PSA / PVA Installation Guide
December 4, 2019
Sifos Technologies
Page 20
4.
Updating Firmware in the PSA Instrument
Occasionally, Sifos Technologies will make available firmware updates for the PSA, PSL, or PhyView instrument.
These updates are designed to be installed by instrument users as needed.
There are two types of firmware for the instrument:
Chassis (or Controller) Firmware
Test Port Firmware (2 per blade or per PSA/PVA-30002 “compact” instrument)
The following two sections do not apply to older
PSA-1200
chassis’. If a PSA-1200 chassis is hosting one or more
PSA-3102, PVA-3102, or PSL-3102 test blades, the process for updating test blade firmware is documented later in
Upgrading Test Port Firmware in a PSA-1200 Chassis
.
4.1.
Updating Controller Firmware in a PSA-3xxx or PVA-3xxx
Controller firmware within any PowerSync or PhyView instrument can be updated in one of two ways:
1.
Using PowerShell and updating over the LAN (Recommended)
2.
Using the Console port and updating over the USB/RS-232 (Failed update recovery)
The firmware will be furnished in file whose name includes the model number and version, such as:
PSx-300xv0318.hex
In this case, the file contains firmware version
3.18
, and the file is associated with any of the model PSA-3000
(
including PVA-3000
) or PSL-3000 controllers.
4.1.1.
Updating Chassis Controller Firmware Over the LAN
The following instructions assume that a new firmware file has been copied to the
/temp
directory on the host PC. A
different subdirectory path may be substituted depending on where the firmware file is placed.
To update the controller firmware:
6.
Turn on the power to the instrument.
7.
Open a PowerShell Tcl (or PowerShell Wish) console and connect to the instrument to be updated.
8.
Issue the following PowerShell command, using the actual name of the hex file you are attempting to load:
(Note:
slot
,
port
0,0
refers to the controller.)
PSA-1,1>
psa_update_fw
0,0
file
/temp/psx-300xv0318.hex
A prompt such as the following should then appear:
PSA_CHASSIS_ADDRESS: 192.168.221.105. Confirm download file /temp/psx-300xv0318.hex to
PSA? (YES |NO)
YES
Transferring file /temp/psx-300xv0318.hex of size 102442 bytes to 192.168.221.105...
File contains 582 64 byte blocks
writing block 1 of 582
writing block 2 of 582
writing block 3 of 582
writing block 4 of 582 …
writing block 582 of 582
NOTE!
Firmware upgrade of the controller will take a few minutes. Do
NOT
interfere with the operation of
PowerShell or the instrument during this period of time. Do
NOT
cycle power to the instrument.
4.1.2.
Recovering From a Failed Chassis Controller Firmware Update Over USB Console
If the Chassis Controller firmware update failed, for example due to a power loss in the middle of the operation, it is
possible to reload the firmware via the front panel USB
console
interface. The procedure is somewhat complicated
so it is advised that a user needing to recover from a failed controller software update contact
Sifos Support
.
