This involves downloading a file to the SD Card and then following a specific procedure when powering them up to avoid them getting bricked. Just follow the newly added procedure #2 section in the updated "Unbricking" document.

Source (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...0744378417

Tony Cake Wrote:UPDATE: We have updated the procedure to update both v1 and v2 goggles. For the v1 this currently only works if they haven't been powered up yet since 29 April.  

Procedure is located here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FANf4nw...iW-iV8vm7K

A further update has beebeen posted within the last hour for anyone affected...

Source (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/64223506...1277699697

Dominik Halilovic Wrote:[Quick update on the situation]

Since early morning on Saturday and throughout this Sunday, our team is working to get a solution out there. Our primary focus is getting a software solution for all of our affected pilots.

In parallel, our customer support team is preparing a contingency plan that we'll put in motion in case we do not come up with a software solution over the next 48h. This contingency plan involves getting back every single affected unit back to our factory here in Europe for a fix.

This will be done free of charge, and the Company will bear the shipping cost, regardless of the warranty status of your product.

We will do our best to fix and ship back every unit within 24h of receiving them. We plan to start rolling this program out as early as Wednesday next week unless a software solution is found in the meantime.

If you have been affected, please fill out the form on https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/1...4019333433, or contact our customer support.

Again, we are terribly sorry this has happened. We understand many of you intended to fly this weekend. We regret every pack that was not ripped over these last few days as a result of this incident.

Please know we are working on this, and we will get you back to flying ASAP.

- Orqa Team

Tweetfpv is doing this “repair” as a live stream

(30-Apr-2023, 06:20 PM)Rob Axel Wrote: Tweetfpv is doing this “repair” as a live stream

   I just watched tweetfpv do the procedure #1 fix and it’s very simple but it’s not a permanent fix until Orqa fixes the RTC bug.


  FWIW,the fix starts at 54:20 and finishes at about 1:09:00.

TweetFPV has now split out the section from his livestream demonstrating the Orqa Goggles unbricking process into a separate video, but be aware that this is only for the FPV.One Pilot (V2) goggles. It's now looking highly likely that anyone with the original V1 goggles are going to have to send them back to Orqa to have them unbricked.

A few of my friends were competing at Ice Storm this weekend and one of them told me it was nuts there. Perfect time for this to happen.

Putting aside all the upset customers, this is probably the worst thing that can ever happen for any company. It's like the suspected Y2K "bug" in software that fortunately never really materialised. Imagine that 10,000 pairs of goggles are affected which need to be sent back to Orqa HQ in Croatia to be fixed. With Orqa covering the shipping costs at ~$20 each way, that is going to cost them $400k just for shipping alone without even factoring in the labour costs of actually doing the repairs. Not to mention the sheer volume of repairs they are going to have to do if hundreds of pairs of goggles all start flooding in at the same time. They may even have to employ additional people just to do that work.

I guess this is also now about Orqa doing the right thing as quickly as possible to try and limit any reputational damage.

I almost bought Orqas a month or two ago, primary reason to support local company.
So I opened up their site, price was 500 euros, said to myself "OK, not bad, not TOO expensive (although not cheap by any means for analog goggles)", and when I got to the checkout they included taxes (so it's 630 euros + shipping) and then I said fuck it, no way, I hate business practices like that, looks too scammy. (and the best thing is they are using geoIP database, so they could've included VAT before you put any item in the cart and go to checkout because they have my approximate location per IP address)
Then I found out they are promising their digital system for more than a year and they have nothing.
Next thing I learned they said their original goggles will be "fully upgradable" for all future hardware/software updates, and relatively shortly after that they released a V2 of those "fully future proof goggles"
Now when I see this I must say I'm really happy I didn't give them my money.

I know shit like this happens, but they don't instill confidence at all.