I tried setting up a new reference station today and seem to have bricked it. It came with firmware v3.5 and exhibited quite a few odd behaviors so I attempted to update the firmware. OTA updates failed (one of the weird behaviors) as did uploading a .bin file via the web interface. I resorted to using the RTKupdater app and updated the unit to 4.2. That much seemed to go fine, but since then the unit has been unresponsive to everything but the updater app. Nothing appears on its screen, the device is not visible on ethernet or wifi, TeraTerm only sees gibberish via serial. Resets via the updater and via long button presses don’t help. I tried reverting to 4.1, 4.0 and 3.1 firmware with the same results. Any thoughts on how I can revive this thing?
Hi - Sorry for the hassle! After you update the firmware to v4.2 do you get any indication that the system is running? Any blinking LEDs or displays after a good power cycle? If you open a terminal at 115200bps, while connected to the CONFIG ESP32 connector, do you see any output? What happens on that port after you press the reset button?
No lights, nothing on the display after the first update attempt. The only signs of life are the continued ability of the updater to talk to the esp32 and gibberish in a TeraTerm window. Power cycles and test button presses make no difference. Very puzzling that the updater seems to think everything is fine and that resets are successful when there is no other activity.
It sounds like the firmware upload may have failed. If you accidentally leave Tera Term connected to the COM port, the Uploader will attempt to upload the firmware and may appear to have succeeded, but in reality it fails. A successful upload takes more than 10 seconds and you should see the “Writing at” percentage increase in steps of 1% or 2%. Please see the animation below. Please give the upload another try, and ensure Tera Term is disconnected first. The same applies for any other programs that may be accessing the COM port. Afterwards, please reset the settings with a Factory Reset.
Multiple reflashes of different versions haven’t improved the situation. The updater always shows the whole normal progression and seems perfectly happy with the job it’s doing, but the unit has not come back to life. I only got TeraTerm and gave it a try after multiple flash attempts failed and never had it and the updater going at the same time.
I tried the “force factory reset” via settings file procedure described at the bottom of this page, no change, still no lights or anything on the display.
Maybe a complete Flash Erase will help? It’s hidden on the Uploader toolbar under Extras. Make sure you have Tera Term closed, select the CH340 COM port, and then Erase Flash. This completely clears the ESP32 flash memory. Upload the firmware again afterwards.
Also, please check the firmware files have downloaded correctly. Sometimes a web browser can mess up the download, trying to download it as HTML instead of raw binary. The latest 4.2 binary should be exactly 2294752 bytes:
Please check Tera Term is set to 1152000 baud. You’ll see gibberish if the baud rate isn’t correct.
If after all that it’s still failing, please start a Return / Repair. The 30 day limit doesn’t apply, the RTK products have a full year warranty. In the Reason for returning box, please include a link to this discussion. It’s the URL shown in your web browser ending in 66667.
I checked on the size of the binary update files I have and they are incorrect! I did notice that each time I tried to download one the browser would get confused, say the server was “unavailable” and I would have to tell it to resume the download. I will figure out how to get a complete download and report back.
… and it’s back! With a flash erase and a proper .bin file, the reference station was resurrected. Thanks for the help, I would never have thought of the “improper .bin download” problem.
No problem Richard (@Richard_Perkins ) - glad you’re up and running again. Sorry it took us a while to figure out the issue…
This link will allow you to download the whole SparkFun_RTK_Firmware_Binaries repository as a single zip file. It’s a big file but contains all the firmware versions, our Uploader GUI and the ZED firmware. And, because it is zipped, you can be sure you’re getting a faithful, checksummed binary copy.
