How To Reset the Firmware to Factory defaults

In some circumstances you may need to clear the firmware settings to factory defaults. Here we present two alternative methods for doing this.

The factory default settings have been carefully chosen so that units delivered from the factory should work without further configuration. If your installation is not working as expected, then resetting the settings to factory defaults may resolve the issue, but if not then it will give you a known baseline to troubleshoot from.

Resetting to factory defaults is always worth trying as a first troubleshooting step.

We have documented two methods you can use. The first method using the normal command protocol is the simplest method and is the recommended for most situations.

If you are not able to successfully connect and issue commands in a terminal emulator, then as a last resort you can try uploading a specially crafted firmware image. This can be uploaded using the Firmware Update function within the ASCOM driver setup screen.

Using Firmware Commands

If you have a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, Hyperterm, the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor or equivalent, you can connect to the rotator and shutter units and reset the settings to factory defaults. Serial parameters are: 115200 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit (115200-N-8-1). Issue the following commands and power-cycle the unit:

Rotator: @ZDR @ZWR

Shutter: @ZDS @ZWS

Then power-cycle the device and it should boot up with factory defaults.

If the wireless link to the shutter is working, then you can issue all of these commands to the Rotator and shutter commands will be forwarded over the wireless link. You can tell if your wireless connection is working because you will see the message XBee->Online displayed in the terminal output about every 10 seconds.

if the wireless link to the shutter is not working, then shutter commands will not be forwarded to the shutter. In that case, you will need to connect a USB cable to the shutter unit and issue the shutter commands directly there.

If the above doesn't work for any reason, then you can use a special firmware image to clear the settings data, as described below.

Using a Special Firmware Image to Clear the EEPROM Persistent Settings

If the wireless shutter connection is not working or the firmware is for any reason not responding to commands, then you can use a special firmware image to erase the persistent settings from EEPROM and return the devices to factory defaults.

The special diagnostic formware can be downloaded from: https://github.com/nexdome/EEClear/releases/latest

1. Download the TA.NexDome.EraseSettings.hex firmware image from the [Github repository][eeclear], and drop it into the C:\NexDome-Firmware directory.
2. Open the ASCOM driver (but do not connect) and open the settings page. You can reach this page by using the Setup button in the driver's status display.
3. Click Update Firmware to start the firmware update utility.
4. You should now see the TA.NexDome.EraseSettings.hex file offered as an available firmware image. Upload this image to both the shutter and rotator board and make sure you see the "Successful" message in each case. The firmware has immediate effect and the EEPROM will be erased in under a second.
5. You can then immediately re-upload the rotator and shutter images to the respective boards, which will have been reset to factory defaults.