FEZ Panda II - Error: a3000000

Archive
1

Hello Community,

Upgrading firmware
I have thoroughly researched this problem and everything points to me having to update my firmware, but that is a bit problematic for several reasons. According to the instructions on this page I have the latest firmware:
https://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/53/firmware-update-usbizi

Tera Term Link is dead
Honestly, upgrading/reflashing the firmware seems like a giant pain to do so I want to avoid it if I can. Additionally the link for the suggested Tera Term Software is dead:
http://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads/old/general/teraterm_utf8-4.53.zip

I downloaded version 4.83, but like the instructions say - it may not be supported by GHI.

My firmware version according to MF Deploy

[quote]ClrInfo.clrVersion: 4.1.2821.0
ClrInfo.clrVendorInfo: Microsoft Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rig
ClrInfo.targetFrameworkVersion: 4.1.2821.0
SolutionReleaseInfo.solutionVersion: 4.1.5.1
SolutionReleaseInfo.solutionVendorInfo: GHI Electronics, LLC
SoftwareVersion.BuildDate: Apr 11 2011
SoftwareVersion.CompilerVersion: 410561
[/quote]

This matches what exists in the instructions and the instructions claim this is the latest.

The Problem
When I try to debug my code these are the errors that I see:

[quote]Invalid native checksum: GHIElectronics.NETMF.System 0xC032A004!=0x74F83809

Resolving.

Link failure: some assembly references cannot be resolved!!

Assembly: MFConsoleApplication1 (1.0.0.0) needs assembly ‘GHIElectronics.NETMF.Hardware’ (4.1.8.0)

Error: a3000000[/quote]

This all started happening after I added a reference to “GHIElectronics.NETMF.Hardware” because I want to use the AnalogIn class. I could show you guys the code - but I really don’t think it is code here. I think this all has to do with the references, MF 4.1 and GHI firmware. I definitely have the latest MF 4.1 installed as described here:
https://www.ghielectronics.com/support/netmf/sdk/5/netmf-sdk-2012-r0

Just FYI - I am using VS 2010 like I should be.

The following links all describe the exact same problem in one way or another and they all ended up just upgrading their firmware. The difference between me and them is my firmware is actually up to date - so what do I do now?
https://www.ghielectronics.com/community/forum/topic?id=6923
https://www.ghielectronics.com/community/forum/topic?id=4082
https://www.ghielectronics.com/community/forum/topic?id=1581

Conclusion
I need advice on what to do here. What am I doing wrong? Should I try uninstalling MF 4.1 and reflashing my board with the latest firmware?

Should I just stop using this old board and buy a new board or is this board salvageable?

Any help is appreciated.

2

hiya, welcome to the forum.

Pandas and USBizi based devices are all legacy, so they aren’t under any active development and haven’t been for some time. They’re still great devices (I have a lot of them) but you are restricted to using netmf 4.1.

A30000000 error means firmware mismatch. This means the SDK you have installed is different to the firmware on the device. The way to remember the firmware matching requirement is - no matter what versions are available, your firmware on the device must match the firmware version of the SDK you have installed. So please open your SDK install folder, look for the GHI 4.1 SDK folder, and open the RTF file there. You’ll find the SDK version (mine is 1.0.19, from Feb 19th, 2011, which is the last full 4.1 SDK release) and in there you’ll find the firmware versioning info - mine is 4.1.8.0. Make sure the SDK installed on your PC matches the SolutionReleaseInfo.solutionVersion info from MFDeploy

http://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads/certs/teraterm_utf8-4.53.zip is the link to the version of TeraTerm that GHI use.

Good luck, if you have more questions let us know !

3

Thank you so much Brett - that certainly does clear things up for me. I know this is a Legacy device and I do plan on buying one of the newer devices soon, but I was trying to avoid it for a bit because I am pretty broke at the moment. Plus I figured this thing still turns on, so why not put it to use. I plan on retiring it into a leave me alone box, even I don’t want to keep using VS2010.

Anyhow here is the info I found based on what you are saying:

MFDeploy

RTF File

[quote]SDK Version 1.0.19
February 19, 2011
USBizi (FEZ Mini, FEZ Domino, FEZ Rhino, FEZ Panda) V 4.1.8.0
GHI NETMF Library V 4.1.8.0[/quote]

So all that being said - since these two things clearly mismatch - what do you recommend here? Should I rollback my SDK or upgrade my firmware?

I apologize for my reply times, I am running around doing stuff and I usually get a chance to work on this stuff in the evening if I am lucky. I am on the east coast.

Thank you for your time, I really do appreciate it.

4

Just upgrade the firmware - it’s an easy process.

And honestly, there’s no magic here, these devices are great as long as you don’t mind still using the 4.1 framework and GHI additions - don’t hurry to buy something new !

5

Thank you very much Brett for your help with this. You are right upgrading the firmware wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was just a little tricky - I got confused because I thought I was going to have to use Tera Term and go through all of the hassle of manually updating the firmware - I didn’t realize that was optional and I could just use the updater software.

I missed this rather crucial line:

https://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/53/firmware-update-usbizi
This page confused me because it said the firmware I had was the most recent firmware in the screenshot. Now I know to be more thorough and check myself.

So yes, I now have my firmware updated and it definitely matches the SDK now 4.1.8.0

I learned a good lesson here: If I update the SDK, I have to more than likely update my firmware to match the new SDK.

My code deploys now and everything works.

Thank you for your time I really appreciate it.

6

not “more than likely”. MUST. The only possible exception would be where an SDK was updated but didn’t include an update for your specific hardware, but that is not that likely - and certainly I’d suggest you run around and update the firmware any time you update the SDK, just to avoid the potential problems !

Now go make cool stuff - I’m looking forward to seeing your posts now you’re running !