Firmware changes between UPS 03.8/09.2 for SMX1500RMI2U. Attn: APC engineer

[Anonymous user]

Can an APC engineer please address my concerns regarding the SMX1500 firmware revisions?

My company has purchased several SMX1500RMI2U and SMX1500RM2U units for use in critical applications. Last year, we purchased one of these units to qualify it for use in our specific application and subjected the unit to EMC, environmental and even seismic testing. This testing was performed on a unit with UPS 03.8 firmware. Unfortunately, when we ordered a new batch of units late last year, some had date code 1211 and some 1234. After speaking at length with "Louie" at APC tech support, I understand that in early 2012 units started shipping with firmware 09.x. He wasn't able to provide much more information about what changed except that the firmware of "newer" units can be upgraded via USB or serial connection, while the "older" units can only be upgraded via serial connection. Also, I was informed that 09.x firmware cannot be downgraded to 03.x.

I suspect there was some internal hardware change to the units that also drove this firmware revision, however Louie wasn't able to confirm this. I would like to hear back from an APC engineer and try to get more details about what specifically changed with the units, both firmware and hardware. Due to the extensive testing that has been performed on the 03.8 unit, we are not able to go back and retest with the 09.2 firmware because the costs would approach $100k. Without know what exactly changed, we aren't able to justify the use of the newer units.

One of the other changes I noticed is differences in how the firmware revisions are reported between 03.8 and 09.2.
In 03.x, the 2nd firmware was called "COM", now it is labeled "MCU"
In 03.x, the 4th firmware was called "CBL", now it is labeled "MBL"

Ideally, I would like to get in touch with the engineering department or a manager in engineering and setup a meeting to discuss the possibility of being able to disclose any additional changes or if internal components were changed.
I can provide a direct email, contact phone number and company name in a non-public message.

Thank you.

Mike

[BillP]

Have you developed a test procedure for the seismic testing?

[BillP]

is the email in your profile correct and where we'd contact you? we've had to disable private messaging recently due to some issues with it.

[BillP]

hello. what i can tell you now is this:

As far as interoperability (with PowerChute Software or a Network Card), voltage sensitivity, transfer times, transfer points, AVR operation, and efficiency, the updated units perform either identically or very closely to the older units. Electrically, very little changed, the most significant hardware change that comes to mind is the increased trace spacing on the PCB to adhere to an APC design standard, but this does not affect performance.

The FW updates from v03.8 to v09.2 include USB bootloading, additional languages support, and many bugfixes (mostly interoperability bugfixes and UI tweaks).

If we can understand your application better and maybe some more information on the testing you performed, perhaps we can provide more information.

[Anonymous user]

i picKed a winna,

Thank you for the quick response to my question. Can you provide me with a contact email or phone number so we can take this discussion offline? I can then provide you with details regarding my specific application and the testing that was performed. Regarding the changes, our equipment qualification group is VERY conservative with that can and can't be justified on paper without restesting. At one point in the testing, we decided we needed to change the unit sensitivity setting from "REDUCED" to "LOW" and even that required additional retest. My main concern is that electrical design changes to the unit could (and most likely will) affect the unit's electromagnetic susceptibility or emissions.

[Anonymous user]

The email in my profile will come to my personal email address. When I tried to register with my work email, our spam filter must have blocked emails your domain. Once I know your email address, I can have your address whitelisted in our spam system so the emails will come through.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

ok, i will send you an email. i am not going to be the person that can help much more than i have but i will try to get you set up with someone who can help further.

[MartinLiska]

hello,

I have a SMX1500RMI2U UPS and need to upgrade firmware. The contemporary firmware download helper from APC/SE doesn't allow me to select SMTSMX20UPS_15-0.enc firmware for download - maybe because my UPS an/or COM firmware(s) are old.

Mine:

UPS 03.8

COM 03.8

UBL 05.0

CBL 02.1

Sticker at the back of the UPS has this:

SMX1500RMI2U

AS1051122195

I don't know what hardware revision it is. I've downloaded one of the older firmwares you've linked to on this forum and flashed (from 3.6 -> 3.8). UBL and CBL parts remained the same.

My question is, can I get a link to some older version of firmware for my hardware? I don't know if 3.8 or 9.2 is the latest for this. I feel that the latest APC flasher needs some higher FW revision just to flash the latest official one (UPS 15.0  MCU 10.3  UBL 07.5  MBL 06.0).

Using network management card v 2 running v6 firmware, it fails on this:

07/30/2015	04:23:33	Device	UPS: Firmware transfer to UPS failed
07/30/2015	04:23:33	Device	UPS: Finished UPS firmware transfer [Xmodem Cancel]

07/30/2015	04:23:33	Device	UPS: Transferring firmware to UPS.
07/30/2015	04:20:33	Device	UPS: Firmware transfer to UPS succeeded.
07/30/2015	04:20:33	Device	UPS: Finished UPS firmware transfer
07/30/2015	04:15:17	System	Web user 'apc' logged out from 10.20.30.123.
07/30/2015	04:14:01	Device	UPS: Transferring firmware to UPS.
07/30/2015	04:13:18	apc	File 'SMTSMX20UPS_15-0.enc' transfer failed.

the xmodem abort seems to be the same for flashing over serial cable. I suspect that 3.8 FW is too old to handle the new firmwares (maybe just the size, or encrypted version).

Can you please help me to download appropriate older firmware?

FYI: I've read this

https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-Data-Center-Enterprise/APC-UPS-SMX1500-firmware-update-failure-a...

Thanks very much in advance,

sincerely Martin