Bricking the NXT Brick

[Aqualuna]

I'm wondering if its possible to brick the brick... I didn't see any message when i flashed lego and lejos firmwares, so I'm wondering if its safe...

I'm also wondering if the flash memory wears fast, and I should try to avoid uploading too often while developing...

[gloomyandy]

I think you will have to try pretty hard to brick it. I've been developing low level code (the leJOS VM) for a few years now and have probably driven the NXT into many states it was never intended to go, so far it is still working fine. The same brick must have been reflashed many hundreds of times and had a huge number of downloads, again still fine. I'm sure it is possible to brick it, and no doubt at some point the flash will go, but I've not come across anyone that has had either happen...

[skoehler]

The ARM CPU of the NXT includes the so-called SAM-BA in-system-programmer firmware. If you push the reset button of the NXT for 4 seconds, this firmware is active and allows to reprogram the Flash memory of the NXT via USB. In other words: no matter how broken the firmware you tried to flash to the NXT is, you can always revert back to the SAM-BA firmware, which allows you to reprogram the brick via USB.

So yes, it's safe to switch between firmwares. Andy's answer seems to be more related to the write cycles of the Flash memory.

[gloomyandy]

Just to be clear I think it is possible to brick the brick. If you configure the hardware badly then it is probably possible to cause damage to some of the hardware components like the main mcu chip. But to do this you would probably have to be writing your own firmware or using one of the native programming environments, so it is very unlikely to happen with leJOS etc. Having said this I think the Lego hardware folks did an outstanding job and the NXT is a very robust bit of kit...

[Aqualuna]

Sweet thanks for the comphrensive reply