I was updating the firmware today as the forums showed a new version available as of 12/22/2021. My Goliath was at 1.0.10 but it seems that 1.0.2 is the latest. I then did the tower sensors to ensure they were up to date as well (Although the update tool told me the version was the same).
Goliath went fine, tower 2 went fine but tower 1 didn’t. The update completed and said the write was done and I needed to reboot the device. The LED was off. Unfortunately pushing the yellow button does absolutely nothing. Holding it down does nothing. The Charge light doesn’t light up at all. The firmware tool shows the COM connection but the unit won’t power up and therefore it doesn’t show any boot time information in the console window. How do we force a re-flash of a tower?
Hi genecent,
I’m sorry to hear that this has happened to you.
But the Goliath firmware is meant to update only the robot, not the sensor. As you already experienced, using it to update the sensors will brick their board.
In fact, we updated the guide in order to prevent this to happen.
I’m sorry but now there is nothing that you can do to fix the sensor.
Our support will write you in order to arrange the shipment of your sensors towards us and the shipment of a new set to you.
We are really sorry because we didn’t update the link on the website.
Therefore I’m asking you to delete the Firmware Tool you downloaded because it is outdated. The new version of the Firmware Tool will only let you update the Firmware from our server and not from a file.
You will also need to update the firmware of Goliath because the one you downloaded from the site (1.00.20) is not the latest, the latest is 1.02.00.
I think it might be better to clearly label the firmware update as TOWER FIRMWARE and GOLIATH FIRMWARE rather than burying it in updated installation instruction.
Why would someone read the installation instructions if they had already carried out an installation, like me, and think they know how to do it?
For clarification, I selected TOWER from the drop down during the update and I also used the download latest button so I believe the code that was downloaded was correct. It only seemed to brick 1 of the 2 sensors, although I can’t do a cut to check since sensor 1 is bricked.
Is there a JTAG or other method I can use to force a replacement firmware onto the tower microcontroller?
Aww! That is unfortunate. I am planning to update my goliath I guess i have to update slingshot first and then update the firmware for the robot but not the tower sensors.
Fingers crossed everything will go fine .
I am sure springa would send you the tower sensors free of cost (a good gesture) and you have to return the old one back for their examination. Where are you in europe or NA?
Thank you for sharing- I could have done the same mistake easily.
Good luck.
The posts on his topic have me confused about updating the firmware on the towers. Can someone clarify if the method used to update the tower firmware caused the damage to the tower? Can we use the firmware tool that is accessible within Slingshot to update firmware on Goliath as well as the towers? I have version 1.8.0.0 of Slingshot installed currently.
Just update firmware for goliath (robot) only. Do not update or touch tower firmware for now.
When holidays are over then you can check with customer service web chat.
Please check Davide’ s response above and follow the update link instructions.
If it does not ask for an update I would not update.
Edit 1 on 25th Dec : Please read my post in slingshot changelog and my experience of FW upload.
No longer use the downloaded firmware update utility. Launch the firmware update from within slingshot settings as they removed the ability to choose a file to upload manually. Although I didn’t upload the wrong file, this isn’t a bad idea necessarily.
Also, ensure you have no power loss or USB disconnection as there appears to be no way to force firmware onto a bricked unit like you can with SOHO routers and other embedded devices. There is no backup. When it starts writing, it is overwriting the live firmware on the unit. Any communication issues will corrupt this. Hopefully they will change this to upload to a staging area, check the CRC and then overwrite to minimize the chance of this happening. Or they could add a ROMMON type of environment for un-bricking/reflashing after a failure. Although I don’t know if the hardware specs of the towers can handle these options.
Bottom line is don’t update unless you are sure there is a new version to install.
