ArneB
Hi DJ & EZ-Robot community,
I have problems updating the firmware on my two EZ-B boards. I have a stable bluetooth connection and started the updater, but on both boards it stucks after these messages:
Attempting connection to COM40
EZ-B reports EZ-B Firmware V2
Connected
Starting Boot Loader...
sending ping
sending ping
sending bootloader
I am EZ-B BootLoader. Gimmie Firmware!
Updating... (22.656 Bytes)
After waiting for more than 5 minutes I have switched off the board and the EZ-B controller boots up with the old V2 firmware. Some more remarks: Batteries are fresh, nothing is connected to the ports. I have even tried a direct connection from my USB->Serial adapter (FTDI chipset) to the RxD/TxD/GND pins on the EZ-B base board, but got the same result... Tested on a Win7/64-Bit and Win XP/32 bit computer...
What can I do now ? Is there anything, which I can test/enable/measure ?
Thank you for your help :-)
Arne
P.S. Yes, I have seen the FW update tutorial...
Are you using the Microsoft Native Bluetooth Stack? You can tell when your bluetooth menus look identical to the tutorial video menus.
The USB->Serial Adapter will need the baud rate specified at 9600 for firmware update.
When performing the update while the progress bar moves across the screen, does the blue LED on the EZ-B flicker? Watch the difference of the LED before the progress bar starts moving compared to when the status bar is moving. The blue LED should dim every so slightly and have a slight noticeable flicker.
Microsoft Native Bluetooth stack: I think so, the icon look the same. I will check it, if I am back in my office tomorrow. Nevertheless, with a direct USB->Serial connection it should work anyway.
USB->Serial Adapter: Yep, it is set to 9600 baud, no change of the behaviour. It is communicating with the EZ-B mainboard, because it is downloading the bootloader. Therefore I don't see a problem here...
Blue LED: It is blinking before the progress bar is moving, but it is constantly on during movement of the status bar and afterwards.
There are no dots appearing on the console after the progress bar finished.
Any other ideas ? As I have the same problem with two boards I doubt it is a hardware failure. I can access and communicate to the EZ-B board with the bluetooth module as well as with my USB->Serial adapter, therefore the overall communication path seems to be working.
What else can it be ? Some kind of timeout in the V02 firmware ?
Thanks for your support...
It's strange because the bootloader is speaking to the PC. The text "I am EZ-B Bootloader, gimmie firmware" is from the bootloader. It appears the communication is not an issue.
Rather than working from memory, can you verify the LED please. This part is important: When the progress bar begins to move after the "Updating" text, the LED should begin flickering (not flashing). Flickering means the LED will look steady but begin flickering. Tiny little pulses.
The progress bar will take a few minutes to move across the screen. Once the progress bar has filled 100%, there should be more text. Finally after about 5 minutes (entirely) it should ask you to reboot the EZ-B.
Here are the results of my LED observation:
During "sending ping": fast flashing After the updating text the blue LED is constantly on, no flickering.
To help you debugging the problem I have attached a log file from my COM port:ez-b-update-log.zip. Hope it helps to solve this problem...
What operating system are you running? Is the OS in a VMWare session or any type of emulator?
The logs are from a Windows 7 / 64 bit PC (no VMWare), but I have tried my old Windows XP/32 Bit laptop with the same negative result, too. It is a constant and reproducible problem... Maybe a handshake problem (XON/XOFF) ?
I am completely stumped. How long does the progress bar take from start to finish for you?
There are thousands of EZ-B's and this is the first time we've ever experienced this. Im stumped... It should be very straight forward. Data is sent. EZ-B receives. Voila
From pressing the "Start" button on the warning window to the end of the progress bar it takes 38 seconds, the progress bar itself finishes in roughly 13 seconds.
Is there any other way to flash the microcontroller ? I have a lot of useful equipment here...