Instructions | Reverse-engineering JBL flip 4

1

How to disable startup sound

This is dangerous hack,
Changing wrong setting may BRICK YOUR FLIP4, and you'll have to get it serviced (reflashed) to make it work again. You can reflash it yourself, but it's tricky.

Still with me? Let's dive.
2

Download and install CSR BlueSuite

To download it officially, it looks like you have to buy csr development kit. It costs more than 1000 $.

Luckily, it has leaked.

https://github.com/lorf/csr-spi-ftdi/issues/30
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADdvH-hdZSPf3rA8kCM57U-xKHWnCIEp/view?usp=sharing

Windows. May work on Wine, but I don't know.
3

Connect your JBL Flip 4 to PC with usb cable. Power it up.
4

Enter DFU mode

Press and hold PlayPause+Vol.Down for 13 seconds or so.

Power and Connect+ LEDs should light up for a second, then go out.
The speaker enters DFU mode, and will be detected by the PC.
5

Run PSTool from CSR BlueSuite, establish connection

As you launch PSTool, connection dialog pops up. Select USB option. You should see \\.\csr0 selected as Port. click OK.

You should see a long list of keys you can modify.
6

Modify "User configuration data 30"

Locate "User configuration data 30" (PSKEY_USR30). It should have a value like this:

"476d 0000 3fff 476e 0001 3fff 476f 0002 3fff 4770 0003 3fff 4771 0004 3fff 4772 0005 3fff 4773 0006 3fff 4774 0007 3fff 4775 0008 3fff 4776 0009 3fff 4001 000a bfff 4002 000b bfff 4003 000c bfff 4742 000d bfff 4744 000e bfff 4116 000f bfff 4101 0010 bfff 411b 0011 bffe"

Locate the "4001 000a bfff" piece, and change it to "4001 000a 0000" (that is, write zeros instead of "bfff" word). This disables ONLY startup sound. Other bfff's disable other sounds, see project log Sound Table

Once finished, click Set button.
7

Reboot speaker

Click Reset BC button (stands for "Reset BlueCore"). PSTool will show an error, because the speaker powers down. That's normal.

Power up your speaker. There should be no startup sound anymore. DONE!!

If steps 8-9 don't bring your speaker back alive, try:
* disconnect usb and press power button for twenty seconds or so, then press it again to switch it on.
* disconnect usb and leave it alone for a few minutes. Then try to switch it on.
* take it apart and disconnect-reconnect the battery.
* leave it alone till the battery is dead. Charge it, power it on.
If nothing helped - congrats, it's probably bricked.

EDIT: I thought, messing with this setting does not brick the speaker. BUT, someone reported that setting the second word of the startup sound entry to value >=0012 causes a crash on startup, and it's impossible to enter DFU mode again to fix it. So their speaker is probably bricked. Be extra careful, please.

You may want to dump all settings to a file, to be able to revert any changes you made. Use File->dump. However, it won't help if the speaker is bricked, because then PSTool won't connect to it anymore. To unbrick the speaker, you'll need to use SPI programmer and you need to have firmware to flash. SPI programmer is available on aliexpress and ebay, but I made one myself based on FTDI board thanks to this awesome project: https://github.com/lorf/csr-spi-ftdi

Discussions

Aries2376 wrote 06/07/2024 at 06:18

Have you had any luck getting the flip 4 to work with ADK_CSR867X?

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Szymon wrote 06/19/2021 at 20:27

Is possible way to change color Leds Circle ? from white to purple or smthing ?

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DeepSOIC wrote 06/26/2019 at 17:00

Sorry for late replies. Hackaday doesn't notify me about these comments. As I don't regularly check this page, it may take months for me to notice. Drop me a PM or an e-mail if you want me to notice (vv.titov@gmail.com).

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qkjosh wrote 06/04/2019 at 03:27

Hi there, I followed this guide with a Flip 3 and this is what I found in USR30:
02a8 02a9 0042 8000 0000 00e1 0000 3fff 10ff 4905 fffe 2d3d a1cd eb46 8140 7cb4 b103 3e81 9c49 7cb4 20cf 4294 624f 4d2d aa09 ec9e cf3e 624f b63b fffd 8041 44cf 073b 3f80 bd76 44cf 3f80 c2ed 7a25 3f3f c2ed 8635 8037 7a7f 6169 9541 5f7a f34a 3995 54b4 5f7a 0000 0001 c000 0000 0001 0001

I can't make out any obvious pattern that would correspond to the sound table you have for the Flip 4. Any ideas? Thanks!

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DeepSOIC wrote 06/26/2019 at 16:59

I seem to have read that on Flip3 it is possible to switch off the sounds with JBL Connect smartphone app.

Other than that, I have no suggestions. You can look through the settings to maybe find the one.

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corum3 wrote 05/24/2019 at 09:47

I followed this using CSR 2.6.6 but for some reason it kept failing, however, using 2.6.9.15 it worked like a charm. many thanks for the work involved.
https://yadi.sk/d/QAdQ7zuP-X62Xg

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DeepSOIC wrote 06/26/2019 at 16:25

Thanks for the link!

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sburlyaev wrote 05/20/2019 at 17:18

Thanks, man! Much appreciated.

JBL Flip 4 ( firmware 3.2.0 )

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namida1234 wrote 04/22/2019 at 11:57

I gotta say, thanks so much! Worked flawlessly. Thanks for the clear instructions! Have been wanting to do this for a while and only now realize the full extent the sounds were annoying me. So much better!

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Adam Spencer wrote 04/22/2019 at 11:29

PSTools won't detect my Flip 3. I decided to poke around and see if any of the above data values matched the Flip 3 so I could disable the startup/shutdown sounds.

Well, I installed PSTool on Windows 10, connected the Flip 3, turned it on, and put it in firmware mode (Bluetooth connect button + VOL UP for 10 seconds). Windows then made a sound like a USB device was connected. I launched PSTool, but it doesn't detect anything under USB. The dropdown boxes are blank. If I hit OK, it just says "You need to select a port for this transport".

I suspect there are some drivers missing, but you didn't mention anything about additional drivers. I noticed a new entry in the Windows Device Manager under "USB Input device". I tried to update that driver using some USB drivers in the BlueSuite installation folder, but they won't install.

Anyone have any ideas?

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nicholas chiu wrote 05/03/2019 at 11:20

Same issue here on Windows 10 with the Flip 4. Connected it to my computer and turned it into DFU mode but it seems PSTool can't detect it from my USB. The port dropdown boxes are all blank. I tried using BlueSuite 2.5.0 instead of 2.6.6 as well, nothing.

Any help would be appreciated as I just want to turn off the hideously loud and annoying startup and off sounds!

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DeepSOIC wrote 05/16/2019 at 12:48

Can you say, what is the firmware version? Possibly, JBL/Samsung decided to close this door...

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qubeex wrote 04/03/2019 at 17:04

Or just update the firmware to 3.9.0 through the JBL Connect mobile app.

Audio feedback sounds can be turned off through the app now.

It took 40 minutes for the firmware update though.

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KoenT wrote 05/04/2019 at 12:41

Was this for the Flip 4?

When I open the JBL Connect app (latets iOS, app version 4.1.29) and check the speaker firmware version, I see 3.2.0. But the app doesn't give me a way to update the firmware... Is there a place for this in the app I might be missing (the only thing I can do is change the name of the device and choose what the Play button does)? How did you do this?

Thanks!

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enric0.v wrote 02/25/2019 at 09:42

Is it possibile use the same method with JBL Tuner ??? In affermative case how is possible set it in DFU mode ??? Thanks in advance and congrats for your hacks.

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SomeDude wrote 02/18/2019 at 20:27

I created a user account here just to say THANK YOU!!! OMG those sounds were killing me, I was literally going to return the Flip 4. JBL should be paying you to fix their god awful interface. The sounds were way too loud, the off sound would wake me up when I was going to sleep to music, the max volume sound is so heinous I have no idea what it even is. Plus, there's plenty of visual feedback on the power button itself re being on or off and having a bluetooth connection. This hack was easy to implement, your instructions were clear as day, 10 minutes later and this thing is the awesome speaker it should have been out of the box! I turned all the sounds to 0000, good riddance, lol. I wish more of the search engines picked up this page because I found literally hundreds of people bitching about this problem, when their solution is right here... Well done, you are a GOD!

Keywords: JBL Flip 4, volume, down, on, off, disable, bluetooth

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DeepSOIC wrote 03/23/2019 at 10:06

glad to help =)

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mato995 wrote 06/06/2019 at 12:35

Hello,

1. thank you for your enormous work on this topic.

I also have some issues with connecting the JBL Tuner, upon connecting to the Computer (already in Bluetooth DFU Mode) it says that the USB Device is not recognized.. (And also not shown in PSTools) I tried installing many different drivers but none of them work. Are you able to help somehow on how to disable the startup sound on the JBL Tuner? I (and many other people) would really appreciate your help or answer. Thank you very much.

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MacUser wrote 01/29/2019 at 13:00

Here as well ;)

Thank you very very very much!!!
Did in with my JBL Flip 4 and the CSR BlueSuite running in Parallel Desktops.
There hasn't been a problem at all :) :)

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Reverse-engineering JBL flip 4

Discussions

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