ALTA Sensor Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) Updates

Current Monnit ALTA Sensors support firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates to keep the firmware on your sensors remotely updated if they meet a few basic requirements. This FOTA feature quickly and wirelessly updates ALTA Sensors to address issues resolved in newer firmware releases.

Operations that may be improved with FOTA updates include:

Battery performance
Connectivity
New or enhanced features
Security
Bug fixes

As a result of the potential for a failed update (however rare), firmware updates should only be performed on sensors that are not presently in mission-critical operations.

Requirements to Support FOTA Updates

Sensors must be ALTA Sensors running version 16.x.x.x firmware or later
Sensors must have 80% signal strength or better
Sensors must have over 60% battery life
Sensors must be checking in with an ALTA Ethernet Gateway 4 with firmware 1.0.8.3 or later, LTE Gateway with firmware 1.0.6.6 or later, or an IoT Gateway running firmware 2.0.1.6 or later

Steps to Perform a Sensor FOTA Update

Log into the iMonnit.com portal as a user with appropriate administrative privileges.
Observe the sensor firmware download icon next to Sensors in the left main navigation bar. The download icon will be visible if you have sensors to update.

Click the sensor firmware download or update icon to go to the firmware update page.
Confirm all sensors you want to update meet the FOTA update requirements above.
Select supported sensors to mark with a green checkmark.
Click the Update Selected button to initiate the update or the Update All button to update the sensors.

After Updating the firmware the green checkmark will turn white.

Monitor the status of the sensors to complete the updates.

Key:

1- Sensor type of the sensor to update

2- Firmware version of the update

3- ID of the gateway updating the sensor firmware

4- Status of firmware transmission from gateway to selected sensors

5- Cancel the update

6- ID of the sensor to update

7- Name of the sensor to update

8- Current status of the update (Queued, Downloading, Installing Update, Completed)

9- Progress bar indicating update status.

Update Failure

There are occasions when an attempted update may fail. In most cases, the sensor will reconnect within 24 hours. If a sensor is not responsive after an attempted update, please wait at least four hours for the sensor to reconnect. If you see a sensor that becomes unresponsive after four hours of an attempted update, power it off for one minute, then back on near the gateway. In some instances, the sensor may need new batteries.

If you experience a sensor firmware update failure and the sensor is unresponsive, you must send the sensor to Monnit for reflashing. Sensors covered by the one-year warranty will be reflashed at no cost (customer pays to ship to Monnit).

The cost for an out-of-warranty sensor to be reflashed/updated at our facility starts at $30 per sensor. Please contact your assigned sales representative for more information.

Update Success

In most cases, you will see your sensor reconnect automatically with an updated firmware version. This can be reviewed under the Networks tab.

After the update, the sensor settings may be reset to the factory default configurations. We recommend checking the sensor’s settings to ensure they’re configured to your use case.

Be sure to wait at least four hours before power cycling an updated sensor.

Updating sensors with firmware earlier than 16.x.x.x

If you encounter issues with sensors operating firmware earlier than 16.x.x.x and wish to pursue a firmware update remotely (FOTA), the technical capability might be present for Monnit Support to perform the update.

If this is something you wish to pursue, it can be purchased at the cost of $30 per sensor. This process is manual and can take multiple efforts to complete, with a high failure rate. If the attempt fails, the sensor must be sent to Monnit for reflashing.