SeaTrac
Upgrading Beacon Firmware
6
3.
Troubleshooting
This section covers the most common causes of failure when attempting to upgrade the firmware in a SeaTrac
Beacon.
If you have tried the actions mentioned below, please contact us at the details shown in the Technical Support
section of this document.
The SeaTrac Programmer software will not communicate with the Beacon.
•
Check the Beacon has power
–
the status indicator on the base of the Beacon housing should be flashing
green.
•
Sometimes several serial ports are created if you are using an RS232-to-USB converter, in addition to
any physical serial ports on the computer.
•
Check the correct serial port is specified in the programmer, and if necessary use the Windows Device
Manager
1
to see which serial ports are available.
•
Check the Baud Rate setting is correct. By default, this should be 115200, although users can adjust the
beacon s
etting using software such as “SeaTrac Tools”.
•
Try several other Baud Rate settings or follow the “Resetting to Defaults” procedure below to restore
the factory settings of 115200.
The SeaTrac Beacon seems unresponsive and the Status LED isn’t flashing.
•
If cycling the power to the Beacon does not fix this problem, it is likely that the firmware has become
corrupt either during a previous attempt at programming or due to other circumstances.
•
Follow the “Bootloader Mode” procedure described below, to prevent
the current firmware from
starting and force the Beacon to only accept programming commands.
When clicking the “Program” Button, a “Device initialisation not possible…” message is displayed.
•
During the Initialisation step of the programming process the target part number, revision, memory
area and length of the new firmware are sent to the Beacon.
•
If the beacon determines that from these parameters it cannot accept the firmware, it will return a
“Device initialisation not possible” message in the program
log window and abort programming.
•
Check you have the most current and correct firmware for the Beacon hardware or contact Technical
Support if you cannot resolve the problem.
The Program Update sequence starts but fails during the program Transfer step
•
The new firmware is transferred into the Beacons temporary memory as a series of data blocks, each
one sent as a command over the serial link.
•
If other activity occurs on the serial port, it may corrupt these messages and cause programming to fail.
•
Use the SeaTrac Tools software to turn off the automatic generation of Status messages and remove
the Beacon from water to ensure that no acoustic activity triggers the generation of serial output
messages and try programming again.
1
For further details see
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/open-device-manager
