1 Velodyne LiDAR Sensor Firmware Update Technical Bulletin Revision Date: February 9, 2018 Phoenix LiDAR Systems 3384 Robertson Pl, Ste 102 Los Angeles, CA 90034 www.phoenixlidar.com +1.323.577.3366 info@phoenixlidar.com
2 Disclaimer Information in this document is provided in connection with Phoenix LiDAR Systems products. No license, expressed or implied, by estoppels or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in the terms and conditions of sale for such products, Phoenix LiDAR Systems assumes no liability whatsoever, disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to sale and/or use of products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any patent, copyright or other intellectual property right. Phoenix LiDAR Systems products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, life sustaining, critical control or safety systems, or in nuclear facility applications. In no event shall Phoenix LiDAR Systems liability exceed the price paid for the product from direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use of the product, its accompanying software, or its documentation. Phoenix LiDAR Systems makes no warranty or representation, expressed, implied, or statutory, with respect to its products or the contents or use of this documentation and all accompanying software, and specifically disclaims its quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. Phoenix LiDAR Systems reserves the right to revise or update its products, software, or documentation without obligation to notify any individual or entity. Backup collected data periodically to avoid any potential data loss. Phoenix LiDAR Systems disclaims any responsibility of all sorts of data loss or recovery. Introduction The purpose of this document is to demonstrate how to update the firmware on a Velodyne LiDAR sensor that has been integrated with a rover system from Phoenix LiDAR Systems. During this procedure, the navigation box must be connected locally to your workstation via an ethernet cable. Do NOT connect to rover via Wi-Fi for this procedure. Additionally, do not attempt to do this procedure over the Phoenix LiDAR Systems Connection service. The navigation system (rover) must be connected locally via an ethernet cable. The navigation box must be powered on (CPU light green). The Velodyne LiDAR sensor must be powered on and connected to the navigation box, however there is no need to ACT ivate the sensor through SpatialExplorer. Provide power to the navigation box with either the included AC adapter or from a backup battery. We recommend using the AC adapter as your main source. Pre-Procedure Make sure that you have configured the ethernet adapter on your workstation to be able to communicate with rover. Any computer with a properly configured ethernet adapter can be used to establish a direct connection to the rover using an ethernet cable. Field computers configured by Phoenix LiDAR Systems will default to an alternative IP configuration of 192.168.200.20 when no IP address is obtained through DHCP on the primary ethernet port within 3 minutes. This will allow a computer to establish a connection to the rover via ethernet after 3 minutes of connection. Refer to Section 5.5 Wired Ethernet Network Card Setup in the Phoenix LiDAR Systems User Manual for more information. If your rover has not been upgraded to SpatialRover version 3.5.1 or above, please contact support@phoenixlidar.com so that we may temporarily enable port 8080 on your system.
3 Procedure 1. Launch a web browser from the computer connected to rover and navigate to 192.168.200.10:8080 to access the Velodyne configuration page. If you are unable to access the Velodyne configuration page, refer to Section 5.5 Wired Ethernet Network Card Setup in the Phoenix LiDAR Systems User Manual. Figure 1: How to Access web configuration page velodyne 2. Click the Info tab to view the current firmware version installed on both the Top and Bottom lasers of your Velodyne sensor. Figure 2: Info Tab Displays Current Firmware Version
4 3. Navigate to Velodyne Downloads page and scroll down to the Firmware section. This page will list the most recent firmware versions available for all Velodyne sensors. For this example, we will be upgrading the firmware on a Velodyne VLP-16. As of this writing, the most current firmware version for the Velodyne VLP-16 is 3.0.37.0. Figure 3: Velodyne VLP-16 Firmware Downloads Page Be aware that VLP-16 s with firmware version below 3.0.24.x cannot be upgraded. They need to be returned to Velodyne to process the firmware upgrade. 4. Download the latest version of the firmware for your Velodyne sensor and save it locally to a location of your choosing on your workstation. Figure 4: Download the Latest Firmware Version from Velodyne
5 5. Go back to the Velodyne Configuration Page and click the System tab. From this interface, click the Browse button under Update Firmware. Figure 5: Click Browse Button on Update Firmware to Locate Firmware File 6. Browse and select the firmware file you downloaded from Velodyne s Downloads page. Click the Open button to continue. Figure 6: Select latest firmware file to upload
6 7. With the new firmware file loaded, click on the Update button under the Update Firmware section to upload the new firmware. Figure 7: Click update to begin firmware loading process 8. After clicking the Update button, you can track the firmware upload progress indicated by the progress bar underneath.
7 Figure 8: Firmware uploading to Velodyne sensor 9. Once the firmware is done uploading, you still need to process the firmware update to the Velodyne sensor. Click on the Process Firmware Update button to write the new firmware to the Velodyne sensor. You must do this otherwise the new firmware will not be applied to the Velodyne sensor. Figure 9: Process Firmware Update
8 10. Once the firmware has been processed (indicated by the 100% in the progress bar), you must click the Reset System button. Figure 10: Reset System 11. Once the system has been reset, go back into the Info tab verify the firmware version. Make sure both Top and Bottom firmware versions match. If they match, you are done. If the versions don t match, continue on to the next step to reupload the firmware again. Figure 11: Firmware match between Top and Bottom lasers
9 Figure 12: Firmware mismatch between top and bottom 12. If the Top and Bottom firmware versions don t match, navigate back to the to System tab and click the Browse button to select the firmware file you wish to reupload. Figure 13: Reupload the firmware if firmware mismatch occurs
10 13. With the firmware file selected, click the Update button to load the firmware. Figure 14: Upload firmware again to be written 14. Once the firmware is done uploading, you still need to process the firmware update to the Velodyne sensor. Click on the Process Firmware Update button to write the new firmware to the Velodyne sensor. You must do this otherwise the new firmware will not be applied to the Velodyne sensor. Figure 15: Reprocess Firmware Update
11 15. Once the firmware has been processed (indicated by the 100% in the progress bar), you must click the Reset System button. Figure 16: Reset System after reupload of firmware 16.Once the system has been reset, go back into the Info tab to verify the firmware version. Make sure both Top and Bottom firmware versions match. If they match, you are done. If either the Top or Bottom lasers display firmware version 0.0.0.0, you must power down both the navigation box and the LiDAR sensor. Figure 17: Mismatch with versions after reuploading
12 17. Power on the navigation box and LiDAR sensor and reconnect to the Velodyne sensor Configuration Page. Navigate to the Info tab again and verify the new firmware has been loaded on both Top and Bottom lasers. Both Top and Bottom firmware versions should match. Figure 18: Top and bottom firmware versions match after hard reset of system
13 This content is subject to change. Download the latest version from www.phoenixlidar.com If you have any questions about this document, please contact Phoenix LiDAR Systems by sending a message to info@phoenixlidar.com. Copyright 2018 Phoenix LiDAR Systems All Rights Reserved.