After over a year of waiting the day has finally come, and Texecom have released v4.00 of their firmware for all Premier Elite panels.
The highlights listed on the main website include a number of interesting items, being a new API for integration with other systems, support for the home automation products which Texecom themselves are going to produce and some more technical changes including improved network speed. There is also support for the ‘SmartCOM’ combination device which is not out yet but will apparently combine an expander with wifi and ethernet interface.
One specific item which is interesting is that all new panels will have a unique ID generated in the factory, and anyone with an older panel who upgrades will have an ID generated and written to the panel by Wintex after upgrading.
There is a detailed guide to the changes available here.
I now need to dust off the firmware upgrade board and get cracking! I will post my experiences. I’m looking forward to seeing the new hardware range which will go with this and also to see what can be done with the new API and integration capabilities.
Universal Discovery Methodology 
I’ll dig out my DIY firmware upgrade board and give it a shot too. Hoping I’ll be able to hook up the alarm to control Philips Hue bulbs etc.
Interested to hear how you get on!
All upgraded using my bodged DIY programmer! Having looked at the V4 changes guide (http://www.texe.com/UK/uploads/INS765_Premier_Elite_V4_Changes.pdf), not sure there’s much extra functionality until the SmartCom is released?
There is a new command set used for control in respect of the “SmartCom” – If you are interested, email techsupport@texe.com asking for the new connect protocol. You will have to sign a non-disclosure form, but can then use it to your hearts content.
John G
I’ve done mine at last as well. So far not noticed anything major but looking forward to seeing the new hardware and have seen a few interesting teases! What I would love to do is some integration with Fhem so I have requested the new protocol details and will see if I can manage enough perl to make it work.
Help, think I bricked my alarm panel.
In the end I got a Flashing Interface online and today I decided to flash my Elite 48 to latest 4.02 firmware. I followed the guide step by step but when I pressed flash and the process started the application hanged and I eventually had to kill it. I’m running insider preview and I think that were the problem was 😦
Now all LED’s are dead on the PCB, heartbeat,network etc and the keypad display is showing: V10.100 Add=Eng W=7,7+S=.
Tried a few more times but the application hangs or is not able to connect. Eventually got myself another laptop from a good neighbor and tried flashing with it. I can get further, passing connection, getting chip info, erasing chip but fails Programming and verifying:… Programming and verifying failed: Board failed to respond correctly
I also need to mention that I’m not using an original USB cable.
Any idea what should I do next?
OK, probably best thing to do is start with a few simple things. I would start by disconnecting everything including all the power to the panel and try to default the panel. You need to hold down the ‘load defaults’ button whilst applying power to the panel, and then see if it responds at all. I’m not sure if the display you’ve seen has any meaning, it may just be corrupt data. Also make sure you have disconnected all cables (including the programmer). It does sound a little bit ominous though… but there is often a good deal of resilience in these things.
The non-standard USB cable shouldn’t be a big issue, I used something similar when I flashed mine. Only issue might be if it is a counterfeit FTDI device I suppose but even those seem to work,
Please let me know how you get on!
Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention in my initial post that I already tried to reset the default a number of times with no success.
Found this article on google: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/texecom-premier-elite-48-w.447096/ it appears that the alarm is stuck in flashing mode, or incomplete flashing.
Not really sure what to do next. I’m keep on reading that Texe support is really great, I’m wondering if they are willing to help even do I’m not a qualified installer.
Any pointers are much appreciated.
Ah ok. That’s a useful article and it does sound like it has been corrupted by the partial flash. I would definitely recommend speaking to Texecom support, I’ve found them extremely helpful. They don’t seem to mind whether you are a professional or not, and in truth you are still a customer either way. Please let me how things go.
Do you have an email address or a phone number I can use to contact them?
I’ll try to see if I can source a Window 7 laptop to rule the device out. From reading on your blog I could see that others had issues flashing and resolve them by changing the laptop/OS.
Thanks for the help anyway.
I’ve sent an email to texecom. They don’t work weekends so will be Monday the earliest we get anything from them.
In the flasher why there’s 6 files of firmware for each panel?
Also I was going from 2.11 to 4.02 but I don’t think that should matter 🤔
I think the six different files are for different language packs. I agree it shouldn’t matter, I think you’ve just been rather unlucky. Is the panel still under warranty? You might be able to return it if so, as it may have been something to do with the panel itself rather than the laptop. Anyway please do report back, it would be good to have advice for people if they encounter this in future.
I bought the panel on eBay 2yr ago so no warranty 😦 I can see the PCB’s are around £70 online, if I’ve no joy with Texecom support I’ll just buy another one.
I’ll update the comment section once I have any updates.
Ok thanks. Fortunately the parts aren’t too expensive as a fraction of the whole system, and I was quite surprised when I bought it how cheap the panels were
Got a reply from Texecom with some instruction steps, unfortunately didn’t work for me. One thing I notice going through the power cycle is that connecting the battery and pressing kick start button didn’t power the panel, it only came alive after applying the main.
Instructions from Texecom below:
Please follow the steps below:
– Connect your flasher interface to the panel programming / flash port (red tracer on ribbon to same side as pin 1 arrow on PCB)
– Ensure the flasher interface slider switch to set to RUN.
– Power cycle panel with flasher still connected.
– Press reset button on flasher interface.
After a couple seconds your network leds should start to flash again.
Sorry to hear that it didn’t work, but it’s useful to know what the advice was. Are you sure that battery is still charged? Sounds silly but they can sometimes lose function over time.
Right, the engineers from Texecom said that if the voltage regulators are not hot the chip should still be OK and should keep trying to flash it. I tried again today using another laptop, clean install of the flasher and drivers but fails at the same step, Programming and Verifying Failed: Verify failed.
I think the USB cable that I have is at fault, I remember another user on here had flashing issues because of the USB cable he used and now found the comments https://gw0udm.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/success-with-1000-hdc/#comments
Should I go and for £40 on an original Texecom USB cable or try again using a cheaper one? The one that I have is similar with the one you posted here: https://gw0udm.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/usb-serial.jpg?w=331&h=322 but the chip inside is marked FTDI.
Any recommendations from amazon? I’m willing to try another and if it doesn’t work I can simply return it back.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=ftdi+ttl+usb+cable
Thanks
Julian
OK so this sounds promising. You are quite right that others have had some problem in flashing with third party cables, I’d forgotten about that. I think I’ve probably been lucky with mine, but in truth the quality of the chinese serial cables and adaptors varies enormously. I bought some cheap cables a couple of years ago and they’ve all given up now so I need to buy them all again.
The Texecom cable is expensive but guaranteed to work and it depends how you value your time! If you can find any cable with a genuine FTDI chip then it should be fine, but it’s quite hard to be sure of this on ebay these days. There is an ebay trader I’ve dealt with who sells guaranteed compatible cables which are a bit cheaper at around £25:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fully-Compatible-2m-Texecom-USB-COM-cable-for-Veritas-Premier-Elite-Alarms/183262217273?hash=item2aab478439:g:PVUAAOSwxYxUvBpx
The Amazon link you mention looks good too, and Amazon’s customer service is excellent so you shouldn’t have a problem returning it if you needed to
So hopefully we can find a way through, please let me know how you get on
Reply from Texecom:
“If the programming and verifying process starts then the chip must be accessible from the software.
Generally when it fails at this stage it is due to a com port connection, this does include the digi-modem connection also.”
There’s still light at the end of the tunnel 🙂 now I need to source a USB cable. Thanks for the eBay link, I might use that as price is similar to Amazon. I’ll keep you posted.
That’s good to know and sounds very promising. I’d be interested in your thoughts on the 3rd party cables if you get one (and whether it resolves the problem!)