Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

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uktechguy
 
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Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:59 am

Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by uktechguy »

I though I had "bricked" my Xbee Pro Series 1 modules after trying to update the firmware.

The LED no longer "pulsed" and I could not communicate with it. After much googling and finding advice here
on Adafruit in the topic at http://www.forums.adafruit.com/viewtopi ... 40&t=11427 - I was still having no joy.

Whilst I could do a "reset" - I kept getting errors to do with "lost communication", "baud rate changed" etc.

Eventually, I found some advice on the digi site that worked for me. It involved resetting the serial interface buffers
on the virtual serial port (usually an FTDI USB device).

Apparently the interface is designed for high speed and is not happy writing updated firmware to the Xbee modules.

The page on the Digi site is at http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbase ... tl?id=3418

One other piece of info is that there is no indication on the Xbee or the Adafruit/Parallax intefaces themselves
of when data is received - the led only lights when transmitting. I thought maybe I had a configuration problem
but everything was OK. Just another little thing to be aware of!

I hope this helps others.

thefatmoop
 
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:36 pm

Re: Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by thefatmoop »

Yeah i was having bricking problems using the sparkfun xbee usb breakout a bit back when i was updating firmware.

I found a solution online that unbricked it and let me update workout additional hardware. I replied to someone who was having similar problems on this forum. Look at my post history if you have problems and can't get it in the future.

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jecottrell
 
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Re: Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by jecottrell »

Biggest help I found with "recovering" XBees, was to use the Digi (originally MaxStream) XBIB-U-DEV board:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/3482650

gelfling6
 
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Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:27 am

Re: Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by gelfling6 »

The newer X-CTU is a little more brute force, but I always keep a reset button wired (from pin RESET between D08 & RSSI) held high with a 10K resistor (to VCC (3.3V), NEVER to VDD(5.0V)!), but switched (N.O. push button) to GND. just before doing a discover of the device. I ran into this, feeding a Series-2 the wrong firmware, and it locked me out too, til I found about the reset line being used before.. same goes for the Series-1's. Also glad, they have a WORKING version of X-CTU for Linux! (only use windows when I absolutely have to.)

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Kinvert
 
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Re: Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by Kinvert »

You can also download the old version. Personally I prefer it.

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CharlesNorona
 
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Re: Bricked Xbee after firmware update?

Post by CharlesNorona »

I've had problems with non-responsive XBees for the past couple of days.

They are programmable, series 2 (not the latest 2C) modules, so I did things like changing the baud rate (because the programming chip does not like 9600) and trying to invoke the boot loader. The Digi website suggested that if a module does not respond to the boot loader command, then the module is likely broken.

What worked for me a couple of times, even though the module would not respond to the "B" command, was to choose an old version of the firmware. Whereas previously the XCTU would say the module could not be found or the boot loader could not be located or did not go past the "press reset button" pop-up window, the modules accepted the old firmware and then were recognized by XCTU. Then, I was able to update to the latest firmware.

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