Hi everyone, I have a Bluetti AC180P that is currently in a “soft brick” or “zombie” state. I am looking for advice on how to recover it or if a firmware dump is available for ST-Link.
Symptoms:
When pressing the Power Button, the button LED lights up.
The BMS activates (I measured output voltage from the battery pack to the inverter board, it is present).
The Screen remains completely black (no backlight, no info).
AC and DC outputs do not turn on.
Crucial: The device appears in the Bluetti App (Bluetooth scan works), but when trying to connect, it loads forever and fails (Connection Timeout).
Diagnostics performed (Teardown & Measurements): I have disassembled the unit and checked the Control Board (Green PCB with MCU):
1.) 12V Input Rail: Present and stable (coming from Main Board).
2.) 5V Rail: Present on the display flex connector.
3.) MCU Power (+3.3V): Checked at the DOWNLOAD debug header. Voltage is stable 3.3V.
4.) RESET Pin: Checked at the debug header. Voltage is 3.275V (High), so the MCU is not held in reset state.
5.) Display: Disconnecting the display flex cable does not change the behavior (App still sees device but cannot connect).
Conclusion: Since all power rails (12V, 5V, 3.3V) are stable and the RESET line is High, hardware seems fine. The fact that the Bluetooth is broadcasting suggests the MCU is partially alive but the main firmware seems corrupted or stuck in a bootloop.
Questions:
Has anyone successfully recovered an AC180/AC180P from this state?
Is there a way to force a firmware update via the App without establishing a full connection?
Does anyone have a pinout or firmware dump for the ST-Link interface (SWDIO/SWCLK) for this specific board?
Hi @like95bpk, thank you for providing the detailed information. However, for the sake of customer safety, we do not recommend that non-professionals disassemble or repair the device by themselves. Therefore, we are unable to provide the documents you requested.
We suggest that you contact the seller to arrange warranty service.
If you have any questions about how to reach the appropriate customer service team or concerns about the service process, please send us a private message with your order information so that we can arrange priority service for you.
I don’t know a whole lot, but my understanding is there is a pull down resistor which interacts with the BOOT0 pin that tells the MCU which way to start. When its stuck at 3.3V it boots into emergency bootloader mode aka ZOMBIE mode. The unit will still advertise Bluetooth since its the first stage of the two stage boot process. Generally if your firmware is corrupted and you plug in your JTAG tool it will read like 0XFF or some garbage. If the BOOT0 pin is stuck on HIGH but you can still get a connection, its likely just not switching over. I’m not sure HOW to do that. What I can likely say is Bluetti’s firmware updates since they are strictly OTA do not publicly advertise their firmware binaries so even if you could this still doesn’t mean the handshake will take place.
Your understanding is mostly correct. On many MCUs (including STM32-based designs, which Bluetti commonly uses), the BOOT0 pin is sampled at reset to determine the boot path. If BOOT0 is held HIGH (≈3.3V) at reset, the MCU will enter the system bootloader instead of jumping to user flash. That “zombie” or recovery state makes sense in this context.