SeaTrac
Upgrading Beacon Firmware
3
1.
Overview
For tracking the position of ROV’s, AUV’s, divers and other subsea assets, SeaTrac
uses acoustic beacons such as
the X150, X110 and X010 devices. Periodically, new versions of the firmware these beacons run is released to
improve performance and add new features. Firmware is delivered in a file ending with the
FWX
file extension and
is programmed into the beacon via the RS232 serial port form a Windows PC running the SeaTrac Programmer
software utility.
This document describes how to upgrade the beacons to run the latest firmware release.
When upgrading firmware, it is critical that all beacons are upgrading to the same release level before use.
Trying to use beacons running different versions of the firmware may lead to unpredictable behaviour or
communications failing!
As several versions of firmware are available for different beacon types, it is strongly recommended that users
follow the procedure discussed below in this document…
2.
Upgrading Firmware
2.1.
Preparation
Before starting the firmware upgrade, visit the Blueprint Subsea website and download the latest version of the
SeaTrac PinPoint Installer
as software tools from the support pages at…
https://www.blueprintsubsea.com/seatrac/support
In addition to the PinPoint application, this will also install the software tool required by this procedure
–
and the
can be found in the “
SeaTrac PinPoint / Tools
” folder in the Windows Start Menu…
•
SeaTracProgrammer
–
This program is used
to install new firmware into the SeaTrac
Beacons usi
ng the “.fwx” firmware files
provided with this document.
