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Firmware Crash


MarkBrasch

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While trying to update my controllers firmaware from 4.01 & 4.02 to 4.32 to work with S2 software, the first two I tried to upgrade crashed. It respoinds "Invalid Data Block Response". Now when I refresh I only see the ID but no firmware version. It is replaced with "BootLoader - 16D".



Someone please help!!!!!!!!!!! I have a 144 channels of NOTHING.

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Are you doing this with ONLY one unit connected?

Sounds like a similar problem a friend had. On purpose they are running 2 controllers with the same ID. But the bad side of this is when using the hardware utility it comes up with all kinds of bogus controller information.

I would make sure you only have one controller connected to upgrade firmware and also make sure you have the correct version for your board. Blue/green/pc etc.

Chuck

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I did have one firmware upgrade fail the first time this year. When I refreshed status, it came back with something like 16PC bootloader as the firmware revision. Trying the upgrade again worked, and all is well. Both the failed and successful attempts were with just the one controller connected.

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I'm not sure the difference, but I have a few green 16D boards that give a message that says something like "bootloader not valid for this board." If I use the blue firmware, it loads fine....not sure what the difference between the two is.....

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Tom,

I believe that is the way that the hardware utility reports trying to load the incorrect firmware into a controller. I know last year I tried to load firmware with out going out in the yard and seeing what address was what color board....after a couple of errors I got off my butt and went to the yard.

Chuck

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Tom,

Somethings need to be taken on faith. When they (LOR) note that there is a blue board and a green board firmware. I tend to pay heed and load only blue board firmware on blue boards. Same holds true for the green board and the green board firmware. There appears to be some kind of difference and as Chuck noted, you will get an error message. And if the controller could, it would give you a raspberry response.
So, only use the right firmware and your life will be oh so much easier.

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I verified that I am using the "Blue Board Firmware" since by board is Blue and I first tried it with the other controllers online. Then I removed all of the others and tried it by themselves. Now I have two dead "BootLoader" units and I am afraaid to continue!!!!!!!!!!

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If it shows up in the hardware utility as "Bootloader", then the firmware did not load and you need to hard reset the boards.

First, detach the controllers in question from the rest of the network and hook just one of them up at a time to the computer. Next, you need to do a hardware reset on the board.

1a) If it's a "D" board with ID knobs, unplug the power to the controller, set the knobs to 00 and plug in the power again. The LED should blink quickly. Wait a few seconds, unplug the power, set the ID back to whatever it was, then power back up.

1b) If it's a standard board kit without knobs, I believe there's a procedure to set a jumper to do the hardware reset. Refer to the instructions, or I'm sure someone here with kit board knows how to do it. In any event, after you reset the board, continue to step 2.

2) Manually enter the ID# in the hardware utility and try loading the firmware again.

3) Unplug and plug back in power one more time.

Let us know if this works.

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The ones that say bootloader should not be bricked. The fact that they say bootloader indicates that they have the low level firmware to receive new firmware.

Work on just one of them at a time. Short cable, directly connected, no ELL, no other controllers, and see if they take the download that way.

Also, if you are having any comm issues, you might want to resolve them first. In my case, the com issue was that the power supply I was using with my laptop at the time created some crazy inductive spikes, in combination with a power cord plugged into a loose socket.. Any time someone stepped on that extension cord, I lost the com port until I rebooted. Changing to a filtered cable seems to have taken care of the issue, but I did not have that many left to do after changing cables.

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tomskillman wrote:

I'm not sure the difference, but I have a few green 16D boards that give a message that says something like "bootloader not valid for this board." If I use the blue firmware, it loads fine....not sure what the difference between the two is.....




LOR has admitted to a case where two different products will accidentally accept each other's firmware, but it is not the CTB16D.

I wonder if there are some CTB16D boards that are the same hardware revision as the blue boards, but don't have the blue solder mask. That would account for a PIC with a bootloader that wants the blue firmware, and refuses the green firmware..
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For the record, here's what should be green + blue:

CTB16D: Green
CTB16DV3: Green
CTB16DV5: Blue
CTB16DV6: Blue

CTB16DV2 and CTB16DV4: I've never personally seen these in the wild, but if they exist they would be green

CTB16DV7: Seem to be new this year, reports are they don't take the regular firmware.

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The whole point of my post was that the particular message I get tells me to load the other firmware, which works fine...I've got 3-4 green boards that actually use blue firmware. Two years ago, I had to send in almost all of my boards (5 of them I believe) and have them fixed after some type of surge messed them up. I believe what might have happened is that the PIC was part of the problem and when replace, was the newer blue board PIC. When I originally posted, I forgot about that fact...perhaps mine is an isolated incident...I have just made note of the ones I have that require the opposite firmware. My experience tells me though, that you cannot load the wrong firmware on a controller....but I could be wrong!

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From what I recall, there is a mistake where the CMB16D and CTB16PC V1 will accept each other's firmware...

I'm guessing that there is not an extremely high percentage of users of the DC cards, so it is not a huge exposure. But guess which two types of cards I own....

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