HEQ5 Pro Firmware Update?

[chrisund123]

Hi All!

I picked up a 2nd hand HEQ5 Pro last week, and I decided to update the firmware today. Handset update went just fine but when I went to update the motor controller firmware, the newest firmware on the Skywatcher website is 2.04 from 21/02/2018. The firmware update utility seems to think my current version is 3.8.38:

The seller did say they'd replaced the motherboard recently, does anyone know if there's newer firmware floating around that Skywatcher haven't released yet? I don't want to update (downgrade?) the firmware to an older version!

 

Thanks,

 

Chris.

[AstroMuni]

Are you looking at this site? http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

Does seem odd that yours is reporting a totally different version...

Edited September 29, 2020 by AstroMuni

[chrisund123]

39 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

Are you looking at this site? http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

Does seem odd that yours is reporting a totally different version...

Hi, thanks for replying. Yes that's where I got the firmware and loader tool from. I know better that to apply a seemingly older version of firmware to something without knowing exactly what I'm doing, so I stopped and tried to find out what's going on.

However all I could find was a thread on CN where someone seems to have had the same issue and no clarification!

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/728927-easier-polar-align-on-the-heq5orion-sirius-mount/

[Merlin66]

Chris,

On the assumption that the HEQ5 mount is working OK and the Synscan controller is doing its job, I'd accept the situation and live with it.

Sounds like the "new" mother board is "different".

 

[chrisund123]

Yes, it seems to work, more or less (I'm still learning how to use it but that's another thread entirely!!) and I know far better than to start flashing firmware with wildly different, undocumented versions!

I'd have liked to get to the bottom of why the numbers don't line up, but I suspect it will be one of life's mysteries...

[Woodpeckercz]

Your HEQ5 has newer rev C controll unit,  that is installed in all HEQ5 made since 2019.

It uses newer (and quieter) TMC5130 stepper drivers as opposed to the rev B that used A3959 stepper drivers.

Rev C also has more powerfull STM32 controller.

The difference between firmwares is Rev B - FW: 2.x.xx

Rev C - FW 3.x.xx 

The firmwares are not compatible between boards due to the HW being completely different.

Skywatcher website has both firmwares for rev b and c (or Version 2. Version 3.)

 

Hope this cleared things up for you

[malc-c]

The main reason is as the above poster states. The motor board has been replaced with one of the newer revisions which is ARM processor based compared to the older PIC 16F886 based micro controllers.  Version 2.04 is for older PIC based boards, 3.x.xx is for newer HEQ5's  - The two are not interchangeable