Can't update my FrSkyX20S

[HENNY]

Henny, I spent almost $500.00 for a new radio that I Have not been able to use. I read so many positive reviews on it before buying it I thought I was getting a really good deal and great radio. I haven't been able to install the rXs I got in any airplane because I cant get the radio to update and work. BUt you are the only one who has taken the time to answer my questions and try to help me! For that I am very appreciative of your efforts! Thankyou!
Is there any special brand of card reader you use? I looked at Walmarts website and card readers they sale re about 4 to 5 time more expensive than those on Ebay.

Ed, you are not doing well with the software updates bit which for many can be challanging. So my recomendation is take up Wayne's offer to update your software by sending him your radio and your receiver. Once this update is complete further updates are easy using Ethos Suite on your laptop. Your current radio software is a very early version and requires a big software push to have your radio at the current version. Lastly the user manual is constainly updated so sending you a paper copy means it's out of date after the next software update, plus enviromentally it's a shocking waste of paper. Take the easy road spend a few dollars on postage and just get it done.

So your next post should be something like : Aloft did a great updating job on my radio :

Henny

 

[alm_nl]

I recommend a cardreader that supports SDHC (up to 32 GB cards) and SDXC (>32GB to 2 TB) is recommended. If you want to be able to read/write larger capacity cards above 2 TB then SDUC compatibility is needed as well. I have a transend TS-RDF9K myself, which supports multiple memory type cards and SDHC + SDXC.

Hope this helps.

 

[Drako]

Did you put the radio in bootloader mode? It needs to be in that to update.

 

[HENNY]

Did you put the radio in bootloader mode? It needs to be in that to update.

No to install a new Bootloader file the radio just needs to be switched on. Once the new version is installed Ethos Suite does all the mode switching automatically. The old version of Ethos firmware required you to use bootloader mode. That has long been superseeded.

 

[Vintage Ed]

I replaced all of the missing switch nuts with new ones the same color as my transmitter, red. There were 4 of them that came off.
If the radio just needs to be on to replace the bootloader to a newer version, so if I turn my radio on by the power button and place the USB cable into the radio , what do Ido next, such as download the booloader file you snt me a link to, tell me how to download it into the radio without a USB card reader or can this be done?

 

[HENNY]

I replaced all of the missing switch nuts with new ones the same color as my transmitter, red. There were 4 of them that came off.
If the radio just needs to be on to replace the bootloader to a newer version, so if I turn my radio on by the power button and place the USB cable into the radio , what do Ido next, such as download the booloader file you snt me a link to, tell me how to download it into the radio without a USB card reader or can this be done?

I did explain what you needed to do earlier but will try one more time.

Turn your radio on, plug in the USB cable, wait for 2 folders to pop up, close the one labelled Flash. Take the zip file I sent you and unzip the file. ( It's called, bootloader.frsk ) copy the unzipped file to the second folder that popped up, this will contain the working folders of your radio, like ( Audio, bitmaps, models, RF, scripts ) copy the bootloader file to this folder in the root directory.

Click the SYS button on the left bottom of your radio, high light the File Manager with the rotary knob and click the center button, scroll down till you see the bootloader file you just copied and high light it, click the center button follow the promt to install it. If you have done this correctly power you radio down, then hold the right scroll button down and power up the radio. This is the bootloader screen with the version number top right, it should now be 1.4.15.

 

[Vintage Ed]

I did explain what you needed to do earlier but will try one more time.

Turn your radio on, plug in the USB cable, wait for 2 folders to pop up, close the one labelled Flash. Take the zip file I sent you and unzip the file. ( It's called, bootloader.frsk ) copy the unzipped file to the second folder that popped up, this will contain the working folders of your radio, like ( Audio, bitmaps, models, RF, scripts ) copy the bootloader file to this folder in the root directory.

Click the SYS button on the left bottom of your radio, high light the File Manager with the rotary knob and click the center button, scroll down till you see the bootloader file you just copied and high light it, click the center button follow the prompt to install it. If you have done this correctly power you radio down, then hold the right scroll button down and power up the radio. This is the bootloader screen with the version number top right, it should now be 1.4.15.

When I turn on the radio and plug in the USB cable, I see USB and under it it says Joystick, under that it says Ethos suite and under that it says Serial all in a small white box 2 folders do not pop up.
When I press on the SYS button ion the lower left, nothing happens.
I tried this several times and each time I see the white box with USB in darker letters at the top then joystick under it, then Ethos Suite and under it I see Serial. Not the two folders you described.
I appreciate your efforts to help me solve my problem!

 

[Vintage Ed]

Would this kind of card reader work?

 

[Vintage Ed]

Would the card reader shown above work for my needs?

 

[MikeB]

To get access to the SD card, the following should work.
Power on the radio holding the enter (scroll wheel) button pressed, so starting in bootloader mode.
Now plug in the USB cable and your PC should show two external drives, one of these is the SD card.
Now follow the instructions for copying the new bootloader file to the SD card.
Next, disconnect the USB cable, power off the radio and restart in normal mode.
You should now be able to use the File Manager to find the copied bootloader.frsk file and update the bootloader from it.

I have done this on my X20.

Mike

 

[alm_nl]

Would the card reader shown above work for my needs?

Based on that it shows SDXC and that the picture shows a 16 GB micro-SD card inside it, I would think that it supports both SDHC and SDXC. But to be more sure we would need to see the specs as described by the seller.

 

[HENNY]

When I turn on the radio and plug in the USB cable, I see USB and under it it says Joystick, under that it says Ethos suite and under that it says Serial all in a small white box 2 folders do not pop up.
When I press on the SYS button ion the lower left, nothing happens.
I tried this several times and each time I see the white box with USB in darker letters at the top then joystick under it, then Ethos Suite and under it I see Serial. Not the two folders you described.
I appreciate your efforts to help me solve my problem!

When you plug the USB cable in it's asking you which service do you want to use. So for copying a file from you laptop you need to connect to USB, it will then connect the radio to your laptop.

 

[Vintage Ed]

To get access to the SD card, the following should work.
Power on the radio holding the enter (scroll wheel) button pressed, so starting in bootloader mode.
Now plug in the USB cable and your PC should show two external drives, one of these is the SD card.
Now follow the instructions for copying the new bootloader file to the SD card.
Next, disconnect the USB cable, power off the radio and restart in normal mode.
You should now be able to use the File Manager to find the copied bootloader.frsk file and update the bootloader from it.

I have done this on my X20.

Mike

It does not show two external drives.,I am not using a laptop, I am using a desktop PC, A Dell G5000

 

[Vintage Ed]

To get access to the SD card, the following should work.
Power on the radio holding the enter (scroll wheel) button pressed, so starting in bootloader mode.
Now plug in the USB cable and your PC should show two external drives, one of these is the SD card.
Now follow the instructions for copying the new bootloader file to the SD card.
Next, disconnect the USB cable, power off the radio and restart in normal mode.
You should now be able to use the File Manager to find the copied bootloader.frsk file and update the bootloader from it.

I have done this on my X20.

Mike

dI did this Mike, when I plug in the uSB cable,it says USB connected and nothing else happens
When I try to download the file into the radio there is a place that says extract all

 

[HENNY]

dI did this Mike, when I plug in the uSB cable,it says USB connected and nothing else happens
When I try to download the file into the radio there is a place that says extract all

Ed you need to unzip the file first before trying to copy it, do not copy the file to the folder called FLASH.

 

[Vintage Ed]

Where would be the best place to to obtain an SD card for my X20S and what should I Be looking for as far as memory etc?
Should I send my raio in to ALOFT and get it updated along with the 2 recievers I have or buy 2 more recievers so I can set up several airplanes. Currently I am working on a World Engines Robin Hood 80 kit but also have a Robin HOOD 99 kit and also a 1/4 scale Curtiss Robin kit by Jerry Bates with a 123 inch wingspan, then have an Ace Taylorcraftkit Iant o build also, it is 1/4 scale
I am having no luck trying to update my radio myself.
Apparently my anti-virus software prevents it from doing so. I use PC Matric antivirus.

 

[Vintage Ed]

I just noticed something , there is a 4GB SD card already in my X20S. I took it out and looked at it and it says 4GB on it.It came with the radio when I bought it new. So where do I go from here?
My computer is desktop Dell G5000.
I don't have a laptop I have a 1.4.12 version on my X20S
I just need to learn how to update it myself. I can disable my PC Matic antivirus temporarily if I need to and reinstall it when I am done.I am on Windows 10 on my Dell G5000
Windows 10 is no longer supported but Windows 11 is a total disaster! A tech at PC Matic helped me take Windows 11 off my PC and reinstall Windows 10. He recommended not trying to useWindows 11 anymore because it has so many problems with it. After I finally downloaded and installed Windows 11 none of my RC simulator software would work, and I had numerous other problems ,my email no longer worked either. Other applications like Facebook quit working,it was a mess trying to get my Del G5000 working properly on Windows 11.

 

[HENNY]

Ed we have been down this road before. Let Wayne from aloft get your radio to the current version v1.6.4 after which updating is easy using Ethos Suite.

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Windows 10 is still supported. You can do the manual security extension to get you to 2028 security updates or install LTSC iOt which is till 2032 and is the last legit version of Windows. IE 0 bloat, blazing fast, very low resource consumption.

Windows 11 issues with connections are very often you are using a USB with power of 1A or a machine that has low end power delivery to the ports or you have a bad cable. If your laptop has a USBC port, use a USBC to USBC cable and see if that helps.

As far as going from pre 1.4.15 to 1.6.5, I just replaced the mainboard of my X20S which had like... 1.4.2 on it still. Put it in bootloader mode, flashed the 1.4.15 bootloader via DFU flasher in ETHOS SUITE and then dropped 1.6.5 firmware in the manual update section where you normally auto update and hit flash and off it went. Once it booted back up I was able to get it to load the correct sd card files etc...

Also I would recommend deleting any antivirus software, it is more trouble than its worth and slows everything down and adds nothing really that a regularly updated Windows security won't handle. You know what is an issue? Running Windows 10 without doing the manual security patches extension to 2028 or loading the version that has it till 2032. If you didn't do that then you are wide open to any new security threats.

Finally, people don't want to hear this, there is no issue with Windows 11 if we are talking about compatibility and functionality. Everything works. If it doesn't then its an issue on your end. The invasive stuff and copilot and everything else is a different story. My gaming rig has the most current version of Windows 11 with a bunch of the invasive stuff disabled and it detects my radios in suite just fine. All of them.

 

[Vintage Ed]

You may have had luck with WIN 11 but a PC Matic tech helped me restore WIN 10 and allso calls WIN 11 trash!
I also have a friend of mine who used to be Bell South's top salesman and also calls WIN 11 the worst operating system Microsoft ever put out!