Turbine Compact - Image recovery

This article describes how the flash image of a Turbine Compact station can be recovered.

Before starting the upgrade process it is important to identify if the bootloader is corrupted or not.

• Corrupted bootloader
• The bootloader is intact

Requirements

• The application "Turbine Station Production Upgrade Application" installed on a Windows PC.
• A serial connection from the PC to the Turbine Compact board, using a USB to Serial cable
• A terminal emulator program, PuTTY is recommended

Setup

Preparation of the USB to Serial converter cable

The Turbine station has a TTL level serial interface which we need to connect to during the upgrade process. For this purpose a USB to Serial converter cable can be used. Recommended cable is TTL-232R-3V3 from Farnell.

This cable needs to be slightly modified as per photo below:

• Pin 1 = Black (GND)
• Pin 2 = Orange (Turbine RX)
• Pin 3 = Yellow (Turbine TX)

Original cable

Modified cable

Insert the USB connector in the PC. The unit will now install itself. Make a note of which COM port it becomes. You will also find the device in the Device Manager.

USB Serial Port in the Device Manager

Upgrade process

• Connect the USB to Serial cable to the PC and to the Turbine board

Cable connection to Turbine serial interface. Note the additional strap which is required

• Start "PuTTY", and select COM port according to the device installation, and set Speed = 115200. Connection type = Serial.

PuTTY settings

• Download to the PC a Turbine Image file from AlphaWiki, e.g. tsi-3.0.3.4.zip. Do not extract the ZIP file.

• Start the "Turbine Station Production Upgrade Application" on the PC
  • Select "Image Archive", and browse to the tsi-3.0.3.4.zip file.

Turbine Station Production Upgrade Application. File Image 3.0.3.4 selecled