Attached some screenshots of my last finding in chronological order.
So, I downloaded PTLE 6.2.3 from the UL directory and installed it in OS X tiger. First I was disappointed to see that there was only one Digi 002 file in /Applications/DigiDesign/Pro Tools/Controllers. However, on closer inspection the size of that was almost double the sizes in other releases. So I transferred this to my OS 9 machine, added it to my "Controllers" archive and opened it with ResEdit and Resourcerer. There I could establish that the Digi 002 Controller contained code for both the 002 fader and 002 rack! My assumption in the previous post that the two variants of Digi 002 used different Controller files was wrong!
Seeing this in ResEdit made the original description by aliakr make more sense. What I did next was to swap out names and ids in the CODE block with ResEdit. This was done for both sys <-> rackSys and boot <-> rackBoot. Even though boot/rackBoot have the same size, the code is different.
Surprise: I have attached the swapped Digi 002 Controller for you to try on your own risk! Since I don't have a 002R myself, I cannot try this.
Another small issue is that I have no experience from how ProTools works with the controllers. If I've understood things correctly, ProTools will upon launch check the hardware connected. If there's a matching Controller file, PT will compare the controller version with the version in the hardware's firmware. If they don't match, an upgrade/downgrade will occur. Please correct me if this is not how it works!!!
Given that my assumptions above are true, this is the procedure I imagine would work for swapping the firmware.
1. Make sure the 002R is some other version than the one included in 6.2.3 (given that my assumption that PT only upgrades/downgrades on version mismatch). Could probably be done by installing a much newer PT LE (but again this also is based on my assumption that PT also downgrades...)
2. Install ProTools LE 6.2.3 in OS X, without the 002R connected.
3. Go to /Applications/DigiDesign/Pro Tools/Controllers/ and move the newly installed Digi 002 out of there.
4. Unzip and open the attached disk image 6.2.3 rack fader swap.img.zip and put the Digi 002 in /Applications/DigiDesign/Pro Tools/Controllers/
5. Connect the 002R and launch ProTools LE 6.2.3. Hopefully the firmware of the 002R should be updated to the 002 firmware.
6. In case this didn't brick it, the 002R should work, although with the oddities described by aliakr ("...indicators on front panels (sample rate, midi and 1394) no lights"...) and PT should see it as a Digi 002 fader.
7. If it works this far, shutdown and start OS 9 and launch PT LE 5.3.2.
8. It should now work, and OS X and PT LE 6.2.3 will not be needed any more!
When it comes to restoring it to a 002R, the process should be like this (also based on my assumptions how PT upgrades/downgrades firmware:
1. Start OS X and launch PT LE 6.2.3 making sure that the modified Digi 002 is still in the Controllers folder.
2. In theory the firmware should now be upgraded, since it has another version on it (from 5.3.2). Because the firmware in the Controller file is swapped, it should mean that PT thinks it upgrades to a newer 002 version, but in reality it's actually the 002R it's upgrading to.
So please, if there's a brave person out there who can test this, I would really appreciate it! I'll also try to get a 002R myself. Let's consider this some kind of pre-release, if everything works as we want we can package it better!
Also, if anybody knows about the Controller upgrade/downgrade routines that PT has, please correct me, because I'm just guessing!