So, you’ve joined the Pluto Plus+ “Owners Club” – congratulations! The first thing you did was flash some shiny new firmware you found online, and now, predictably, you’ve turned it into a paperweight. Well done, you’ve created a Pluto BRICK+! I did the same, we are now even !
Symptoms of a Bricked Pluto Plus+
Your device displays:
- A steady green LED and no activity on the blue LED
- No recognition as a USB device, not even in DFU mode.
Let’s get this sorted. I’ll assume you know how to install the drivers and get this thing running on Windows (or whatever mystical OS you prefer), so we’ll skip that part. We’ll need it recognised as a removable drive later.
Before You Begin
First, a quick lesson:
- There are two versions of this gadget:
- V1: Uses 1.8V logic levels.
- V2: Uses 3.3V logic levels.
To check which version you have, read further and once you took the top cover off (no tears – it’s easy), you look at the silk screen around the headers inside. You will see the voltage level in the table to the left of the SD-H marking. V2 is notorious for having fewer compatible firmware options, which means it’s more likely to end up bricked if you’re not careful. And here you are.
Tools and Supplies
To resurrect your Pluto BRICK+, you’ll need:
- The brick itself (formerly known as Pluto Plus+).
- A Phillips screwdriver to remove the cover.
- A jumper wire (Dupont type).
- A microSD card (up to 16GB, formatted FAT32).
- An SD card reader.
- A micro-USB cable (you probably have one or two in the box with your brick).
- A PC with software installed. OS only and basic stuff, no need to install CoD for this.
- One mug, coffee, sugar (optional), and no milk. Trust me on this.
Steps to Bring Your Brick Back to Life
Disconnect Everything
- Unplug USB, power, and antennas from the Pluto BRICK+.
Open the Cover
- Remove the 4 black screws around the top of the thing. No need to remove the bottom ones.
- Take off the top cover and inspect the headers and jumpers. Feel free to hum a heroic tune while doing this.
Set the SD-H Line
- Now find the two contacts within the yellow square in the image above
- To convince the Pluto BRICK+ to use the SD card instead of its bricked internal memory, we need to pull the SD-H line HIGH:
- V1: Connect SD-H to 1.8V.
- V2: Connect SD-H to 3.3V.
- Use a Dupont wire or header pin to make this connection, ensuring it’s stable. You don’t want it falling off mid-resurrection – that’s a buzzkill.
Position the URST Jumper
- Depending on the firmware, position the jumper:
- Official Firmware: URST to MIO52.
- “Dirty” Firmware with ETH Support: URST to MIO46 (middle position). This is what we are going to use! Use the picture with the green jumper from above to find it.
Prepare the SD Card
- Grab a microSD card (16GB or smaller, please – Pluto’s is a dwarf planet and as such, not a fan of massive cards). I used an old 8GB card for those asking.
- With a card reader insert it into the USB of your PC, wait for it to show as a drive.
- Format it as FAT32 (default option in most OS).
Download Firmware
- Download the F5OEO firmware from GitHub.
- At the time of writing,
plutoplus-fw-0.5.16.2.zipwas the latest working version. - Unzip the file and copy the contents of the
sdimgfolder to the root of your SD card. (You can also copy straight from the archive.)
This is how files on your SD card should look like:
Insert the SD Card
- Eject the SD card safely from your PC and insert it into the Pluto BRICK+.
Connect the USB Cable
- Make sure your uUSB cable of choice is already connected to the PC and only the “micro” side is floating, ready for you. Sounds trivial, but believe me, I know why I say it!
- While holding the DFU button (behind the famous professor on the PCB), plug in the micro-USB cable to the DATA port on the Pluto BRICK+.
- You’ll see a steady green and blue LED. Now let go of the DFU button and give the brick a few seconds to boot from the SD card. A blinking green LED means it’s ALIVE! Back to this world!
- But we’re not done yet, don’t disconnect the thing, keep reading!
Copy Bootloader and Firmware
- When the device appears as a removable drive, copy the files
boot.frmandpluto.frmfrom the top folder of the archive above to the root of the Pluto’s drive, usually D: with the label PlutoSDR like below:
After you copied the above two files, you should have something like this:
Eject and Flash the Device
- Safely eject the device from your system.
- The green LED will start blinking rapidly. Do not touch anything!
- Remember the “Tools and Supplies” paragraph? Now go and get that mug, fill it with coffee. Optionally add some sugar.
- Slurp, slurp!
- Enjoy that coffe and come back when you emptied the mug!
Wait and Celebrate
- This process takes about 4 minutes. Be patient. Sip coffee. Contemplate on why you bricked it!
- When the green LED stops blinking, wait an extra 10 seconds.
Final Assembly
- Unplug the USB cable.
- Remove the SD card and the SD-H jumper wire.
- Reassemble the cover and connect the device back to the USB DATA port.
- After about 7 seconds, the green LED should blink happily. Congratulations – your Pluto is no longer a BRICK!
- To make sure it talks to you, SSH into it’s default IP (192.168.2.1) user: root, password: analog.
Keep the SD card safe – you’ll probably need it again when curiosity gets the better of you and you decide to mess around with firmware updates, again and again!
Enjoy your restored Pluto Plus+!
Don’t forget to click the link to the left if you think you owe me a beer.
73 and you’re welcome! Las – M0BOY
I have received feedback indicating that Pluto+ may behave unpredictably when both the POWER and USB DATA cables are connected. For the procedure outlined above, please ensure only the DATA cable is connected.
73, Laszlo – M0BOY