How to Unbrick TBS Mambo After Failed to Update Firmware

This was happened to me when I received my Mambo and went directly update everything out of the box. No issue when updating Tracer via TBS Agent X, it went smoothly. Bad thing happened when updating FreedomTX to 1.31 via the same TBS Agent. It was stuck at 1% and hanging there for almost 10 minutes in blank LCD screen. 

Submitted ticket to TBS support but that was a weekend, so I start to search for reference. What I know is, radio need to enter onto bootloader mode to reflash the firmware. But the question is, how to enter bootloader on TBS Mambo. Looking for reference almost everywhere but no luck. So, I start to experiment. 

So here we go, how to unbrick TBS Mambo after failed to update firmware, in my case, when updating FreedomTX. 

How to unbrick TBS Mambo – FreedomTX Bootloader Mode 

Here is how to unbrick TBS Mambo by updating FreedomTX firmware via bootloader mode. First, you need to enable beta releases on TBS Agent X. you can do this by clicking the 3 dots on the top right of the Agent X, then clicking the checkbox by “enable beta releases”. 

1. Open TBS Agent X 
2. Hold Page button on the front of the radio while plugging in a USB cable, no need to power on the radio 
3. TBS Agent X will detect FreedomTX in bootloader mode 
4. Flash the firmware via TBS Agent X as usual 
5. Congrats! Your radio will boot up and successfully unbricked. 

Tracer Bootloader Mode

Now that in case you need to update Tracer firmware, you can repeat above step, only that now you need to hold Menu button. 

1. Open TBS Agent X, turn off radio 
2. Hold Menu button on the front of the radio while plugging in a USB cable 
3. TBS Agent X will detect Tracer in bootloader mode 
4. Flash the firmware via TBS Agent X as usual 
5. Wait until process is finished. 

Update via TBS Agent M

If you found that TBS Agent X giving you problem, try to update Tracer firmware using TBS Agent M. Almost same step as TBS Agent X. 

1. Open TBS Agent M thru browser https://www.team-blacksheep.com/agentm/  
2. Login to your account 
3. Radio is off, hold Menu button on the front of the radio while plugging in a USB cable 
4. Back to browser, click “Link USB Device”, popup will appear, select your radio 
5. TBS Agent M will detect Tracer in bootloader mode 
6. Flash the firmware and wait until process is finished. 

Additional: as suggested by TBS Support, during this process you need to redo the SD card contents on the Radio from the SD card files listed in the FreedomTX 1.29 release notes on Agent X. Please remember to FORMAT the SD card when doing this. 

I am not doing this and radio is working fine. Support said that this is only to complete restore radio to its default.