Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

procyon12
Posts: 253
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:32 am

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#21

Post by procyon12 »

Some of the ESOP39 presentations are now online https://esop39.iota-es.de/seiten/programm.php, also my own one regarding QHY174GPS firmware upgrade.

Christian
Kai Getrost
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:36 pm
Location: US

#22

Post by Kai Getrost »

Finally attempted the QHY174 firmware upgrade (successfully) and thought I'd share my experience. As others have noticed, it doesn't require detailed electronics knowledge, but prior experience successfully dis- and re-assembling devices with small connectors, ribbon cables etc. is essential. Take your time. A few notes:
  • When installing Quartus Prime Programmer Lite version 20.1.1.720 (the latest version, offered by default), the Altera USB Blaster driver failed to install, with a red X next to `Altera (WinUSB) JTAG c...' in a popup (the sole driver listed). Programmer then failed to find the USB Blaster (not entirely unexpected given the driver install failure), despite it being visible in Windows Device Manager. I then tried installing the driver manually as the popup had suggested (qprogrammer\drivers\DPInst.exe), but it still failed. Upgrading drivers via Windows Device Manager also failed. No reason was given nor found for the failure.
    I finally went back to the Intel site and tried version 18.1 (the version mentioned in SwRI's guide). With 18.1, the Altera driver install popup had 4 drivers, 2 of which installed (including the `Altera Altera USB-Blaster...' one), and 2 failed. I think I retried the driver installer again manually with the same results. In any event, running Programmer now worked, though I think I had to go to Hardware Setup and choose the USB Blaster from the menu to make it appear.
  • As noted by Christian Weber, the clearance between the USB Blaster ribbon-cable-end connector and the metal housing of the camera is very close, when connected to the GPS board (see Christian's earlier pictures). The connector partially rests on the metal housing, with metal pins very close to touching the housing, so Christian's idea of filing down the protruding pin ends of the USB Blaster connector is useful. I got away without filing, but was careful to stabilize the connector with a rubber band (also seen in Christian's picture) to prevent shifting and housing <-> pin contact (and because there is no connector-plug friction holding it in place anyway). Note the orientation of the connector from Christian's and SwRI's pictures: there is no key/alignment to prevent inserting it in the other (presumably wrong) orientation, and I do not know the consequences of doing so.
  • It is remarkably easy to drop the grounding screw and washer down into the innards of the camera when reassembling. I did it twice. Finally taped a cover (piece of tissue) over the open body to keep the screw out the third time.
procyon12
Posts: 253
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:32 am

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#23

Post by procyon12 »

Congrats Kai !

At the time of my installation the default version was Quartus Prime 20.1.0 Build 711 (06/05/2020, Standard Edition). Under W7-64 the driver installation worked.

Christian
Kai Getrost
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:36 pm
Location: US

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#24

Post by Kai Getrost »

Thanks. For me it was Windows 10 Home edition (64-bit), version 20H2, 19042.867.
andyho
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:12 pm

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#25

Post by andyho »

Congratulations to Kai and all for accomplishing the upgrade!

My experience has been rockier. The Quartus programmer refuses to recognize the JTAG chain. I've done everything under the sun for the past two days to get it to work, but with no luck. The software sees the USB0 hardware, and that's all. Every time I try to connect with the Altera FPGA chip on the USB3 board using the Blaster, the Quartus programming software throws the error "Can't access JTAG chain." Maybe the blaster is defective. I've ordered two replacement USB Blasters arriving Sunday to see whether one of them might work. I hope it's as simple as that. If not, I'm going to put everything back together "as is." The camera still checks out fine using QTCap.

The difficulty with driver installation that Kai mentioned is because the Quartus drivers don't have signature verification. I encountered this same difficulty early on. The solution is restart the computer, putting it into a Windows mode that ignores driver verification. Then go through the driver installation process, telling Windows at each step of the way that it's OK to install a driver that doesn't have a verified signature.

Here's a page that describes how:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/156 ... -10-a.html

Great camera. SharpCap is astonishing software. Thank you!

Andy
Gainesville, FL
procyon12
Posts: 253
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:32 am

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#26

Post by procyon12 »

Did you try another machine and/or OS?

The driver should look like the attached picture (W7-64). Also, my firewall initially blocked the Intel software and I had to make a release.

Christian
Attachments
drv.jpg
drv.jpg (152.33 KiB) Viewed 2084 times
andyho
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:12 pm

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#27

Post by andyho »

Christian,

Jawohl, that's exactly how the driver looks on my computer. I use two laptops: W10-64 bit and W8.1-64 bit. Both give the same error "Can't access JTAG chain."

The USB Blaster that ships with the camera is a clone. Clones cost USD $10-20.

The "genuine" Intel USB Blaster costs more than $200.
https://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/part ... bles/39122

Two replacement USB Blasters (two different types of clone) arrive tomorrow (Sunday). I will try again and hope that one of them works.

Thank you for your reply and presentations posted online which have been very helpful.

Bis später (until later), Andy
andyho
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:12 pm

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#28

Post by andyho »

The new Blaster arrived today. Much to my relief and surprise, it worked perfectly the first time I tried! Here is a picture of this $10 Blaster that I ordered from Amazon.
Capto_Capture 2021-04-25_06-00-39_PM.jpg
Capto_Capture 2021-04-25_06-00-39_PM.jpg (174.29 KiB) Viewed 2067 times
I can't be sure, but I think my camera shipped with a bad Blaster.

For the GPS re-programming, I used two rubber bands to secure the JTAG cable to the camera body. To prevent the JTAG pins from touching the camera body, I put a small piece of plastic Mylar between the camera body and the pins. Mylar is the plastic stuff that electronics are often wrapped in to prevent electrostatic discharge.

After re-programming the USB and GPS boards, I put everything back together. It took longer than expected because I forgot that the lid comes off the shroud. Taking off the lid makes it so much easier to re-connect the power and ground wires. Now the camera works better than ever. The GPS data shows altitude along with all the extra data at the bottom.

This job is not for everyone, but now I know a bit more about how the camera works. I also learned about reprogramming a field programmable gate array (FPGA), something I had never done before.

Andy Howell
Gainesville, FL
procyon12
Posts: 253
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:32 am

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#29

Post by procyon12 »

Congrats, Andy.

Christian
andyho
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:12 pm

Re: Upgrading QHY 174 GPS Camera Firmware

#30

Post by andyho »

Online NMEA Decoder that parses (interprets) the additional GPS data that appears in the GPS data window after making the Firmware upgrade. This could be especially useful when decoding the GPS logs.
http://freenmea.net/decoder

Andy Howell
Gainesville, FL
Post Reply