[Elphel-support] how do I reflash the camera via netboot mode?

[Andrey Filippov]

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 5:29 AM, Ákos Maróy <akos at maroy.hu> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wonder if anyone is able to help me. I ordered and received my elphel
> camera last week, only to find it not working the day after that.
>
> I tried to get help on this list, on IRC and via direct contact to
> elphel about resolving this problem. So far, I have not received help
> that would in fact solve this issue.

Akos,

I'm very sorry you have a problem with the camera and we are working
on sending you a replacement board, because if the camera worked
originally, you did not modify anything (software or settings) and it
stopped - it is most likely the hardware problem and we are interested
to get the failed board back in the same state so we can analyze it.
We arranged that shipping and that otherwise can be expensive.

It is not exactly correct:
> While I've written to elphel, they have not directly responded to my inquiry.

You've sent email on "Sun, 31 Oct 2010 03:03:33 -0700" and I replied
on Sunday morning though it was the whole 7 hours after your request:

http://www.mail-archive.com/support-list@support.elphel.com/msg00606.html

> Some people were kind enough to reply through this mailing list

"Some people" included me, I work for Elphel since 2001. And this
Mailing List is the only way to get our technical support.

> but unfortunately the help provided  is not so far sufficient to solve my issue.

Yes, I understand that - we worked on arranging to ship you the
replacement board so you can send us the failed one in preferably the
same (not re-programmed) state so we can analyze the nature of the
failure and see if it is possible to reduce such problems in the
future

> on IRC, no one ever responds  to anything.

Akos, please understand that community of Elphel camera users is much
smaller that those of the software users - you need to have a piece of
expensive hardware, not just download something over the internet. And
your problem was hardware-related, so our users who may be by their
computers at that time were not able to respond you - you need our
(Elphel) help.

Your first request on our IRC was on Sunday, October 31 at 03:33AM local time
10/31 03:33 <maroy> hi
10/31 03:33 <maroy> I have a question: how can one reset an elphel
camera to factory defaults?

And unfortunately when I woke up Sunday morning and was going to reply
- you already disconnected - it happened before five in the morning
our time - you probably know that Elphel is in Salt Lake City, Utah,
USA.

10/31 04:37 * maroy (~maroy at ...telekom.hu) has left #elphel


> I'm pretty much stuck now. I've spend over $1500 on a piece of brick.
> can't help to point out my frustration.

I would repeat - we are very sorry fro the inconvenience - you will
receive the replacement shortly and send us the failed board back
later.


>
> I'm giving it a try again: can someone, preferably from elphel, help in
> making the camera they just shipped actually work?
>
> at the moment it seems this would be in the form of specific
> instructions on how to reset the camera into its original state, which
> would mean reflashing via netboot. unfortunately there are no specific
> instructions for this on the elphel wiki page.
>

Akos, as you did not change any settings in the camera, you do not
need to reflash it - we'll send you the replacement. It will help us
if you can send the failed board back in the same software state so we
can try to troubleshoot the problem here.

Andrey