Updating edgertronic software
Background
Each time the camera powers on the camera checks to see if an update (.tar) file exists in the root directory of the SD card. If so, the camera goes through the update process, rebooting several times and operating as normal using the new software. The camera automatically deletes the update file from the SD card. The software update process takes around seven minutes, so be patient. While the system LED is blinking white, the update is in progress.
Getting updated software
The Software releases web page contains the latest released software. You can download the software update image from there.
Update procedure
- Insert a big SD card in your computer.
- Browse to the Software releases web page and right mouse click on the Camera update file link.
- Using the Save link as option, download and save the camera update (.tar) file directly to the SD card.
- After the download completes, tell your computer to eject (unmount) the SD card.
- Wait another 10 or 20 seconds to make sure the processor in the SD card has time to finish committing the file data to NAND.
- Remove the SD card from your computer.
- Power off the camera.
- Insert the big SD card containing the update (.tar) file into SD card slot on the back of the camera.
- Power on the camera. Within 30 seconds, you should see the System LED blink white. The entire update process will take around seven minutes. System status LED turns blue and Camera status LED turns green in color at the end of the software update. You can monitor the update progress by watching the camera's LEDs.
Important: While the update is in progress, don't disconnect power to the camera or software corruption can occur and you will need to unbrick the camera.
- The update process deletes the update file from the SD card once a successful update has occurred.
Failed update
If you see the system LED blinking red, it means the update failed. The failed update is caused by the camera update (.tar) file being corrupt. The most common ways for the update file to get corrupted are:
- You removed the SD card before everything had a chance to get finished writing to the flash memory in the SD card. Even after you unmount and the computer says it is safe to remove the SD card, wait another 10 seconds.
- You removed the SD card without unmounting the SD card first.
- The filename got corrupt because you already had a file with the same name in the download directory so you computer nicely renamed the file for you.
- Very distant 4rd possibility - your SD card is bad and needs to be replaced
Not necessary to do, but you can get more details on what went wrong during the update by browsing to the camera (http://10.11.12.13).
To recover from a failed update, delete the update file from the big SD card, save the update file to the big SD card again, unmount the SD card, wait 10 seconds, put the SD card in your camera and reboot the camera.
Note: when the system LED is blinking red, that means the camera detected a corrupt update file before any changes were made to your camera. You can simply delete the update file off the SD card and continue to use your camera with the what ever version of software was currently installed.
Using your camera after an update
When the update is complete, you can browse to the camera and you will see the Figure 1: Usage Agreement followed by Figure 2: Release Summary.
Update recovery
If your camera loses power during the update, the camera may not boot properly. You can directly reprogram the micro SD card to recover.
Windows 7 Additional Step
When using Windows 7, you may get a warning from your computer about the .tar file. The file will not finish being downloaded until you click on "keep" on the drop down menu as seen below.
