Firmware update failed

[Paul13]

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My new Hose Faucet Timer fails to update its firmware. The Wi-Fi hub connected quickly and without issue, and then found the Timer. Immediately, it prompted to update the firmware and I proceeded. At that point, the timer does nothing. What should I do?

[anthony82]

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same here. if I go to device/update firmware, it switch to BT and notice me there is an update… 3-4 minutes to download then I get, randomly, 2 scenarios:
– update fails
– update completed, but still on 00041 version (then, if I reboot the app, it notices me an update…)

[KrisB]

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This occurred to me as well, though it bricked all three of the hose timers I tried it on, including two that were brand-new in-box.

Orbit has warrantied them as they were all within the 2-year purchase time limit, but it’s sad to throw them out.

The symptoms I had was a “failed” update status on my phone, with a hose timer that kept flashing white every 2 sec (indicative of a pending firmware update), despite all attempts to reset or wait it out (overnight didn’t help). The hose timer was visible by Bluetooth, but couldn’t be turned on/off.

With the warranty credit, I’m upgrading to the Gen 2. Hopefully they work better.

[dana]

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I have bricked three timers as well. The app doesn’t let you sidestep the firmware update. I am using IOS and I selected connect (control?) by wifi in the setup process. I wonder if it matters if one chooses the bluetooth option or if this is an IOS related problem? Customer support doesn’t seem to be aware of this problem and I don’t know how to contact someone competent.

[[email protected]]

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Add me to the list. I’ve repeatedly failed to successfully update the firmware and can go no further. The smart wifi hose faucet timer has been blinking white for hours. Take the battery out for an hour and put it back in, it continues to blink white, allegedly meaning update in progress (highly unlikely but that’s what Orbit says it means). Pressing the button one time, five times, five hundred times has no effect. There is no way out. Period.
App says “Bluetooth Connecting”. That’s a lie.

[dana]

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Once the hose timer is in the state of flashing white led for a long time, the unit is “bricked” and can’t be fixed by customers. In this state, pulling the batteries has no effect and pushing the reset button (five times) won’t work. It seems this failure is that the firmware has been erased and so the boot loader can’t restart the timer.

I think the way to avoid this problem is to have your phone connected to a 2.4G wireless network before installing the timer. From conversations with a knowledgeable customer support person at obit (!) I learned that the timer inherits the wifi settings from the phone during setup. In my case, I now have pretty good coverage at 5G and had my phone on that network.

Part of my confusion is that the timer does have wifi… I thought it connects to the wifi hub via bluetooth.

Obviously, the app should determine whether the network is suitable for the timer, else fail out of the setup process. Also, the timer shouldn’t delete the current firmware image until it verifies the downloaded code, or at least it could test the wifi connection before committing to the update.

When I get the next replacement timer, I will see if setting the phone to 2.4G network works as expected.

It would be nice if customer service could chime in on this discussion.

[androgil]

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Same here – just bricked 2 hose timers. White flashing led, you can somehow connect via the app but it disconnects after a few seconds. firmware update fails when you try. I’m pretty disappointed as my setup worked fine for almost a year with the old firmware.

[[email protected]]

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IMO it’s an anti-user, ie arrogant designer, strategy to default to firmware update before all else. None of the big kids do that, eg your phone, your router, etc. with good reason. Users connect to a device because they have a specific task they need to accomplish, changing the timing or frequency of a schedule, say. 99 times out of ten that is more urgent than the designers’ “oops we discovered a little bit more of just how crappy the code we released is we now want to make more elegant” that has nonetheless been working ok so far, PARTICULARLY when there are major unaddressed connectivity issues that will destroy, brick and otherwise kill the device forevah.

[dana]

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Update: I tried setting up a timer with my phone connected to 2.4G and that didn’t work either. The rep suggested calling tech support to assist in the setup, I will try to endure that with the next timer tomorrow.

[reydan]

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I wish I had read this thread earlier. I tried setting up 3 hose timers and all got stuck in the firmware update more (white led blinking every 3 seconds or so).
App behaves strange, I can sometimes connect to the device, but I can’t do anything with it. Firmware update mode doesn’t work either, just fails after a while.

Did anyone find any resolution with customer service?

[dunnib]

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Same issue here. Support took my info and said they would reach out. this looks to be a serous issue

[kavi_nash]

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Anyone was able to get solution from Orbit support? Looks like I bricked two brand new timer devices. They just blink white.

[[email protected]]

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I am also having this problem.

[dana]

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Orbit sent me a replacement faucet timer for the original one I bought oner a year ago. I returned the ones I recently bought to amazon & home depot as defective. I am going to call customer service tomorrow to see if they can work around the problem. I was told on my last call that they could push the update from their end, somehow sidestepping the app based firmware update.

[[email protected]]

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Has anyone gotten any joy from customer support yet?

[Author]

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