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Help, please, with RFD900a radio that appears to be bricked

Posted by Philip Giacalone on February 8, 2015 at 10:00pm

Hi folks,

One of my RFD900 radios was working fine for months but is now only showing 1 solid red LED. Using USB/FTDI, I'm unable to connect or reset it with MissionPlanner ("No heartbeat packets received") or with the 3DRRadio.exe ("Failed to enter command mode") config tool.

I've tried all the baud rates and even tried different USB ports. The other RFD900 connects just fine using the same USB/FTDI connection.

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this? Or how to reset the device?

Thanks in advance!

Phil

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Replies

Philip Giacalone February 9, 2015 at 9:53pm

One more piece info to help anyone else that cannot connect to the radio for reprogramming. Page 4 of the "RFD900 radio modem software manual" says:

"In case there is need to force the modem into boot mode, short circuit" the pins "labelled CTS and GND..."

I just tried this successfully and was able to connect and reprogram the radio.
- Marcin Krawczyk > Philip Giacalone February 9, 2015 at 11:23pm
  
  :-)
  
  http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-using-the-3dr-radio-for-tel...
  - Philip Giacalone > Marcin Krawczyk February 10, 2015 at 12:38am
    
    Thanks. It's helpful to have all this information together in one thread.
    - Philip Giacalone > Philip Giacalone February 10, 2015 at 12:45am
      
      Here's a link to the "RFD900 radio model software" manual mentioned above.
      
      http://rfdesign.com.au/downloads/Software%20manual.pdf
Philip Giacalone February 8, 2015 at 10:14pm

Here's a follow-up posting with the fix, in case others face this same issue.

The simple fix that worked was to run the 3DRRadio.exe tool and click the "Upload Firmware (Local)" button. This successfully connected to the RFD900a and reloaded the firmware. The radio LEDs are now working normally (green LED blinking) and I'm able to connect, "Load Settings", "Save Settings", etc.
- Marcin Krawczyk > Philip Giacalone February 8, 2015 at 11:30pm
  
  Solid red means firmware update mode.
  - Philip Giacalone > Marcin Krawczyk February 9, 2015 at 9:53pm
    
    Thanks, Marcin.

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