Firmware Update - Don't be an IDIOT!

T minus 2 days and counting ...

THE major trip of the season (others to follow, but none so extensive) trip preparations happening, lots to do.

So what do I do? Well, because my A camera, the FS700, shooting 4K RAW, when in slowmo mode, was making botched frames at the end of each clip, I thought maybe I should upgrade the firmware of the Odyssey 7Q+. Conveniently, they just came out with new firmware ...

Well, there's this wonderful bit of info on the Convergent Designs firmware upgrade instructions saying that if the screen turns black wait an hour ...

Apparently I did not wait a full hour.

I own a brick.

Too late to change the trip, I live in Alaska so even express mailing at huge expense would take three days, and I'm basically FUBARED.

So ... let that be a lesson to all you all ... if it works don't fix it right before a shoot.

I'm going to go sob in a quiet corner now ... maybe those epic RAW 4K slowmo shots will have to be NEXT year ...

Feel your pain Gene . . . its hard to resist those firmware updates despite knowing the risks.

screen goes black you wait for an hour! I've had my firmware update crash and it auto rolled back to previous version. There's no way they could help you with this?

I always start sweating when I do a firmware update in fears that this would happen to me.

So sorry Gene. I guess there isn't anyone to contact on the weekend.

Oh wow. I've always worried the same way. If it ain't broke then don't fix it. Hope they can get a fix to you somehow along your journey.

Thanks for sharing my angst ... actually, there IS someone .. Convergent Design has this guy "Dan Keaton" who will respond to your call or email 24/7. Yes ... always in contact within an hour!

Sadly, just nothing he could do ... it's having to go back to get its little brain sorted out, and that's all there is to it. I could take the FS700 and shoot AVCHD slowmo, but ... man, that hurts. It's not just the slowmo either, it's the RAW ...

Oh well.

The lesson here is to READ and UNDERSTAND all the notes on the update page before proceeding. I've done these updates before, yet never had it go black for so long. But .. I was distracted, in a hurry, thinking of many different things to pack, prepare, etc. Played my cello for 20-30 minutes while the update was going on, then completely forgot about the "Wait for an hour after the screen turns black" thing ...

It was kinda broken ... when shooting FS700 4K RAW end trigger, there was a botched frame near the end of the clip ... wasn't the last frame of the 448, it was more like maybe a quarter to half a second in. THAT is the only reason I was upgrading!

No chance of recovering this for this trip ... on a good week shipping takes a full week to get here .. and once I leave here, I don't know where I'll be or when ... heading out to Dundas Bay, Taylor Bay, Inian Islands, Elfin Cove, maybe a little bit outside north Baranof Island, etc ... probably make landfall at port towns (few and far between) once or twice .. the rest ... totally remote. Would need to have the unit airlifted ...

My daughter bought new tennis shoes for the family the day before they took an epic trip to Walt Disney World. Their first day was ruined thanks to sore feet on all but one of them...the 2nd day was cut in half since they had to spend the first part of the day finding new shoes for the family.

OK...not as bad as this since they could at least replace the shoes... but the same lesson taught. Best to not make any major changes just before the big event... give it plenty of time to play and and make sure the changes were worth it.

Hope you have a great trip anyway! It might help to put it all in perspective... you could have been enjoying yourself in a nightclub when a gun toting idiot decided to kill everyone he could before he himself was killed. At least you are able to take this great Alaska trip! It could always be worse...

I reflected grimly upon that when I went out and put on the shop radio to hear the news ... I am certainly not complaining about my life. In many ways I am thankful.

No local dealer or repair shop near you that has the LAB software or that the manufacturer can lend the LAB software to so they can re-install the firmware on the device?. If not then yea it has to go back. By LAB software I mean the software that would allow to get into that device's brain and communicate with it and install a firmware. Usually only the manufacturer will have that special software and it's under lock and key.

Not only did you maybe not wait an hour but those times are estimates, each computer operates at a different speed so it could be longer and if your computer gets interrupted by a Windows 10 update it can really screw things up.

I have to update firmware on radio and electronics equipment every so often and it's usually a near heart stopping moment waiting to make sure the update took and the radio powers back on and functions normally.

Just great... That's why I never update Firmware unless I really have to.

Got cought by auto-updates once though. I have a Kessler Cinedrive system for timelapse mostly and on the road it's remote controlled by iPad. Now I check everthing before going on a trip, and everything is working. First day of the shoot, climbing a 3000m tall mountain with roughly 30kg of equipment on my back. Setting everything up, starting iPad and... "Thank you for installing the new Software Upgrade. Make sure you update you motion controller, too." And that's when I learned to disable auto updates. On top of a mountain at 4am at -15°C.

Bright side: The weather and view were sooo much better the next day it actually was worth climbing the mountain twice.