Comm Card Firmware Update: How to update the optional Comm Card Firmware on the GS4 VFD

To upgrade the firmware in either the Ethernet/IP or Modbus TCP communications cards just remove the drive keypad and cover and locate the 3 in 1 firmware upgrade card. Different drives have it in different places so just look for a card like this with both a USB and RJ45 connector. This is where it is on this B Frame size drive. Before doing anything, make sure the drive power is OFF and your computer is NOT connected to the 3 in 1 card via USB. Plug the communications card that you want to upgrade into this connector on the 3-in-1 card like this. Now that everything is in place, plug the USB cable into your computer and the 3-in-1 card. The entire firmware upgrade process is powered by the USB cable – which explains why we don’t want the USB cable plugged in while we insert the com card AND why we want the drive powered off while we do this. In the GSSoft application, don’t try to connect to the drive – it’s powered down – right? Instead go straight to this Network button. Select the comport your USB cable is emulating – if we go look at windows device manager it’s this guy - which on my system is this com port - so we put that here. Firmware and software for the GS4 drives is always free to download from the AutomationDirect webstore under downloads. Once you download the latest firmware for the Communication card you have, select that here. Now, beware: I’m using pre-production files – the files you get may look different from this. Great. We selected the file and selected the comm port, , now we just hit upgrade. It will take a couple seconds to start, then you’ll see all the packets being sent to the card. It takes about a minute and then you see this success message. Notice that the orange LED doesn’t turn off on the card until you hit EXIT. So be sure to hit the EXIT button to wrap things up. That’s all there is to it! Remove the USB cable to remove power from the board then remove the board and press it firmly into slot 1. Secure with the included screws … Replace the cover and the keypad and you are good to go. Let’s power up the drive and see if it worked. If we go to Parameter 9.44 we see we DO have and Ethernet/IP card. And Parameter 9.45 shows us the firmware version – we read it by byte, so that’s version 1.1 which is exactly what we expect. Click here to learn more about the GS4 Drive. Click here to learn about AutomationDirect’s free support options, and click here to be notified when we publish new videos.