Force 190 will not allow a firmware update

Products ePMP
1

I have a force 190 radio currently on software verson 3.3 This is the slave side of a PTP link. I have tried multiple times to update the firmware but every time I try it tells me I have to first reboot the radio. I have done that several times and it still keeps saying I need to reboot first. I have switched out POE bricks to see if that would help but still no difference. Any one know what the fix is? Thank you. The link is only 1.15 miles in distance if that is a factor. 

2

Have you tried an intermediate firmware step... like 3.4 -> 3.5.6 -> 4.4.3?

3

Yes, I have tried the incremental upgrade. It is odd because as soon as I hit the upgrade button the red noice about rebooting shows up. It does look like it is even trying to process the upgrade at all before  erroring out. 

4

I am trying to install 3.56 version

5

Hi,

Try to disable Ethernet on the SM first, reboot the device and run the update.

Thanks,

Dmitry

1 Like
6

Try to upgrade via cnmaestro...

7

For me, when I've had a SM which says it needs to be rebooted before upgrade - and then contines to say that even after a reboot - what I've done is to reboot it, and then NOT LOG INTO IT's GUI, but instead upgrade it via cnMaestro right away after reboot.  That has worked for me.

Also - have you tried switching the link to TDD PTP or TDD instead?  Maybe ePTP takes up a slightly different amount of memory?

PLEASE POST BACK AND LET US ALL KNOW IF THIS WORKS FOR YOU OR NOT. :) 

1 Like
8

We have had nothing but troubles with the force190 to the point that we have banned them from purchasing.

Have you tried resetting the radio to factory defaults? We had a couple 190's require this to get into the 3.x firmware.

Once in 3.x firmware what I have found is that telnet upgrades from a tftp server do work while the gui complains about a reboot. If this does not work then you will need to change out the radio as is is an fpga issue and there is no way around it unless you can get it to upgrade firmware, maybe use the recovery method? 

For what its worth, you are only going 1.2miles, try a force180 or 200. They are marginally more expensive but our experience is they are much more stable and have the same features. The major difference is the antenna gain; the force 180 is a 16dBi patch and the force 190 is a 22dBi parabolic, if you need the antenna gain then I highly suggest the force 200 which is a 24dBi parabolic that is roughly 25% larger than the force 190.Yes these are more expensive but we beleive the cost difference to be worth it.

9

Using cnMaestro to upgrade  the sortware did the trick. We did not need to take the radio out of eptp mode either. Thank you for the suggestion and solution.