Ioptron CEM60 firmware upgrade problem

[cbbella]

***Solved***

see the 13th post further down.  Ioptron ask you to power cycle the mount after each update.  that didn't work for me.   the method i used in the 13th post below worked for me.

 

hi, so i decided to do a firmware update on my cem60 mount.  i followed the instuctions from the pdf file from here: http://www.ioptron.com/v/firmware/CEM60_FirmwareUpgrade.pdf

i updated the handset controller without any problems.  the next instruction was to update the mainboard.  all seemed to go well then about 5 seconds before the green progress bar in the update utility software finished an error message popped up on the handset then the utility software reported a successful update so i closed the software first as instructed then power cycled the mount only to be greeted with the same error message on the handset so now my mount is inoperable.

here is video showing the update procedure:  

 

has anyone else had this problem and know how i can get my mount working again

ps. my laptop is windows 10, i7 proccessor, 12gb ram and has a rs232 port.  i have also tried a rs232 usb adapter with ftdi chip but i still get the same error

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by cbbella

[Davey-T]

Hope they've improved things since the iEQ45 days, update scrambled my mainboard and it had to have a new board.

Dave

[cbbella]

49 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Hope they've improved things since the iEQ45 days, update scrambled my mainboard and it had to have a new board.

Dave

i hope this is not the case as i've just bought this 2nd hand and paid a lot of money for it.  i only bought it on thursday and decided to update it last night(Friday)

Edited September 5, 2020 by cbbella

[david_taurus83]

Can you try and flash the previous firmware?

[cbbella]

i don't have it. i've looked on their website for older firmware but can't find it.  i did take a photo of the previous firmware before i tried the update.

 

[cbbella]

a couple of days before i bought the mount i downloaded all the firmware in readiness to update it all when collected it from the seller and i eventually got it home.  when this update failed i downloaded it again thinking it may have been a corrupt .bin file

when i downloaded it again i noticed the filename had changed from:  CEM60_MAIN_CONTROL_BOARD_v20190716  to  CEM60_MAINBOARD_20190716

its only a slight name change of the bin file and they are both the same file size but it just makes me wonder why they changed the filename and maybe the bin file was corrupt and this is the cause of my problem

the RA and DEC bin files also had a name change when i re-downloaded them.  the names had changed from:  CEM60_RA_motor control board_v20190716  to  CEM60_RA_20190716,  and  CEM60_DEC_motor control board_v20190716  to  CEM60_DEC_20190716

Edited September 5, 2020 by cbbella

[david_taurus83]

Do you use Facebook? Might be worth asking on the iOptron Users Group. Plus an email to Ioptron themselves.

[cbbella]

i've messaged ioptron support but won't get a reply until after the weekend,  i just thought i'd ask on here if anyone else had this happen to them and if they had a solution

[Jkulin]

I have a number of CEM60 Firmwares as below: -

CEM60_RA_20170505.bin
CEM60_DEC_20161101.bin
CEM60_Mainboard_20161101.bin

Let me know which one you want and I'll send it to you

Edited September 5, 2020 by Jkulin

[cbbella]

4 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

I have a number of CEM60 Firmwares as below: -

CEM60_RA_20170505.bin
CEM60_DEC_20161101.bin
CEM60_Mainboard_20161101.bin
CEM60_RA_20170505.bin

Let me know which one you want and I'll send it to you

if you could send them all to me please that would be great then i have them for future reference.  i only updated the mainboard and then got the error so i will try and load yours which is what was previously installed on my mount and hopefully i can get it working again

thanks

[Jkulin]

All done check your PM's

[cbbella]

11 hours ago, Jkulin said:

All done check your PM's

thanks for those files.  i now have the CEM60_Mainboard_20161101.bin which i had previously installed before i started all this but now it won't install the RA or DEC files.  i keep getting the error shown in the video which keeps cycling through the error message until i turn the mount off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by cbbella

[cbbella]

***Solved***

it worked for me doing it this way

 

Phew, i managed to get it all updated to the latest 20190716 firmware.

so this is what happened, i updated my hc okay and then tried to update the mainboard with latest 20190716 firmware several times without success.  i then managed to load the previous firmware CEM60_Mainboard_20161101 but that left me with no ra or dec firmware installed as they were both showing unkown.

i power cycled the mount and restarted the software several times trying to load the ra or dec firmware but it wouldn't work so i decided to reload the 20161101 mainboard firmware and instead of power cycling the mount as per the instructions from ioptron i kept the software open and the mount powered on and i loaded the latest RA firmware and it worked.  i then tried the same with dec firmware but it wouldn't load so thats when i had to power cycle the mount again.  after doing that i successfully loaded the latest DEC firmware.  so now i had the latest hc, ra and dec firmware but with the older 20161101 Mainboard firmware installed

i then turned off the mount and closed the software and restarted it, then loaded the latest CEM60_MAINBOARD_20190716 firmware and hit the upgrade button and turned the mount on and watched the green progress bar.  about 5 seconds before it finished it gave me the dreaded mainboard connection error.  i thought it had wiped everything like it had done when i first started all this and that i would have go through the whole process again but lo and behold after a power cycle it had eventually loaded the latest firmware.  i am now one happy man

 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by cbbella

[david_taurus83]

Great stuff! Now leave it alone and never update it again!

[cbbella]

deffo won't be doing it again lol

[Anne S]

I've had problems with mount updates with several Ioptron mounts. The hand control is easy, the mount boards almost impossible. It's all to do with timing. I've made sure both of them work with the same version of Ioptron Commander and then never update again unless I can't avoid it!

Even AltairAstro admit it's problematic.

My CEM60ec is running the 2017 software and my IEQ30Pro uses the last one produced for that mount. Both work well.

[wornish]

Glad you got there in the end.  Have to say stories like this put me off changing to an iOptron mount. 

[fwm891]

2 hours ago, wornish said:

Glad you got there in the end.  Have to say stories like this put me off changing to an iOptron mount. 

Then again my CEM 60 updated without a hitch, it's a superb mount.  N° 3 iOptron mount for me: an iEQ45 pro, CEM60 (Standard non EC) and a smaller CEM25P. After my NEQ6 Pro  I won't touch SW again...

[x6gas]

Mine was one of the first CEM60 mounts in the UK so I have had to update the firmware multiple times.  It is a bit of a faff admittedly but like Francis I have never had a problem updating the firmware.

[david_taurus83]

I updated all the boards on my CEM25 when I got it. All updates worked first time as per the manual. I have heard more issues with updating Synscan controllers though.

[cbbella]

12 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

I updated all the boards on my CEM25 when I got it. All updates worked first time as per the manual. I have heard more issues with updating Synscan controllers though.

i've previously had a SW mount and never had a problem updating the synscan v4 handset