Rolling Spider Firmware Update (from Matlab) and Bluetooth Failure

I am having an issue setting up the Parrot Minidrone with Matlab. I am using the Parrot Minidrone support package for Matlab found here: https://www.mathworks.com/hardware-support/parrot-minidrones.html. The firmware update fails at first every time. I can click back and forward again to get past the page, but the bluetooth for the device appears under "other devices" rather than "Audio/Video" device. The device then fails to pair. I believe that the drone is not updating its firmware properly. I have updated the drone via this link --> https://community.parrot.com/t5/Rolling-Spider-Knowledge-Base/Software-Update-Process/ta-p/122999 and have tried resetting the drone at the bottom of that page as well. If I connect to the drone after the firmware update fails, I can see a .edu.plf file inside the folder of the drone. Shouldn't that file disappear once the firmware update is complete?

Important information:

• Windows 10
• Matlab R2017b
• Rolling Spider Firmware: 1.99.2
• Bluetooth USB: CSR V4.0 (as recommended)
• Bluetooth Driver: 2.1.63.0

^Note that this is trying to connect with the device listed under "others." It never shows up as an Audio/Video device. Thanks for your help, Kurt

Answer 1

[Ankur Bose]

Hi All,

We have contacted Parrot regarding this issue and they have provided us a workaround to resolve this issue. The fix has already been published in R2017b in the support package version 17.2.3. Please upgrade your support package version to 17.2.3 in R2017b and perform the hardware setup for Parrot Rolling Spider once more.

If you do not wish to upgrade your support package, you can follow the below steps to resolve this issue.

1. Connect the Parrot Rolling Spider drone to PC. Wait for the LEDs to stabilize to RED and GREEN.
2. If you are working in Windows PC, install RNDIS as mentioned in this link. Please note that drone has a timeout period of approx 60 seconds after which it automatically disconnects from PC. Hence please complete the RNDIS installation as fast as possible.
3. Open Windows command prompt. Execute the below command in the command prompt as shown in the snapshot.

telnet 192.168.2.1

If you get an error 'telnet' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file, you need to enable telnet in your Windows PC. Follow the instructions in this MATLAB answer to enable telnet in your PC.

If the command prompt displays the message Connecting to 192.168.2.1...... for a long time and then it fails, it might be that the drone has timed out or the RNDIS installation has not gone through.

Reconnect the drone and repeat Step 3. If you still get same error, you need to install RNDIS on the host computer again as mentioned in Step 2. Complete the RNDIS installation as fast as possible.

On successful execution of the command you should see a command prompt window as shown in the snapshot.

1. On the Delos prompt in the command window, execute the below command

echo "1.99.2" > /version.txt

This would create the missing version.txt in the root folder of the drone, that is required for the firmware update to be successful.

If you get any write permission error while executing this command, try rebooting the drone and repeat the above steps.

After successful execution of the above command, complete the hardware setup screens in MATLAB. They should go through without any issue.

Answer 2

[Sonam Gupta]

It appears that in both scenarios that you described, the firmware is not being updated. The drone appearing as "Other" device indicates the same, because it would only appear as an Audio/Video device if the firmware is successfully updated. The fact that you were able to proceed past the Hardware Setup stage even when the firmware update failed (by pressing "Back" and then "Next") is a bug in the Hardware Setup Window itself.

To address the failed firmware update issue, you can use one of the workarounds given below:

1) Disconnect the drone from the PC

2) Reboot the drone

3) Reconnect the drone and attempt the firmware update

If the above does not work...

4) Try connecting the drone on a different port and then applying the firmware update

If the above does not work...

5) First restore the firmware of the minidrone to the latest version for the Parrot Rolling Spider from the Parrot website, as per the instructions found in the following page:

https://community.parrot.com/t5/Rolling-Spider-Knowledge-Base/Software-Update-Process/ta-p/122999

Such issues in replacing the minidrone's firmware may occur when it currently has an old version of the firmware from Parrot.

6) Then proceed through the steps to replace the firmware using the Simulink Support Package for PARROT Minidrones.