I just received my RTK Express yesterday. I got it up and running. I noticed when going through the configuration menu that there is a new version of firmware. My unit was shipped with V3.6 and V3.7 is available. I have tried both on WiFi using AP mode and WiFi using the other mode in which I can connect via my home WiFi.
I click on “Check for New Firmware”. It messages “Connecting to WiFi”. (Note that before I configured my home WiFi SSID it would not connect to WiFI). Then it messages “Checking for new firmware”. Then a button comes up “Update to v3.7”. I click that. Then it messages below that “Getting new firmware” and the “Upload BIN” is available. I have no way of knowing if the new firmware has been downloaded or not. In the meantime, as soon as I pressed “Update to v3.7”, the RTK Express has restarted in Rover mode. So I know that the RTK Express is not downloading the firmware. If I click on “Upload BIN” there is no file to upload, at least as far as I can find on my iPhone.
I don’t know if I am not waiting long enough (it shouldn’t take very long to download the firmware onto my iPhone). And of course I am concerned about corrupting the firmware during an update and rendering the RTK Express useless.
So if anyone knows what is supposed to happen next after pressing “Update to v3.7” please let me know. Also it would be helpful to know if it is the iPhone that is downloading the firmware from Sparkfun or if it is the RTK Express (I doubt it).
I was unable to get the RTK Express to connect to 5GHz WiFi so I am assuming that only 2.4 GHz is available. Maybe the problem is that the RTK Express WiFi configuration isn’t the same as the default WiFi SSID for my iPhone and when the RTK Express restarts after clicking “Update to v3.7” my iPhone is not able to communicate with the RTK Express (although it probably couldn’t anyway since it restarts in “Rover” mode not “Configuration” mode.
This is a know bug in V3.6. It is Now corrected in V3.7.
You will need to upgrade it via serial configuration. In order to do this, you I’ll need a microSD card. Just download the bin from the Sparkfun RTK firmware repo and put in in the micro SD card, enter serial configuration and choose the right option to do it.
I have not update from a Bin file in the WiFi config, but it should also work. You have to have an SD card inserted in the RTK express receiver with the bin file previously downloaded to it.
I just returned to the forum to post that my unit stopped working (I had expected an email when I got a response to a post) and saw your response. Unfortunately my unit stopped working (no display, doesn’t appear to power up) just a few minutes ago. I will start a post on that and if I am able to get it working again then I will update the firmware in the method that you describe. Thanks.
Also it would be helpful to know if it is the iPhone that is downloading the firmware from Sparkfun or if it is the RTK Express (I doubt it).
The RTK Express will connect to your WiFi and download the firmware. It does not use your phone (unless you are using your phone as the WiFi hotspot).
I was unable to get the RTK Express to connect to 5GHz WiFi so I am assuming that only 2.4 GHz is available.
Correct. The RTK products all use 2.4GHz WiFi.
And of course I am concerned about corrupting the firmware during an update and rendering the RTK Express useless.
Don’t worry. It’s nearly impossible do permanently break a unit. I won’t say it’s impossible, but there are millions of ESP32 based devices in the world at this point and, while the firmware can certainly get corrupt due to a bad update, it’s always recoverable.
So I did hold the power button off for more than 10 seconds. When I tried to power up not much happened. I read the doc regarding the hard power down (I actually did read it before I started playing with the unit but I forgot about that feature). Since I did not get any response from the hard power down and then power up, I connected the USB cable. When I power up the CH340 appears in Device Manager but not the ublox and then the device goes away.
After trying it again the unit is working! Still don’t see the ublox in Device Manager. I have connected via BLE and display on RTK Express is normal. I will let it run a day and then try updating the firmware. I think that there is a minimum amount of time and a maximum amount of time that the power button can be pressed for the unit to turn on. You know how long by the display but with the display down it is trickier.
Also I believe the reason that so few iOS apps will connect is that the other apps (besides SW Maps) try to overwrite the iOS location services position (which then can be used by all the other apps). Apple does not allow this unless the device overwriting the location services position is MFi (Made For iOS) certified and has a special chip. I have contacted Apglos to see if they can change or modify their program since it has features that SW Maps doesn’t have.
When I power up the CH340 appears in Device Manager but not the ublox and then the device goes away.
You will not see the u-blox module unless you plug a USB cable into the ‘CONFIG UBLOX’ port.
What a terrible first experience. Sorry for this. It sounds like you’re hobbling along but we will likely need to get the device returned for repair. Please see this page for an RMA: https://www.sparkfun.com/returns
Apple does not allow this unless the device overwriting the location services position is MFi (Made For iOS) certified and has a special chip.
From what I understand, iOS does not support Bluetooth SPP (well it sort of does, it requires the magic chip you mention but no one does this) and 99% of GIS apps use Bluetooth SPP. The work around to SPP is to use BLE. A few GIS apps work with BLE but they all have custom GATT UUIDs so it locks an app to that vendor’s hardware. SW Maps uses SerialBLE and uses NMEA so it’s fairly universal. I had not heard of Apglos but I’ll have a look.
When I power up the CH340 appears in Device Manager but not the ublox and then the device goes away.
You will not see the u-blox module unless you plug a USB cable into the ‘CONFIG UBLOX’ port.
What a terrible first experience. Sorry for this. It sounds like you’re hobbling along but we will likely need to get the device returned for repair. Please see this page for an RMA: https://www.sparkfun.com/returns
The problem has reappeared so I will obtain an RMA.
Apple does not allow this unless the device overwriting the location services position is MFi (Made For iOS) certified and has a special chip.
From what I understand, iOS does not support Bluetooth SPP (well it sort of does, it requires the magic chip you mention but no one does this) and 99% of GIS apps use Bluetooth SPP. The work around to SPP is to use BLE. A few GIS apps work with BLE but they all have custom GATT UUIDs so it locks an app to that vendor’s hardware. SW Maps uses SerialBLE and uses NMEA so it’s fairly universal. I had not heard of Apglos but I’ll have a look.
There is some discussion of iOS Bluetooth here. https://www.triglobal.net/asterignss With Apglos, they use BLE and the RTK Express does connect, however no data is transferred. See the following quote from Asteri GNSS “Now that Asteri is officially within the program, ANY iOS device will recognize the Asteri receiver as a valid location source. This means we can overwrite the Integrated Location Service of any software, instantly making Asteri compatible with ALL iOS software that uses Integrated Locations Services.” at https://www.triglobal.net/asterignss
Ah, ya, Asteri has their own set of GATT UUIDs. Once you connect over BLE, Apglos will attempt to access their set, the SparkFun RTK product only knows SerialBLE and no connection is made.
Now that Asteri is officially within the program, ANY iOS device will recognize the Asteri receiver as a valid location source.
Finally got my new unit today through the RMA (see other post regarding failure after six days). The new unit came as V3.6 but I successfully updated it to V3.10 using the GUI and a serial cable. I will do some configuring and try to connect it to RTCM.