Nova firmware update fails

Hardware (and firmware) Nova
21

Reuben,

I’ll email support for sure. However, what is your stance on these ublox problems? Should we just use another modem? The firmware update changed a LOT of things about this modem. I mean, come on - even the lights blink differently… My project was nearly complete before the firmware update - now I feel like I have to start over? There must be lots of unhappy ublox customers on Hologram that have the same problems? Can you comment? Has this been a catastrophic issue for you?

Can you recommend another modem as I continue to fight with this ublox kit? Also, if I use another modem, can I still use command like “Hologram send” etc, to send data?

Thanks,

-DJ

22

Most customers have had the update work without an issue and haven’t found the new profile settings to be an issue. Can you provide more information about what you would need to start over? All the commands should be the same.

I can’t recommend any specific Cat-M modem, but our SIMs should work with any of them. However, the SDK will not work with others. You can look on this forum for some suggestions though. People have been posting threads and sample code for various modems.

One thing to note is that the profile changes that ublox made in the firmware were things that the carriers asked them to do and so you may see these types of changes coming in other Cat-M modules as well.

23

Hi,

As requested, I shipped one of my many Novas which will not accept a firmware update to Hologram. I have not received any indication of receipt of the device. Can you confirm it was received.

I’ll also mention that I have been doing some business with Ublox and have had the opportunity to discuss this firmware update problem.

They provided a ublox document which indicates there are 4 ways to update the firmware for the SARA -R410M-02B:

  1. over-the-air (FOTA)
  2. via FTP
  3. tethered (FOAT)
  4. EasyFlash

As the amount of data transferred is likely to be 1 - 4mb, over-the-air and FTP solutions are attractive to me.

The tethered (FOAT) method uses either of two AT commands:

  • +UFWUPD
  • +UDWNFILE

The first uses the XMODEM protocol and I assume that is what you are using since I see XMODEM mentioned in some of the failure messages.

The fourth method, which ublox seems to recommend as easiest, uses a home-brewed utility they call EasyFlash which they assert can be used to perform the update. It’s an unfortunate name choice because it collides with unrelated software/products. I have not yet tried it. Have you? The reason I raise the EasyFlash question is that you folks have written a python program to perform the update and, under a variety of circumstances it, it doesn’t work. If EasyFlash works, why bother with python?

This problem has been going on for many weeks. When I first wrote I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong. Given the number of others who have chimed in indicating identical or similar problems, it seems a stronger effort needs to be made to sort this out. I have seen no indication in this thread or any others that a solution is any nearer today than before I started this thread.

Of course, you may have been making good progress toward a solution and simply not shared details of your progress.

Regards,

Matt

24

That was received and I believe a new one has gone out to you.

EasyFlash does work with the Nova but the reason we haven’t recommended it is that it only works on Windows and also requires that the separate Qualcomm drivers are installed so it doesn’t match the normal use case of the Nova which is Linux. You’re definitely welcome to give EasyFlash a try though. We’ll do some testing here to see if EasyFlash is able to apply the update to these boards that are having issues.

We understand the frustration here. UBlox is definitely working on it and has some theories about the issue. Hopefully we’ll be able to pass along a fix to you all soon.

25

Hi Reuben,

I get your reservations about EasyFlash. I haven’t tried EasyFlash because I don’t use WIndows, so I’ll have to dig up a Windows machine if I want to try it. Loading drivers under Windows doesn’t seem like a problem to me.

I don’t really want to climb into Windows to do the update, but people reading this thread should be informed of that possibility. I’m sure there are plenty of folks, like me, who want any solution right now, and a ‘clean’ solution in the longer term. I imagine many of the folks reading this thread are comfortable with Windows.

If anyone needs links to EasyFlash and the necessary drivers, let me know and I’ll post links.

I’ll also mention that my company has developed two LTE devices: one based on the ublox SARA-R410M-02B and another based on the Quectel BG96. We began work on the ublox-based device first. Our experience dealing with ublox has been very unsatisfying. They won’t completely ignore us, but they don’t make any substantial effort to help (even with technical questions). Quectel has been extremely supportive. I can go into details if anyone is interested.

Our first production run of the ublox device is underway. I expect we will produce our first production run of the Quectel-based device at the end of December of beginning of January. There are some practical benefits to each. However, Quectel has been so much more responsive, helpful, and supportive that I expect we’ll switch entirely to Quectel.

It seems to me that the current problem updating the firmware is, perhaps, a good example of ublox’ bare-bones, technically inadequate support. If Hologram was a big ublox customer (100,000+ modules) I don’t think this problem would remain unresolved.

26

EasyFlash Firmware Update Recommended by Ublox (doesn’t work either)

I really need the firmware update so I tried the EasyFlash method recommended by ublox.

I installed the drivers, EasyFlash software, and update file. The EasyFlash program fails while backing up some files, even before (it appears) attempting to install the new firmware.

After exchanging some e-mail about my failed efforts, I was finally received a two sentence “get lost” e-mail from ublox:

Hi Matt,

I recommend that you contact Hologram directly. There may be some process required to allow for some type of bypass more for direct module access from the PC.

Regards.

This was very disappointing. I wrote back:

Hi xxx,

“…some type of bypass mode for direct module access…” EasyFlash is communicating with the module. The backup seems to be failing.

I contacted Hologram six weeks ago with full details of update failures using their tools. They insist they have been working with ublox to resolve the problem. Hologram reports that ublox has some “theories” about what my be going wrong. I must say, it is very disappointing that Hologram points fingers at ublox and ublox points fingers at Hologram.

It seems to me that Hologram will always be able to point a finger at whichever company built a product around a ublox module, because a module can’t be updated without being part of a device built by some company other than ublox.

This is especially alarming to me because my company has just finished designing our own LTE device around the SARA-R410M-02B, and we are likely to have exactly same problems as our device is also a simple, USB dongle similar to the Hologram device. I have just ordered 250 modules to be delivered to my CM for production.

Shouldn’t I expect similar problems? If I encounter similar problems shall I expect ublox to help me get to the bottom of the problem or just to point a finger back at me?

It seems to me that a company concerned about customer service would view Hologram (the purchaser) or me (the end-user) as deserving of all help necessary to sort this out. One reason I chose to build a product around the SARA-R410M-02B was the assurance by ublox that the device firmware can be updated in so many ways. If I believed the device firmware was frozen (or couldn’t be updated) I would either choose a different company or at least wait until the product was more mature.

I’ll also mention that ublox has a bit of a reputation for paying much attention to very large customers and virtually none to small ones. Is this really the case? Does my current experience support or contradict that reputation?

If I’m sounding a bit frustrated it’s because I am. I have 55 ublox-based LTE devices all of which need firmware upgrades. I get that I didn’t buy them from you, but you don’t sell LTE modems, you sell the modules which power them.

Reuben, I really need the firmware upgrade because it seems to fix some connectivity problems I’m having on 50 units I have deployed in Mississippi. I know you don’t have a crystal ball, but can you just share your honest assessment of whether you think this problem will be resolved or should we just chuck the Novas with the earlier firmware and buy new Novas with the latest firmware?

27

I might have something for you in the next two hours

28

Hi all, I just pushed a commit to the github repo that includes a new script called nova410update-retry.py.
There are a couple different issues with the update, but the biggest one seems to be that in some cases, the first update stage might be working but not actually returning the proper code and then a code comes back later that apparently means it worked but wasn’t documented like that.

If you see a failure on the initial run, go ahead and run this new script and it may properly apply the update for you. If things work well, then we may integrate this check into the original script.

@mbrenner I’m not sure if all of your boards have the same issue, but this method did actually work on the board you sent back to us.

29

New script was successful in updating the firmware. Thank you for getting this sorted out.

1 Like
30

Glad to hear that. Hopefully it helps everyone else as well.

31

I can’t speak for their entire support team and I’m sorry you haven’t had a good experience, but I will say that our UBlox support reps have taken this seriously.

Hopefully things are better going forward. Our next production run of Novas will have this firmware version by default so hopefully all of this will become irrelevant very soon.

Anyway, I hope the script I just posted helps you out. Let us know how it goes.

32

just used the updated script, works like a charm :+1::+1:

1 Like
33

I updated the firmware with Easyflash. All worked well and the modem connects fine. What does not work are the LEDs. They do not turn on at all. What are the commands to reprogram them?

Thanks.

34 
AT+UGPIOC=23,10
AT+UGPIOC=16,2
35

Thanks a lot for the super fast reply. Worked like a charm. :slightly_smiling_face:

36

Hi @Reuben,

I tried updating the firmware on five Novas using the newly posted Python scripts. I had good results, with only one surprise:

Nova #1: I ran nova410update.py and it failed, so I ran nova410update-retry.py and it worked.

Nova #2, #3, #4: I ran nova410update.py and it worked for all three Novas.

Nova #5: I ran nova410update.py and it failed, so I ran nova410update-retry.py and it also failed. I repeated the process several times with identical results. However, I wanted to make the log file available (in case you folks want it), but is was already pretty large, so I deleted and ran nova410update-retry.py again–and it worked!

So, I got all 5 devices updated (only 50 to go), but #5 did not go according to plan–for whatever it’s worth.

37

Ok glad to hear that’s working for you too. If you see an issue like #5 again try to grab those logs. Would be good to see what’s going on.

There was one other very rare error case that we haven’t been able to get a board back to pass along to ublox so we’re keeping our eyes out to see if that occurs again somewhere.

38

@Reuben, if you want to describe the “rare error” then others can keep an eye out for it too…

39

Sure. You’ll probably see a message about an unknown error code and a line like this in the logs:
+UFWSTATUS: 55506b67, ffffffff, ffffffff

40

FYI firmware updater should now work with Python 3 SDK. Thanks to whoever submitted the PR for that. If you want the Python 2 version pull the python2 branch.