WiFly Shield Firmware update

Hello, I have an old WRL-09954 RN-131C WiFly Shield and I desperately need to update its firmware for a project (now it’s 2.21).

I’m following the tutorial here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/wi … e-firmware but, unfortunately, it seems Microchip’s FTP is not responding (FTP timeout).

Is it possible to solve the problem somehow? Is there a mirror somewhere, or are the firmware files available/can someone send them my way (I’ll load them on my FTP)?

Thanks for your help!

We don’t have much information on this product anymore but if I recall correctly, the following procedure might work. (it did a few years back anyway)

Firmware updates

The problem: Microchip bought Roving networks and the FTP server your modules firmware is trying to reach no longer exists. We have a procedure to fix this this though. First, reset your module to the factory defaults:

factory RESET

Now connect to your Wlan:

set wlan ssid *your SSID* 
set wlan passphrase *your WiFi password* 
save 
reboot

Now re-connect to your wlan and configure the new FTP settings: (We had to try the update twice to get it to work)

set ftp address 0 
set dns backup rn.microchip.com 
save ftp 
update

You should see something like this:

<2.31> ftp update <2.31> FTP connecting to 198.175.253.161 FTP file=34 ………………………………………………………….. FTP OK. UPDATE OK

Now send:

save 
factory RESET 
reboot

At this point you will need to re-enter your SSID and pass phrase and re connect to your wlan. After you’ve done that, try pinging google to make sure you’re live.

ping dgoogle.com 4

(you have to add the “d” to the beginning of the hostname in order for the module to do a DNS lookup.) You should see something like this:

Ping try (len=32) 74.125.225.192 <4.41> PING reply from 74.125.225.192 PING reply from 74.125.225.192 PING reply from 74.125.225.192 PING reply from 74.125.225.192

Hopefully that should get you going!

Thanks a lot!

With your help I was able to update… Initially “ftp address 0” didn’t work, 198.175.253.161 neither… Microchip FTPs seem all down…

However “rn.microchip.com” was responding… I tried to reach it via FTP and here it is! (BTW it’s possible to find a load of stuff, mainly firmwares, there… I think the “/public” dir has the complete collection with the last stable versions, but there are also other interesting directories, like “beta” and “custom”. Maybe someone else will find this info useful, credentials are the default as for firmware upgrade).

So, a trace route later I got the IP:

198.175.253.64

After setting it as the FTP target address, saving and rebooting I was able (after 3 attempts or so) to send an “ftp update” command that didn’t get an “FTP timeout=2” or “FTP timeout=10” and the update worked!

After resetting and rebooting I was able to setup the network and pinging “google.com” (with “ping dgoogle.com”).

Now I can once more put this nice WiFly shield to good use, thanks!