Apex stopped Uploading during update, Now nothing

[Davidl919]

My friend purchased 3 extra EB8's for his existing apex. When he connected one of the new bars he got some sporatic issues. Like his keypad would not respond, and he lost web access. So he tried a few things and he was able to access through Iphone app. But not pc's(computers) so I went up to his house to work on it. Hostname was off, repaired that, and basically restored all to defaults. I finally was able to log in but I got a 404 error. When I had this with mine a firmware Update and webpage update repaired it.
As I was updating firmware it stopped at 8 of something and froze then lost connection all this was hardwired. I Called neptune and they have told me that the programming failed and that it was corrupted and that it defaults to bootloader.
Now I am in Bootloader but It still will not program in my place where I have sucessfully updated and have mine connected. It times out, i've let it run up to 95 attempts. I have left the network address as apex and have changed it to the Ip address as well but no luck. Also the green light on the network port goes green when it comes on but after a minute or 2 goes off then back again and both the eb8 and the base module are blinking orange and the display is blank. Please help Thanks.

 

[aquamanic]

Make sure you don't have any other network adapters (wireless, vpn, etc.) active on the desktop. Disable them in network properties. From the DOS command prompt, do a arp -a command. You should only have one adapter listed, perhaps with multiple IP addresses under it but only a single adapter. If you have more than one, then the Apex is going to get confused. You can also try booting into Safe mode with Networking as Ken suggests but I've found that unnecessary if the adapters are disabled.

Another trick assuming the above doesn't correct things is unplug power from the controller, start the firmware update and wait for it to start timing out. Then plug in the controller. This forces the controller into bootloader mode. You can have the EB8 unplugged during this process. May take a couple of attempts but I've found these two things to work when the controller is being obstinate. Cussing at the same time also seems to help.

The firmware loader is pretty basic and is just looking for a controller in bootloader mode on the same subnet - doesn't even really care about IP addresses, userid's or passwords. As our home networks get more crowded with adapters (even virtual ones like VPN) and devices the loader gets confused and tries to load the firmware to one of them instead of the Apex controller, eventually timing out. Curt helped me figure this out once (in my case it was a stupid VPN adapter for work) and since then I've been pretty successful in getting the loads done.

 

[Davidl919]

Solution found

Solution found

Aquaminic Thanks for your input. I tried most of those except the arp a command but really thanks.
So this is what I tried and failed, also while I unplugged the and replugged the apex to get it into bootloader mode occasionally.
1. Connecting to the apex with a router and the pc with everything else disabled and disconnected.
2. Connecting to the apex directly from the PC with a crossover cable. Wireless off.
3. Connected to a Router with switch in between both apex and pc and nothing else.

This is what worked immediately.

I remember I think his name was Tim mentioning a using a switch but I said no way it can work without a gateway.Here is how it works with just a switch and a PC,will go into details in case this happens to someone else. Things you will need are a crossover cable and a switch. You will need to connect the crossover cable to your Pc and the switch now on your pc go into network connections then right click the local area network connection, go to properties and then find something similar to tcp/ip v4, go to properties on that and set and check use the following ***, where it asks for Ip type
192.168.1.2, where it asks for subnet *** use 255.255.255.0, where it asks for gateways use 192.168.1.1, in the dns i used 24.25.26.27 and 24.25.26.28
Now connect a regular lan cable to your apex from the switch. Open up the apex programmer, get the apex into bootloader mode and update firmware. This worked immediately for me.
Hope this helps someone else.

 

[Goby-Wan Kenobi]

I had the same problem. Start your computer in safemode. Then upload firmware.

 

[Davidl919]

Goby I posted that I found the solution, the pc in safe mode with networking wasn't helping me either.
This was my friends Apex and after I sucessfully brought it back to life, we went through some of the set-up, and it got stuck, after waiting about 5 minutes, we decided to reboot it. Upon reboot we lost the display. Uploaded firmware twice sucessfully and Webpages. But no luck. We will contact Neptune about the New issue... This Apex (not all) seems to be a doozy.

 

[tamu]

In the notes it states that the Apex and the Updater must be on the same subnet. Therefore, there is no involvement of a gateway address or DNS entries.

 

[aquamanic]

I think it not only has to be on the same subnet, it has to be the only device on the subnet. That's what the switch, safe mode and disabling any other adapters is essentially doing. I think we're all arriving at the same point via different means.

 

[Davidl919]

Just adding a subnet under Tcp/ip using a crossover cable and a Switch (not a router), will not enable Dhcp server and maybe I'm wrong but I thought that without DHCP there is no communication between two devices. Night

 

[tamu]

It doesn't have to be the only device on the subnet. I run a 192.168.2.x /24 network and have many/many devices in that range and update the Apex with no problem.

Devices such as PC, etc do not need a crossover cable to connect to a switch port. The switch port itself crosses the pairs, that is why your computer can talk with a straight through cable.

If you statically assign IPs than there is no need for a DHCP server.