Flashing a new OM5P-AC radio

Technical
, , ,
1

We recently purchased another OM5P-AC radio from AndyMark, but we’ve been having trouble configuring it. Using the Radio Configuration Utility, it is unable to locate the bridge clicking Configure. I tried to use Load Firmware, but it just times out.

Configure works with another already working radio, but Load Firmware does not work with either radio.

Does anyone know how to configure this new radio, or how to troubleshoot this issue?

  • Radio Configuration Utility Version: 23.0.2
  • OS: tested on Windows 10 & 11
  • All firewalls disabled
  • WiFi and Bluetooth network adapters disabled.
2

Here’s the documentation for flashing and programing the robot radio.

Make sure you start the firmware flash, and then apply power to the radio.
Do not remove power from the radio until it completes the flash process.

1 Like
3

Yeah, that’s the guide we were following. Our process is to:

  1. Power on the robot
  2. Disconnect radio ethernet (we are using POE)
  3. Click Load Firmware
  4. Reconnect radio ethernet

After this the radio is not detected, and the process times out.

4

Try another computer. From my experience, some laptops just won’t do it. I had the best experience with relatively old ones, but ymmv

2 Likes
5

I suggest trying a barrel connector instead of PoE for the initial firmware load, PoE be be finicky for firmware flashing.

5 Likes
6

The other thing is to disable the Wi-Fi adapter in the OS settings, so that the configuration tool is forced to look on the wired connection

1 Like
7

Barrel connector helped! Now the RCU is able to find the radio, but now it just fails with “Bridge firmware load failed: Timeout flashing radio”

Whatever the RCU is doing, the radio is still starting up while being flashed, or at least I assume so, since the light still goes dark and then starts flashing even after the RCU says “Radio found. Flashing firmware”

I’ve tried this on two different laptops, with WiFi and Bluetooth adapters disabled.

1 Like
8

Have you tried updating to the latest version of npcap? The included version never works for us

9

FYI from my success after over an hour trying to flash this radio.

  1. Installed npcap 1.79.
  2. Power off radio (barrel plug)
  3. Connect ethernet directly from computer to open mesh port beside barrel connector.
  4. Click Load Firmware
  5. Power on Radio via barrel plug. If power light blinks green (it’s brief). Unplug radio, then plug power back in. Repeat until power light doesn’t blink.

If the power light blinks green, then loading the firmware times out.
Once power light didn’t blink, the configuration utility detected the radio (as it always did), but finished flashing the radio. The orange power light did not appear until after the process completed.

From this point forward, configuring the radio worked without error message about assigning IP addresses or messing with a bridge.

1 Like
10

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.