Checking the GNSS firmware on an OxTS unit

Contents

• Introduction 
• uBlox units 
• Novatel units 

Introduction 

The following guide will cover how to verify what version of GNSS firmware is on your OxTS unit. The GNSS firmware is not to be confused with the OxTS firmware (which will be in the format xbns_240917x3 for a RT3000v4). GNSS firmware relates to the firmware on the GNSS card within the unit, usually either Novatel or uBlox. This guide will only be relevant for the following units:

• RT3000v4 - uBlox
• RT3000v4T - Novatel 
• xRED3000 - uBlox
• RT10003v2 - uBlox
• RT3000v3 - Novatel 
• xNAV650/AV200 - uBlox

Depending on the type of card within the unit, the process for checking the firmware version will change. 

uBlox units

To check the firmware version on a uBlox unit, you will need to download u-center, available here.

Once you have downloaded u-center, the next step will be to drag-and-drop the latest RD file from your unit into the u-center window. You can then view the firmware version by clicking on "View" in the top left, then "Messages View", then go through the following dropdown options:

UBX > MON > VER, as highlighted below

Click on "Play" button to display info on the FW version:

In this example the version is 1.13. The latest uBlox firmware version is 1.5 and is supported by the 240917 OxTS firmware. 

Novatel units 

To check the firmware version on a Novatel unit, you will need to download Novatel convert, available here.

Once you have downloaded Novatel convert, the next step will be to drag-and-drop the latest RD file from your unit into the Novatel convert window. This should bring up a selection of logs that are present in the RD file. 

The specific log we are interested in is the "VERSION" log (more information about the contents is available here. Select this log as below: 

and then click "Convert". This should produce a .ASC file, with the same name as the RD file used, in the same folder. Opening this in a text editor, such as Notepad++, you will see the following information:

#VERSIONA,COM2,0,28.0,FINESTEERING,2274,305400.000,02000000,3681,16407;3,GPSCARD,"FDDRYNTBN","DMMU22290348C","OEM7720-1.01","OM7MR0800RN0000","OM7BR0200RB0000","2020/Oct/15","14:04:36",OEM7FPGA,"","","","OMV070001RN0000","","","",DB_WWWISO,"WWWISO","0","","1.9.0","","2022/Aug/08","16:09:50"*3cb9e0c4

The firmware version is in the 7th field, which is the fourth field after GPSCARD . So for this example, the firmware version will be OM7MR0800RN0000, which is 7.08. The latest version Novatel firmware version is 7.09 and is supported by the 240917 OxTS firmware.