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Firmware Upgrading - Failed to upload: Error writing firmware: Flash tool execution failed (1)!
  • Klaus
    I received a brand new gimbal from a kickstarted project but when switching it on only the battery LEDs get on. No activation of the motors. I was told to flash the board again.
    I tried it with my Mac, with Win XP under Parallels Desktop and in addition with a Win 7 laptop. I always get the same error message

    Firmware Upgrading - Failed to upload: Error writing firmware: Flash tool execution failed (1)!

    And the following log in details,
    Writing firmware...
    Writing firmware...
    Opening Port [OK]
    Activating device [KO]
    No response from the target, the Boot loader can not be started.
    Please, verify the boot mode configuration, reset your device then try again.
    Process finished.

    I have searched all kind of forums, changed the COM port, changed the USB cable, checked the cable connections on the board. Nothing, except the red LED which is on at the board. I also cannot connect to the board, it always stays in connecting.....

    Before I have to send back the gimbal with expensive shipping costs and again wasting of time, does anyone have an idea what the problem could be and a solution?
    Thanks in advance for any help.
  • alexmosalexmos
    Hello,

    1. You can upgrade only on Windows PC.
    2. Check board version (ask a seller if have a doubt), is it v1.x (8bit) or v.3.x (32bit). Automatic upgrade in the latest version of GUI works only for 3.x, for 1.x you should use older GUI (2.40b7)

    If its 3.x version you can also try manual upgrade of recovery firmware, like described in the user manual (can be downloaded here http://www.basecamelectronics.com/downloads/32bit/)
  • Klaus
    Thanks alexmos,
    I asked the Gimbal manufacture (in US and I am in Europe). They confirmed it's the 32bit board and 2.41b4 would be installed.
    I only did try the manual downloading (as the automatic doesn't work as well)

    Firs I tried with Mac and Parallel Desktop and than I tried with a windows 7 Laptop. Both systems showed the same failure message. So also on PC I receive the same failure message when I try to manually upgrade/read.
  • alexmosalexmos
    Ok, if you get response from flash tool - its good and mean it is working, but it do not get response form board. Reasons: 1. board is dead, 2. Serial connection lost, 3. bootloader is not started.

    If your board was never working, 1) is most possible case. Ask seller to replace it.

    About 3), have you closed FLASH jumper before power on the board? Only this action starts bootloader.
  • Klaus
    I have a problem with this seller. He agrees that I can sent it back and they will check and fix it, but they want me to pay half of the shipment costs although the gimbal is brand new and never worked.
    Really very poor service for a kickstarter project!

    I haven't mounted and connected the board as I received the gimbal complete. But I assume turbo ace has set the jumpers. Is there a way to verify it?

    Concerning 1. a dead board. Is there possibility to measure or find our if a board is dead? I have the Allsteady 7 from turbo ace assumingly with BaseCam SimpleBGC 32-bit Tiny board.
  • justice
    I am having this same issue with the same error... I am getting a feedback on the board and can observe all PID settings and change them via USB or bluetooth... however cannot upgrade the firmware to 2.42 b6...

    How can I fix this?
  • Garug
    Me too, something went wrong and I lost the FW and connection to GUI, tried different way with closing flash pin searching for how to do it on forum etc. before looking in the obvious place, in the Users Manual.

    The FW recovery procedure is there and works fine. However FW update requires Windows and USB. BT may work for FW update if configured right but safer to use USB for FW update.
  • brain
    Shit! Same on mine!
    I never had problems with upgrading, i have normal legal board, and now i had the same message.
    Also now i cannot connect to the board...
    Is this solved now?
  • Garug
    Recovery istructions are on the users manual
  • TheMasterSii
    I've had the same issue, I flashed through BlueTooth successfully after shorting the FLASH pins. I've used the recovery firmware, however every time I try to update the board to the latest firmware the GUI displays' Timeout' and the board goes dead until I recover the board.

    Is anyone able to shed some light on this??
    Thanks :)
  • Garug
    USB would be more reliable for FW update than BT.

    What FW are you trying to flash, with what version of GUI? what operating system, .jar or .exe version of the GUI in use?

    Yes I have had this issue and lost the connection completely, the instructions on the manual worked for me.

    Maybe erase EEPROM would help, that clears the board memory, so backup settings first.
  • TheMasterSii
    Thanks for the reply!

    The board I purchased was from Desire RC, which doesn't include a USB connector, only BlueTooth.

    I'm trying to flash 2.42B7 and also B6 (just to test) the current firmware after recovery is 0.00.
    Shortly after attempting to write the firmware I receive the 'Timeout' error.

    I can only seem to connect to the 2.42B7 GUI after flashing the recovery firmware.

    I'm using OS X 10.9.4. Jar

    I shall look into doing that!

    Thanks!
  • Garug
    The mac is problematic with the FW update. try using windows and the .exe GUI, I know it is pain, I use Mac too. Hopefully soon the FW update works on Mac too, without problems.

    I have not seen boards without USB, is that a legitimate board? If not FW update probably will not work. Are you sure it is 32 bit board?
  • TheMasterSii
    Ah, that sounds about right. Ill try updating on a Windows PC this evening.

    Yes its fully legitimate, they're partnered with BaseCam,

    http://www.basecamelectronics.com/wheretobuy/

    http://desirerc.co.uk/index.php?option=com_jcommerce&pgn=product_info&products_id=114

    Thanks for your help!
  • David_Hogg
    I'm also stuck in exactly the same position as TheMasterSii ... I have been experiencing problems with corrupted profiles and was advised (by Garug – ah who's also posted in this thread!) to erase the EEPROM (which didn't make a difference) and then re-flash the firmware.

    However, on doing the latter I'm now absolutely stuck!

    Whilst trying to re-upgrade the firmware, it failed and then on power-cycling the board it would no longer boot. I was able to flash the recovery firmware which at least leaves me with a board with a firmware of 0.00b0, but then when trying to update to 2.43b9 it keeps giving me an 'Error writing firmware: Timeout!' message ...

    I'm now left with a board that doesn't function which is a step further back than I was earlier this afternoon when I only had corrupted profiles!

    Can someone please shed some light on this issue? Perhaps a fix has been announced for flashing firmware from the Mac since this thread was last updated?

    I've seen this paragraph in the manual:

    "Starting from 2.42b7, its possible to upgrade firmware from GUI under Mac OS and Linux (and virtually, any other OS). Open-source tool stm32ld (https://github.com/jsnyder/stm32ld) is used to upload firmware to the board. "

    But I have no idea what to do with the stm32ld thing ... or even how to download it!

    I'm puzzled why it's possible to upload the recovery firmware with no issue on the Mac, but not the normal firmware?

    Any help is much appreciated as this has become quite frustrating now.

    Many thanks,

    David

    PS. I should add that I'm using a DesireRC Basecam board which only has Bluetooth for connecting to it ...

    PPS. Should the 'flash' jumper always be on the board when upgrading the firmware? Or only when manually uploading new firmware and not when doing it automatically?
  • Garug
    Flash jumper is only for emergency flash. You should normally use the auto update and no flash jumper.

    The FW update has been long working ok on Mac, but the drivers need to be correctly installed. On that I can not rely help as they have always worked for me, just folowing the driver installation.
  • David_Hogg
    Hi Garug,

    Many thanks for your quick reply and for the information.

    What drivers do I need to install to allow me to successfully flash the new firmware to the board? I'm not using a USB cable as my Desire RC board doesn't have a USB socket – only a BlueTooth connection. The only drivers I've seen mentioned are the USB to UART bridge drivers but I guess they aren't needed if I'm using BlueTooth?

    Is it possible to download the latest 2.43b9 firmware as a .bin file and then upload that using the Manual update tool? Perhaps that will work if the Automatic update hasn't worked?

    Thanks again for your quick help!

    David
  • Garug
    I have never succeeded FW updating with BT, it should be possible, but BT module parity etc. need to be correctly configured with AT commands. GUI works with wider variety of BT settings.

    I am not sure what Flash jumper does, if it is possible to use it with BT.

    Using BT with GUI, no special drivers are needed, just pairing it with the computer. I think it is the same for FW update, only BT module needs to be correctly configured.

    Try searching "BT parity" on this forum, It might provide the answer.
  • David_Hogg
    Hi Garug,

    I searched on this forum (and Google too) but couldn't find any details on how to change / check the parity of the Bluetooth on the Mac. Do you happen to remember where you saw the details? The only PC we have in the house doesn't have Bluetooth so I'm a bit stuck :-(

    Any guidance would be much appreciated.

    Many thanks,

    David
  • David_Hogg
    Just as a PS to this, is there any way of configuring the Bluetooth connection in the GUI, like setting the parity? I've just downloaded a simple serial terminal program called goSerial which allows you to specify all the parameters for the Bluetooth port, but obviously that's a separate bit of software to the Basecam GUI, and the settings on one don't affect the other.

    Alternatively, can you use a serial terminal program to upload the firmware? Is that what the manual means when it mentions the stm32ld program?

    "Starting from 2.42b7, its possible to upgrade firmware from GUI under Mac OS and Linux (and virtually, any other OS). Open-source tool stm32ld (https://github.com/jsnyder/stm32ld) is used to upload firmware to the board."

    Are there instructions somewhere on how to do this? Otherwise it's like saying "here's what you need to make the cake" ... and then not actually saying how to make it! :-)

    I've got a Bluetooth dongle on order to use on the only PC laptop (Windows 7) we've got in the house, but that's my last resort as I'd prefer to be able to do everything from the Mac!

    Many thanks for your help,

    David
  • David_Hogg
    Do you have any thoughts on this Bluetooth connection problem / firmware upload procedure guys?

    Many thanks :-)

    David
  • David_Hogg
    Ok so repeating exactly the same steps that I performed on the Mac, on a PC with a Bluetooth dongle, the firmware upgrade worked perfectly! And that was with no special setting up / changing Bluetooth parity or anything.

    I'm quite baffled why repeating exactly the same steps on the PC would work, but I'm just grateful I'm back up and running now.

    Thanks for your help :-)

    David
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