Nex Star 6... HELP error message

[scurry]

Switching on taday I got the message "Boot Loader...Invalid Pkg:0080". Nothing I do will make the thing work. What have I done?

[ronin]

Possibly not what you want to read:-

I would suggest a search of the internet and a look at the Cloudy Nights forum and ask the same there. They have a Celestron section and a fair amount of knowledge.

The boot loader is usually the thing that takes the software that is held on the handset then uncompresses it and loads it into the ram in which it runs, when uncompressing and loading it usually does a CRC check and other power up checks. If it fails to get to the end then nothing happens as it says if everything is OK or not. They operate by assuming there is a problem, and set a FAIL condition at the start, by getting to the end successfully they then clear this FAIL condition.

The bad news is if it has gone then the bootloader software has gone then the operational software never gets loaded and the scope will not run.

I am hoping that there is another loader in the handset that will allow you to reload all the software again from the Celestron site and that this reload will include a working boot loader.

Think that Celestron have an email help, give that a go as well.

[ronin]

Put that error message "Boot Loader...Invalid Pkg:0080" in to Google, there are several google entries about it.

Looks as if it can be rectified and I guess by new sofware - any idea what CFM is ?

Have read of this Yahoo

As said many instances, and it looks as if an update is required.

This then assumes that the update is successful, if you have access to an older PC with a serial port I suggest you use that, and as always read everything several times over and make sure everyting you need is on the PC.

Another read

[jonathan]

If you don't have an RS232 9-pin Serial port on your computer you should be able to use a Serial to USB dongle (or cable with dongle built into the serial plug). Then you would just need to install a driver for it then the software should be able to see the virtual serial port (as provided by the driver / dongle), probably COM3 or something like that. It all sounds rather complicated but it really isn't.

This is the kind of thing I mean from Maplin - USB to Serial 9-Pin Male Adaptor

Many of the different Serial to USB converters use the same chip inside, they are cheap and very common, so the same driver may work for many different dongles.

[Cath]

Yes, just run the updater software and update the firmware in the handset. It happened to me once.

Celestron Firmware Manager

[scurry]

thanks for the help / i'll let you know how it goes