SparkFun Forums

[Mornyres]

Hi,

I'm working with the SRTR shield (SKU SEN-14066) and the UHF RFID tag set (SKU WRL-14147).

I was trying to change the baudrate on startup and was connected to the board via the Thingmagic Universal Reader Assistant (URA). I couldn't find such an option so I decided to update the reader firmware to the latest ~1.29. However, I got an error halfway through this process and to the best of my knowledge the update was not applied. Now, however, I can't even connect to the reader at all. It gives the error:

Error connecting to reader. CRC validation of firmware image failed.
Please update the module firmware.

Which is annoying, because it seems to be saying I need to update the firmware in order to connect to the reader in order to update the firmware.

Things I've tried:
Unplugging and plugging it back in
Reinstalling M6E USB drivers

Let me know if anyone has some ideas on how to fix this...

On a related note, does anyone have experience interfacing the M6E with an STM32? This is my ultimate goal and I'm having a rough time of it.

[paulvha]

The latest firmware for a nano 1.7.3. I assume the 1.29 refers to the API that was to create the URA. At the start of the program it will try to obtain the hardware & firmware level from the shield and that seems to fail. There is an old forum from THingMagic (now a Jadak company) that has a reference to the issue you seem to have : https://support.thingmagic.com/thingmag ... is-corrupt. When accessing you will get an error message, but you can safely bypass. No harm is mend, but it is just not maintained anymore. Maybe that can help.
regards,
Paul

[paulvha]

WARNING WARNING ... I have just looked up the schematic of the Sparkfun shield. the pin 17 that is referred in the ThingMagic post is hardwired to VCC. You can not bring this pin to GND uncontrolled as proposed as it would cause a short circuit.

[paulvha]

in correction to the previous post, the pin on the Nano seem to use is pin 28 not 17. Pin 28 is NOT connected according to the schematics. Pin 28 acting as reset is not documented (not on the ones that i have). Still make sure to have the right pin.... If you hold the connections (TXD, RXD etc) on the left and the antenna on the right, you can read the words "warning Hot !" and "ANT select" at the bottom: BOTTOM left on the Nano chip is pin 19, BOTTOM right is pin 36. Where you a resistor and small line connected at the bottom that is pin 26 and thus you need the second pin to the right of that. Pins 29 - 36 are connected to GND.

[Mornyres]

Thanks so much Paul. I'm going to try to solder a line to P28 (which is indeed reset; see page 58 here:)
http://www.thingmagic.com/images/storie ... _Apr15.pdf

Frustrating that Sparkfun just left this line floating.

[Mornyres]

Turns out (see p. 62 in that same document) that the Nano doesn't have this reset feature, though the basic M6E does. On page 91 it says this problem can be fixed by "reloading the application code in flash". Does anyone know what this means or how to do it?

[paulvha]

Too bad on the reset... but maybe.... if you downloaded the ThingMagic API, There is a firmwareload.c in the samples directory: mercury1.29.4.34/c/src/samples. it seems it will try to load if the image is corrupted anyway. From the source: "Error: App image corrupt. Proceeding to load firmware, anyway." Never had to try it however.

[Mornyres]

Just an update, it turns out I'm actually a moron and there's an easy fix.
For future readers, hit cancel when the URA prompts you to connect to a reader upon application start. Navigate to the Firmware/License Update tab on the right side. Though the reader doesn't appear as connected or able to connect, you can select a .sim firmware file (see Thingmagic's site) and hopefully it will flash to the board.

[paulvha]

good to hear you found a solution and the board is working. if not, let me know I will sent you the compiled firmwareload for windows to try.
regards,
Paul