Novatel OM-20000149 User Manual

NovAtel Firmware and Software

Chapter 5

AG-STAR User Manual Rev 2

40

•

Records beginning with S0, S5 and S7 should be passed to the receiver directly using the 
SOFTLOADSREC command. These records contain meta data about the firmware image.

•

Records beginning with S3 form the actual firmware image and can be converted to SOFTLOADDATA 
binary commands. Aside from the header, each pair of characters forms the ASCII representation of 
binary byte. The format is as follows:

•

Multiple S3 records can be packaged into a single 

SOFTLOADDATA

 command as long as the data 

from one S3 record follows immediately after the previous record, up to a maximum of 4096 bytes of 
data. That is, the address must equal the previous address plus the previous data length. The "offset" 
field remains the address of the first S3 record and the "data" and "data length" are updated to include 
the new data.

•

The hex file data may contain many gaps and jumps. For example, in most NovAtel hex files data for 
address 0x000_00000 is stored near the very end of the file.

The 

AUTH

 command authorizes the enabling (unlocking) of model features. The 

AUTH

 command is used to 

upgrade a new receiver model, available with the same firmware version as the current model. This 
command only functions with a valid auth-code assigned by 

.

The upgrade can be performed directly through the NovAtel Connect command line or from any other 
communications program.

1. Power up the receiver and establish communications.

2. Issue the 

LOG VERSION

 command to verify the current model, firmware version and serial number 

(refer to Section 5.2, Authorization Code on page 35 for instructions on obtaining).

S3

LL

AAAAAAAA

DDDDDDDD...DDDDDDDD

CC

Check Sum. One's compliment of all other 
bytes

Little Endian Data. These bytes are copied into the "data" field of the 
SOFTLOADDATA command

4 - Byte Address. Set this as the value of "offset" in the SOFTLOADDATA command

Length. This is the hexadecimal number of character pairs to follow in the record. This value minus 
4 bytes for the address and 1 byte for the check sum is copied into the "data length" field of the 
SOFTLOADDATA command 

Header



Refer to Section 5.3.1.1, Types of Firmware Files on page 36 for details on updating versus 
upgrading.