New firmware v1.011 from Blackvue DR500GW-HD WiFi

[alexsoll]

http://www.blackvue.com/en/contents/sub3.asp

Highlights:
- BlackVue Viewer for Windows v2.101
- BlackVue Viewer for Mac v.1.100
- Other bug fixes and improvements

 

[TallTom]

Thank you Alex. I will upgrade tonight to see how it performs.

 

[Dscheng]

That good.. will this new FW.. solve the stupid time zone issue?

 

[TallTom]

That good.. will this new FW.. solve the stupid time zone issue?

I installed it and haven't seen any major changes, but I didn't have a time zone issue. You should install it to see if it helps you.

 

[Potski]

Hi,
Ive installed this update and now i dont have FTP access anymore.
Am I the only one ?
Can anyone send me a link on how to drop back a version ?

Thanks

Potski

 

[Woolmeister]

Hi,

I attempted to upgrade the firmware on my DR500GW-HD yesterday but the upgrade seems to have failed and, worryingly, something more severe appears to have gone wrong with the camera as a result.

Prior to the upgrade, I was running v1.009E of the firmware with no issues at all. The camera worked perfectly and I was able to format SD cards directly from within the camera. I attempted the upgrade to v1.011E from a freshly-formatted, brand new, SanDisk Ultra 32GB SD Card. I know the card works because I had used it in the camera for the whole of the previous day without any issues. I also did a low-level format using the SDFormatter application prior to installing the new firmware on it.

I attempted the upgrade with the engine running in order to prevent the upgrade from failing. I also have the Blackvue connected via a PowerMagic.

From what I can tell, the camera has no firmware installed on it, and it appears to be running solely from the firmware on the SD card (if this is even possible?). I think this because when I install a freshly-formatted, blank SD card into the camera, an array of LEDs light up and, eventually, I get Korean woman repeatedly telling me, "Initialising the SD card". This continues until I pull the power supply from the camera. It's never taken this long before on previous upgrades. When I then inspect the contents of the SD card on my Mac, it just contains the following empty folder structure and nothing more:

BlackVue
Application
Viewer for Mac
Blackvue Viewer.app (which is zero bytes on disk)

I am also unable to format SD cards from the camera now. The same thing happens with both my new SanDisk SD card and the original Pittasoft Sd card that came with the camera so i do not suspect the SD cards I am using are dodgy.

Does anybody know if there is a way of forcing an upgrade of the firmware onto the camera by hacking the version.bin file (which is just a text file)? The camera seems to think it has v1.011E installed on it (I can tell this by checking the version numbers from the iPhone app when connected over wi-fi) but I would say it is an incomplete install (for reasons unknown to me).

I'm wondering what might happen if I were to increment the version number of the firmware in Version.bin to:

[firmware]
version = 1.0111
model = 500GW
language = English
[software]
version = 2.101
model = 500GW
language = English
[config]
version = 1.040
model = 500GW

Note that I added an extra 1 to the end of the firmware version string. I guess I could use 1.012 but that might cause problems if Pittasoft ever release a v1.012E version of the firmware.

I have contacted Pittasoft about this. I've only had the camera a couple of months after buying it from a UK authorised reseller (HIDS4U).

Please help me restore my Blackvue back to how it used to work!

Thanks,


Steve

 

[Hillbilly]

By getting the Korean voices means that the camera DOES have firmware on it.

Doesn't pay to format in the camera really.

When it says its initializing it is reformatting the SD card again

The cameras come with firmware in the camera and a blank SD card.

When you fire it up the first time it puts the files onto the SD card and then you take it out and do the settings you want and put it back in and it should work,

It sounds like you have a duff copy of the new firmware.

I have it but am waiting for people like you to find out if its any good or not.

Maybe its not LOL

 

[Woolmeister]

Yes, all of this I understand pretty well. I successfully upgraded my Blackvue from v1.005E to v1.009E shortly after getting the camera, with none of the issues I'm experiencing now.

Formatting the SD card in the camera is a documented feature in the manual; I expect it to work as described.

When it says "Initialising the SD card" over and over again, something is wrong. I have left it like this for over an hour only to come back to it to find it still "Initialising the SD card".

I agree that the firmware I have tried to upgrade to sounds duff.

What I need to know now is how to force the upgrade. From what I can tell, I can Telnet into the camera and delete some files within the /mnt/nand/ directory. Not been able to do this successfully yet.

It's weird. The camera is not bricked, but neither is it working properly. Inserting a blank SD card does not have the desired effect. It should. Therefore something is wrong.

 

[Hillbilly]

.Inserting a blank SD card will only transfer the crap files from the camera to the card

Whilst the manual says you can format in the camera, experience has proved that it isn't perhaps the best idea as witnessed by the comments on here about it.

Also the fact that you used your new card in a camera for a day doesn't guarantee its a good one. I bought one of them recently which appeared genuine but is an 8Gb fake doctored to look 32GB. It appeared to write alright but then couldn't read more than 8gb of it.

Use this tester to check H2TESTw 1.4 Takes a and hour and a half but will tell you in an hour if its good or bad

 

[Woolmeister]

And at what point is an SD card considered a fail? My first reading - before the low level format - was 99.9% on the original Pittasoft SD card. Am just doing a low-level format using SDFormatter and will try again when that is complete. Will test the SanDisk Ultra 32GB after that.

 

[Hillbilly]

And at what point is an SD card considered a fail? My first reading - before the low level format - was 99.9% on the original Pittasoft SD card. Am just doing a low-level format using SDFormatter and will try again when that is complete. Will test the SanDisk Ultra 32GB after that.

Using H2Testw it writes a series of small files to the full capacity of the disk which takes nearly an hour then it tries to verify them If the card is faulty it will give errors around the 7.9gig and after its finished it will say 23.6 data bad or similar.

If it goes past 8gig it will probably be a good one

 

[Woolmeister]

OK - so have now ascertained that both SD cards are indeed good. Putting a blank SD card into Blackvue results in crap firmware being written to it and, inevitably, fails.

So, why is my Blackvue able to run - and record - but not write the full firmware back to any SD card I put in it? How can I force it to attempt another firmware upgrade (because I am not convinced the Blackvue is running with the full firmware installed?)

 

[Hillbilly]

OK - so have now ascertained that both SD cards are indeed good. Putting a blank SD card into Blackvue results in crap firmware being written to it and, inevitably, fails.

So, why is my Blackvue able to run - and record - but not write the full firmware back to any SD card I put in it? How can I force it to attempt another firmware upgrade (because I am not convinced the Blackvue is running with the full firmware installed?)

Download the firmware again and install it on one of your cards and stick it in the camera.

Then the camera will hopefully load that version and run alright.

Whenever I clean a card I always load the firmware onto the card and the camera says updating the Blackvue quite happily .
Have never ever had a problem

 

[Woolmeister]

Thanks for your help, Hillbilly.

I've installed new firmware (v1.011E) on the SD card several times before but it continually fails to install on the Blackvue. Have downloaded a fresh copy from Pittasoft. Downloading firmware from Pittasoft from the UK is no fun as their Web servers that host the firmware are too slow. I'm on a >65Mb Fibre connection here but struggle to get any more than 10Kb/sec when downloading the Blackvue firmware. Downloading software/movies/music from anywhere else is nowhere near as painful.

What I think I need to do is somehow fool the Blackvue that the version of the firmware I am trying to install on it is a newer version than what it already thinks it has. Couple of options as I see it. Wait for Pittasoft to release updated firmware for this camera. Hack the firmware to increment the version number to a version newer than what the camera thinks is installed. Presume the Version.bin file holds this information.

Your thoughts?

 

[Hillbilly]

Thanks for your help, Hillbilly.

I've installed new firmware (v1.011E) on the SD card several times before but it continually fails to install on the Blackvue. Have downloaded a fresh copy from Pittasoft. Downloading firmware from Pittasoft from the UK is no fun as their Web servers that host the firmware are too slow. I'm on a >65Mb Fibre connection here but struggle to get any more than 10Kb/sec when downloading the Blackvue firmware. Downloading software/movies/music from anywhere else is nowhere near as painful.

What I think I need to do is somehow fool the Blackvue that the version of the firmware I am trying to install on it is a newer version than what it already thinks it has. Couple of options as I see it. Wait for Pittasoft to release updated firmware for this camera. Hack the firmware to increment the version number to a version newer than what the camera thinks is installed. Presume the Version.bin file holds this information.

Your thoughts?

Press reset button I guess is last option

 

[mollydog]

having Mio's 1.009 firmware upgrade, is this FW from Blackvue who we know to dish out junk FW and then keep quiet and leave us out to dry, worth trusting them this time or should I give this a miss? many thanks

 

[Hillbilly]

Im waiting for a while to let others try it out first.

If what you have is working Ok why bother .

 

[egonvdv]

on a different note: it always takes me several tries before I can download their firmware. it's always slow to download, and usually hangs under 50pct.
have not been able to download this latest version yet & tried at least 10 times since last Friday...

 

[Hillbilly]

Only took me about 10mins on ADSL2+ Heres a link to it on my Google drive

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3CrNKR2GhrgX29RbDR4ZTRXTlU/edit?usp=sharing

 

[tonymy01]

Im waiting for a while to let others try it out first.

Works fine for me, no dramas to report.