Please help ...guys! i cant load the firmware with the BOOTLOADER. anyone here could update it smoothly ? the module was connected and read the info. even i could load the file in the bootloader but it just state " invalid data format on input line 1 " so it cant be updated. what could i do!!! thanks!
Hi Sunny: I presume you downloaded the firmware from a web site -- it sounds like the firmware file might be corrupted. Can you try re-downloading it and seeing if that error goes away? Hope this helps. Andy.
Thanks Andy, glad to hear from you . indeed, i try downloaded 3 times , and found that the file should be around 33k file size. from this link http://www.freeflysystems.com/products/software/RadianStabiliserFirmware-1.02.zip Is that all right? Thanks for help. Sunny
I downloaded that file. The exact file size I show after it is unzipped is 34,315 bytes of information. Can you confirm that you are unzipping it -- I'm not sure the Radian software can handle it as a compressed ZIP file. Looking at the uncompressed file in hexadecimal, it appears to be valid firmware (well, at least it's not gibberish): These are the first few lines -- and, to a programmer it has the feel of firmware -- I wish I could tell you how I know that, but there is a structure to it that is a bit complex to explain: 0000: 01 08 FF FF 02 01 00 00 3B 0D 0A 0C DC F3 41 A7 ........;.....A. 0010: 40 87 5C 56 D7 FF FC F8 ED 7C 72 57 61 F1 0F 7D @.\V.....|rWa..} 0020: 8A 54 39 28 AA FE FF 95 87 9A EE 73 D1 5F 8F 36 .T9(.......s._.6 0030: 8B 6A 38 98 0F C1 A7 D4 9F 44 54 CC 85 E6 D2 BD .j8......DT..... 0040: 30 45 39 7E C1 45 32 36 33 CE 09 DD 72 E8 F9 8C 0E9~.E263...r... 0050: A6 9D 7B E8 E4 7D AD FF BB FD 01 8C 51 8C 81 50 ..{..}......Q..P Hope this helps. Andy.
yes , i try both of zip and unzipped it . you are so pro , i have no idea on the code, Maybe i will give it a try with another desktop later. thanks!
Sunny: Have you watched this video, please? I am just trying eliminate possible problems. Thanks Andy
YES!!! i even watching it step by step , Thanks! reli big thank you !! i m making the screen picture for your reference. i will upload it once it is ready. thanks Sunny
Well as you say, it appears the problem is that the Bootloader software cannot load the firmware file because it's file format appears to be mangled. Given that you have download the .fw file several times, I'm not quite sure what to suggest. Let me ask JohnC for his opinion on this. He wrote the software and may be able to suggest how to proceed. Andy.
It is the unzippewd .fw file which needs to be loaded, not the zip file. Everything looks OK, but the bootloader does not seem to be able to load the file. It is likely to be something to do with how the machine handles the individual bytes of data : I am wondering if this is another effect of the 'unicode' version of windows. Did you try the fix in other threads to change to English and then try again (maybe Andy knows how to get to the right thread quicker than I do )?.
Thanks for the rapid response, John. You're right -- I'd forgotten that Unicode is the issue and I suspect that Sunny is in HK (Hong Kong). Here's the thread that talks about it -- change the Windows Regional settings back to English. Hope this helps, Sunny. Andy.
COOL! Just give my BIG thanks to Andy for your helpsssss! thanks John! let me report my issues. ALL the problem is gone , when i follow u guys suggestion. Just "change the Windows Regional settings back to English" everything is pretty well now. again,Thanks so much!!!
JohnC: With your knowledge of the code, what in the Bootloader program is going wrong if the Regional settings are set to Unicode? Obviously the handling of text will be different, but the .fw file is binary data. I'm a systems programmer so you can talk geek to me. Andy.
Andy, What happens with unicode is that every 'character' becomes repesented by two bytes instead of one. When the bootloader tries to get the next byte of data from a file, deep inside windows it actually reads 2 (even though I am trying to access it in 'binary' mode). The problem with fixing it is that my English windows does not switch to unicode access no matter what I do : I think it is a feature of the Chinese version. As long as we have a workaround, it's not super-critical ...
Hi JohnC: Yeah -- we deal with Unicode all the time in the forensic field. Fortunately (now) there are several forensic tools that are smart enough to search for Unicode. It was a royal PITA before those tools came along. What language are you working in? C/C++, Java, or VB? For the WinAPI, the technique I've seen used is read a chunk, say, 512 bytes and use the IsTextUnicode function? Or can you adapt the code based on Regional Settings? Java has the readAsBinaryString that I think reads a single byte regardless of the Regional Settings/Unicode, doesn't it? I know there's a workaround for this -- so let me know the language in question and I'll find an answer. Andy.
Andy, Thanks for the info. The biggest problem I have is reproducing the problem to fix it. I tried installing the Chinese language pack and switching to Chinese but the only thing it did was make me take 10 minutes trying to work out how to switch it back again lol. All the search results to do it on the internet show you how to switch the language when you are already in English ... not a single one showed me which icons to click when you're in something foreign. I eventually did it by using my laptop to see the sequence.
Hi John: Great -- so you've got it sussed? I presume the correction will appear in the next rev. of the .fw? Cheers Andy.