BATC Forum

Despite AD revising the PCB to cure the earth problems, I am still becoming quite an expert in bringing Plutos back to life.

I know there has been a long thread on this but below is the short sequence I follow and I thought maybe useful for others at some point.

If you Pluto is not recognised over USB (not bing bong windows noise) and just LED1 glows dimly - press the reset button (pin hole next to the USB port) and whilst holding it in, plug the pluto in to the USB port of your PC.

Let go of the reset button and it should now be recognised by the PC and active LED glow brightly - it is now in DFU mode.

Download the latest AD firmware https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/plu ... -v0.33.zip

Unzip the file and save into a directory.

Download "update.bat" https://raw.githubusercontent.com/analo ... UPDATE.BAT and save in to the same directory.

Open up a command line (type cmd on the windows search bar) and navigate in to the directory where you saved the files.

Type and things will happen on the screen for about 30 seconds

When finished type and more things will happen on the screen for about 2 seconds.

Unplug the Pluto from the USB port, wait 5 secs and replug - it should be alive again!

Frequency extension

Now you need to do the frequency extension - the easy way is to run the marvellous spectrum analyser / tracking generator SATSAGEN program. This will do the frequency extension and dual core mod for you when first started with your "new Pluto".

Download it from here - you'll be glad yopu did! https://www.albfer.com/satsagen-download-page/#content

If you want to do it manually - log in to 192.168.2.1 via SSH (user root, p/w analog)

Type the following to check your unit is not extended:
Now type the lines not starting with the # (lines with # are what the Pluto returns).
If you have a REV D PCB and / or firmware revision v0.32 YOU MUST ADD AN ADDITIONAL COMMAND
Then type
DATV firmware

Finally, if you want to use it with Portsdown, you need to change the Firmware to F5OEO "only for the Brave" - (no other version works, so don't even try it!).

Download the firmware from the BATC wiki https://wiki.batc.org.uk/File:FIRM2101RC.zip - unzip and save the Pluto.frm (note you can not tell the difference between file versions) so save it somewhere special!

Plugin the Pluto which will open a window listing the files on the Pluto drive. Copy the Pluto.frm file in to the window.

Right click on the Pluto USB drive letter in the Windows listing on the lefthand side of the screen and select eject - DO NOT unplug the Pluto. The Pluto LED will flash quickly for about 2 minutes, after which it will reboot and open the window listing files on the Pluto drive.

Double click on info.html and it will show the F5OEO dashboard - and that's it done, until the next time!!

Noel, thanks for the steer on the frequency range extension on the Pluto, issue sorted!

Problem solved, it seems that my new "Rev C" unit requires the additional command, or perhaps its a "Rev D" incorrectly labelled. Or perhaps it was just Firmware 0.32? The reboot time is about 1S on this unit vs 20S on the old one.

G8YTZ wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:35 am

Noel, thanks for the steer on the frequency range extension on the Pluto, issue sorted!

Problem solved, it seems that my new "Rev C" unit requires the additional command, or perhaps its a "Rev D" incorrectly labelled. Or perhaps it was just Firmware 0.32? The reboot time is about 1S on this unit vs 20S on the old one.

Please share the additional command you used.

From the Thursday July 1st post, just before DATV firmware in bold


If you have a REV D PCB and / or firmware revision v0.32 YOU MUST ADD AN ADDITIONAL COMMAND



fw_setenv compatible ad9364

Then type

reboot

Hi,
I would much appreciate some help with the following:
I purchased a Pluto, pre-loved. Upon connecting it to my Windows10 PC it was recognised as a download gadget but had no drivers, according to Device Manager. I downloaded drivers and installed them and these are recognised. I then downloaded new firmware, unzipped it and placed it in the C, Documents file. After that I downloaded the UPDATE.BAT(txt) file and installed it it the same folder. So far, so good.I then opened a command line and typed in the text as given in the July 1st. article in this forum. Unfortunately, " update.bat pluto.dfu " and update.bat uboot.dfu" are not recognised. I have spent considerable time trying to find the reason for this , and would be most appreciative if someone can see what i'm doing wrong. Thanks.
Gordon

It's extremely rare for me to think I can answer a question, so here goes...

UPDATE.BAT must be named as shown - ie no .txt extensions.

UPDATE.BAT, pluto.dfu and boot.dfu should all reside in the same directory.

You must cd (change directory) to that directory and execute from there.

Hope this helps.

Firstly, despite whether it matters or not I always unzip the AD firmware files into C:/ (root of C drive)

Did you install the drivers with the Pluto DISCONNECTED? I always do.

I also always put the full path to the files, for example:

C:/update.bat C:/uboot-env.dfu

It is going into dfu mode before you do all this, isn't it?

It sounds like it's not in dfu mode yet.

Easiest none mechanical way to put it in dfu mode is modify and save the config.txt file when the Pluto is connected via USB, then eject it via the correct method. Only one LED should then show, steadily. To mod the file change dfu = 0 to dfu = 1 save the config.txt file, eject the Pluto correctly, and it should auto reboot in dfu mode. Don't forget to change the file back later...

Hello,
Pluto lives again, I'm very happy but I couldn't have done it without help from you guys ; thanks
Gordon

For the record, what was the problem? I am glad you have managed to give it the kiss of life, they aren't cheap any more.

Good afternoon all,
I am having a hard time trying to bring a pluto back to life.
For some considerable time I have been trying the various solutions on the forum, probably due to my lack of knowledge and advancing years, I cannot get the scrips to work.
Could someone please walk me through the process leaving nothing out. Just assume (rightly) no previous computer experience. even the smallest step please.
If someone would like to Any Desk into my machine that would be even better>
Regards
John G1ORP