Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

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Rocquestar
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:07 pm

Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by Rocquestar » Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:00 pm

I tried to load new COM firmware and it hung partway through, and now my GEM appears to be bricked. The System LED is RED, the other one (on the right) is green. I have powered it down, with and without the battery, and with and without the PB. Sometimes the Sys LED will wait a few seconds before turing red, other times, it's red immediately.

More information:
The Network Utility won't connect anymore.
I have an Ethernet module without WiFi.
I can ping the IP, and it answers on port 80, but that's it - no response to HTTP commands.
I was upgrading from COM ver 2.49 to ver 4.33

I realize that this is similar to a post from about 18 months ago, but the resolution there was to turn off ethernet and use WiFi - that's not an option here.

Any advice on how I can get reconnected and get my GEM back online?

:shock:
ben
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:39 am

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by ben » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:16 am

The GEM has a Recovery Mode feature built-in.

Given the age of the unit, I'd start by doing the following:

- Remove the battery from the GEM.
- Unplug the GEM unit.
- Wait 5-10 seconds.
- Hold down the button on the bottom of the GEM.
- Plug the GEM back in.

The LED should be solid red at this point.

- Connect to the GEM via the GEM Network Utility.
- Go to the Firmware tab.
- Check Recovery Mode.
- Select the COM firmware.
- Load the COM firmware.

If it gets stuck at 0%, you may have to drop the baud rate on the Ethernet module to 19200. You can do that via the Ethernet tab on the GEM Network Utility. You'll likely need to repeat the Recovery Mode steps as the GEM might be stuck due to garbage bytes.

When it boots back up, it should be solid green. If you can't communicate and had to drop the baud rate, up the baud rate back to 115200.
Ben
Brultech Research Inc.
E: ben(at)brultech.com
Rocquestar
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:07 pm

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by Rocquestar » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:21 am

Ben-

Thanks for this. I'm at work now, but will give it a shot tonight if I can make the time.

Hope you had a nice break - I saw only moments after posting my message that you had just 'gone offline' until the 2nd. I suspect you went into 'enjoy the holiday' mode.

I'll update when I know more.

;-Rocquestar
Rocquestar
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:07 pm

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by Rocquestar » Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:22 pm

That was it, Ben. Thank you.

I thought I'd tried that, but I guess once I saw the red LED, (after previously not being able to connect when the LED was red) I didn't think to try again.

I think, though, the PB-on-power-up put's the GEM into looping-for-new-firmware mode, and the connection can be made for that purpose.

Anyway, thank you. Happy new year.

Rocquestar
ben
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Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by ben » Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:39 am

Rocquestar wrote:That was it, Ben. Thank you.

I thought I'd tried that, but I guess once I saw the red LED, (after previously not being able to connect when the LED was red) I didn't think to try again.

I think, though, the PB-on-power-up put's the GEM into looping-for-new-firmware mode, and the connection can be made for that purpose.

Anyway, thank you. Happy new year.

Rocquestar
The Red LED can also happen when the firmware doesn't fully apply. With older firmwares (before COM 3.0), it can get stuck unless the battery is removed. If you removed the battery and cycled power, that might've cleared it up and let you put it in recovery mode.
Ben
Brultech Research Inc.
E: ben(at)brultech.com
mwall
Posts: 140
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:25 pm

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by mwall » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:16 pm

ben wrote:The GEM has a Recovery Mode feature built-in.

Given the age of the unit, I'd start by doing the following:

- Remove the battery from the GEM.
- Unplug the GEM unit.
- Wait 5-10 seconds.
- Hold down the button on the bottom of the GEM.
- Plug the GEM back in.

The LED should be solid red at this point.

- Connect to the GEM via the GEM Network Utility.
- Go to the Firmware tab.
- Check Recovery Mode.
- Select the COM firmware.
- Load the COM firmware.

If it gets stuck at 0%, you may have to drop the baud rate on the Ethernet module to 19200. You can do that via the Ethernet tab on the GEM Network Utility. You'll likely need to repeat the Recovery Mode steps as the GEM might be stuck due to garbage bytes.

When it boots back up, it should be solid green. If you can't communicate and had to drop the baud rate, up the baud rate back to 115200.

ben,

i have a gem for which this process is not working, no matter how many times i try to 'repeat the Recovery Mode steps'.

the GEM is serial 400. WIZnet connected to COM1. i have no idea what the COM and ENG firmware versions are, because i cannot communicate with the GEM. at all. it has always had a flaky ethernet you replaced the WIZnet at one point (thank you), then a few months ago i had to switch to serial again because the second WIZnet was not reliable either. now the GEM does not even respond over serial. i just replaced the battery with a brand new lithium CR2032.

i have tried this:

power up the GEM into recovery mode. i set the WIZnet baud to 19200. i use the windows "GEM Network Utility 6.0" and open connection to the WIZnet. i try to push COM onto the device. progress moves to 0.1% then timeout. LEDs go to green. WIZnet is then unable to communicate with the GEM until i power up the GEM into recover mode again.

does not matter if i switch the WIZnet baud back to 115200 - WIZnet still cannot talk to the GEM.

i have tried this:

connect directly to the GEM via serial. the utility says "verifying communication port connection" then hangs forever.

major frustration!

so then i tried this:

i basically did random button mashing. after 10 or 12 open/close with the GEM connected directly to serial, the "GEM Network Utility 6.0" magically decided that it could talk to the GEM! so i quickly clicked on the 'Start' button in the 'firmware' section of the 'firmware' tab, and the progress bar actually progressed!

but then the GEM was left in an odd state - the left LED pulses yellow-red like its about to vomit.

so i waited. no change.

then i powered cycled the GEM. now it starts up with 2 green LEDs.

try to connect directly via serial. the "GEM Network Utility 6.0" just says "could not communicate with the GEM". tried that 4 or 5 times.

changed the baud to 115200 (in the utility? i clicked the button in the utility, but it is not clear whether that changes the utility's baud, or the GEM's baud).

click on 'get GEM info'. the utility gets some info from the GEM. and a bunch of timeouts (see attached screenshot).

now what? i guess i try to flash both COM and ENG firmware again?

what is the fool-proof, works-every-time, industrial-strength, so easy your two-year-old-could-do-it way of getting a GEM into a known state?

m
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mwall
Posts: 140
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:25 pm

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by mwall » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:30 pm

well, i found a solution! go to the toilet! i powered down the GEM, went to the toilet, then powered up the GEM. and it responded via the WIZnet! but all is not rainbows and unicorns...

things still look wonky (see screen shot of the status page). what is this error that it reports?

the "GEM Network Utility 6.0" cannot communicate with the GEM at all now, either via the WIZnet or directly via serial. and i tried wiring to both COM1 and COM2 on the gem - the utility works with neither now.

what can i do to really reset this thing to factory defaults so that i can have a hope of it working reliably?

m
Attachments
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ben
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Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by ben » Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:31 am

mwall wrote:well, i found a solution! go to the toilet! i powered down the GEM, went to the toilet, then powered up the GEM. and it responded via the WIZnet! but all is not rainbows and unicorns...

things still look wonky (see screen shot of the status page). what is this error that it reports?

the "GEM Network Utility 6.0" cannot communicate with the GEM at all now, either via the WIZnet or directly via serial. and i tried wiring to both COM1 and COM2 on the gem - the utility works with neither now.

what can i do to really reset this thing to factory defaults so that i can have a hope of it working reliably?

m
Can you check the power supply to make sure it's not the old-style? We've had similar issues due to failing caps in the old power supplies.

It should be labelled as "Power Adapter" and not "AC Adaptor".
Ben
Brultech Research Inc.
E: ben(at)brultech.com
mwall
Posts: 140
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:25 pm

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by mwall » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:19 pm

ben wrote: Can you check the power supply to make sure it's not the old-style? We've had similar issues due to failing caps in the old power supplies.
the power supply is one of the newer ones: "Power Adapter" not "AC Adaptor"
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Firmware upgrade - Oh Noes!!

Post by Teken » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:33 pm

M,

One of the things that has caused issues for others is where the system loses the hardware configurations. Which your image capture indicates in the *GEM Network Utility* so you need to define what hardware is present.

Failing to do that portion will make anything else near impossible moving forward. You need only select the proper hardware on the left side and select save. You obviously need to be connected to the GEM for the settings to take.

Next, another thing which I believe some people miss or don't get right is changing the Ethernet tab under the *Comm Settings* from normal to *Firmware Mode*. In the past the baud rate which I have high lighted in green had to be defined and set to 19200 baud vs 115200.

Since the last few firmware updates I've used 115200 baud as the setting. As 19200 sometimes takes too long and causes the system to hang or takes a long time to ack. Normally the baud speed has no impact on the firmware update process and more related to accessing the GEM's internal web setup page.

But its something to consider in the future.

Following the above has always enabled me to complete a firmware load. Lastly, from time to time when you select the *Get GEM Info* the system may declare random errors. Just ignore them and keep pressing the button after waiting a few seconds and the system will connect and spit out the right information etc.
Attachments
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