Resolved Failure when updating firmware

Discussion in 'STF Series CCD Cameras' started by Steven Greco, Sep 17, 2019.

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  1. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi. I attempted to update the firmware on my new STF-8300 today and got an error. The Firmware updater connected to the camera, but the "?s" cause some concern. When I click "Download Latest", I get a message saying "Download Latest Failed. Cannot open file."

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Steve Screen Shot 2019-09-17 at 5.46.05 PM.png
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  2. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    We had some server issues briefly this afternoon. Please try again and see if it works this time.
     
  3. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Doug, I just tried several times but no go. Is there any significance to the ???s in the version and other columns? Also, I should have mentioned that I'm running it on a MacBook Pro.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  4. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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  5. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Thanks, Doug.

    A separate issue, but I found that the Firmware updater app on Mac can’t be closed. There’s no way (that I can see) to close it. That is, the window doesn’t behave like a normal Mac window with red/yellow close/minimize buttons at upper left. Rebooting is the only way to clear it.
     
  6. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    I thought I'd try something else. I dual-boot my MacBook Pro with Windows too, so I installed the camera drivers on Win10 (works great). I then found the Firmware tab on the SBIGDriverChecker app and was about to try the update, but a pop-up warning scared me off. It advised that I shouldn't update unless there's a problem, or instructed to do so by tech support. I'm a little hesitant to do it now, since the camera appears to be working normally with both Mac OSX and Win10. (I have SkyXPro to connect with the camera on the Mac side and am intending to use Maxim DL on Win10 (since there is no Mac version) to process the images I hope to be taking soon. I may try putting everything on Win10 at some point.) What would you recommend regarding the firmware? Thanks.

    Steve
     
  7. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Hi Steve,
    Firmware updates can be done safely in a stable environment wiht a bit of patience.
    Some tips:
    The camera needs to be connected directly to the PC with a short, known good USB cable.
    The camera original AC power supply needs to be plugged in.
    The computer needs to be running on AC wall power, not a laptop battery.
    If you have a UPS (battery backup unit), then it's best to have the PC and camera power pack plugged into backed-up outlets.
    Run Windows natively on the machine, not under a virtual machine/emulator etc.
    Don't do anything else on the computer when doing a firmware update.
    e.g. quit out of your email program, browser, all astronomy software.
    Make sure no other program is trying to talk to the camera (MaxIm, TSX, SGP, etc.). Quit out of all of them.
    Make sure windows power management is off so that the PC doesnt go to sleep or turn the monitor off part way through the process.

    In the SBIG Driver Checker, on the Firmware tab, you can "Get firmware version from camera", and it can tell if it needs to update the camera.
    Do that first.

    If the camera is already up-to-date, then there is no need to do anything.

    If it says there is an update available, then proceed to do it. Relax, be patient. In the past year I've heard of only 1 person having problems - it's pretty low risk if you follow the tips.
     
  8. Adam Robichaud

    Adam Robichaud Lead Developer Staff Member

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    Steven,

    Can I ask where you got that firmware updater? It isn't the Firmware viewer in CCDOpsLite... Is it?

    Cheers,
    -Adam
     
  9. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Adam,

    It’s on the USB drive that came with the camera, in the folder for MacOS. I don’t recall right now beyond that, but I’ll look later.

    In the meantime, I set up a Windows partition on the MacBook Pro and installed Win10 on it. I was able to find the firmware updater for Windows and looks like it will work, though I haven’t done the update yet. So, fixing the Mac updater is not as critical for me now. Still, it would be good to solve for other Apple users.

    Thanks!

    Steve


     
  10. Adam Robichaud

    Adam Robichaud Lead Developer Staff Member

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    I definitely advise using SBIG Driver Checker 64 (the Windows application available from our website) over the MacOS app. Let us know if you encounter any issues updating on Windows.
     
  11. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Adam,

    I’ve had the firmware updater running for a couple of hours and nothing has changed. Should it take this long? It’s still running and here’s the window:

    upload_2019-9-22_20-1-43.jpeg
     
  12. Steven Greco

    Steven Greco Cyanogen Customer

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    Well, of course, minutes after posting the above question the updater finished successfully! A bit of nail biting there but all's well that ends well. :)
     
  13. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Glad to hear it worked. Yes you have to be very patient. The worst possible thing is to interrupt it!
     
  14. Adam Robichaud

    Adam Robichaud Lead Developer Staff Member

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    It should only take a few minutes, not a few hours. I've had a handful of people report that it sits at 100% occasionally, but when they power cycled everything it appeared to have uploaded the firmware correctly—it would seem something's getting stuck towards the end there. Thanks for the report—I'll flag it for investigation.
     

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