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Best way to upgrade

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W8XG
Best way to upgrade

We've got a node (Rocket XM 64mb) on top of tall tower with 3.16.1.0 in it. I've been very hesitant to upgrade it as it's at 500', and with the 48v injector/amp (for the long ethernet) , and then stepdown to 24, there is no reset on the ground. If I bork it, it's a Tower climb at about $2,000!

We've got a laptop there, that I can run remotely, to upgrade with.  I'm thinking I should install/upgrade 3.18.9.0 first, then 3.19.3.0 next and then 3.2.2 last.  Good plan??

There is tunnel software installed, but it's not used and we don't need it. I expect with what every upgrade I do, will remove the tunnel software which is fine. This unit is on a GS105E switch, but there is no WAN at the moment. The rocket is doing DHCP.

Thanks  Brent W8XG

kc8ufv
kc8ufv's picture
I wouldn't bother with
I wouldn't bother with upgrading to intermediate releases. Given it's $2000 if you need to hit the reset button, the fewer uploads needed, the fewer risks of needing to hit that button. I'd also recommend a test upgrade with similar hardware, and verify the Ethernet link has 0 packet loss before beginning the upload, especially since that cable run exceeds the standard limit for Ethernet of 300ft/100M.
ko0ooo
OTA upgrade
I recently upgraded two of our mountain top nodes over the air.    one node is 15 miles and the other 26 miles.    both nodes are on 5GHZ with 20MHZ bandwidth     

upgrading for both took first time.   no problems.    actually, the OTA upgrades went smoother than upgrading nodes on my LAN

I wasn't happy with the performance of the internet link to the site, which is why I chose over the air.    

I second Chrissy's recommendation of doing one upgrade, don't push your luck      

using a computer remotely is another link that can fail, unless it's a better link than RF of course.

Richard   ko0ooo
w6bi
w6bi's picture
Reboot first!
And it's recommended that you reboot just prior to the upgrade, in order to free up RAM needed for a successful upgrade.

Orv W6BI
W8XG
Thanks
Thanks guys. Good comments. 
wa2ise
wa2ise's picture
If the negative side of your
If the negative side of your power feed system is continuous to the node (that only the positive power feed is up and then down converted). you might be able to activate the remote reset (if you have to) by imposing around 19VDC on the signal carrying pairs.  See https://dren.dk/mreset.html for details

I'd run a test with the same kind of hardware on the ground in the lab/shack to see if it works, before trying it on the one on the tower.
 

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