Skip to content
Last update: February 6, 2022

Upgrade your system and devices to V5

Green-GO version 5 is a free upgrade for all your Green-GO devices or systems!

Having said this, some of the new features are not available on legacy devices like the Green-GO BP2 Beltpack.

Tip: Feel free to check out your device's documentation to determine what's possible with your device using Green-GO 5.

Software installation

Green-GO 5 Control software can be installed and used on the platforms macOS and Windows. Feel free to check out the software's documentation, as this guide only covers the installation of the desktop application.

Tip: The old software applications (Control, Connection, Wireless Control) don't need to be uninstalled and will work unchanged after installing the Green-GO Control version 5. However, they will seize most functionality with devices using version 5 firmware.

macOS

Prerequisites

The following are suggested minimal system configurations for running Green-GO Control 5 on an Apple macOS computer:

  • Operating system: macOS 10.15 or higher
  • Processor: Intel Core i3, Apple M1, or better
  • RAM: 4 GB or more
  • Disk space: 600 MB or more
  • Display resolution: 1024 x 728 or higher

Download firmware & software

  • Download our new Green-GO Control software for macOS.
  • Download and extract our latest firmware available.

How to install

DMG: Step 1

  1. To install Green-GO Control 5, double click green-go-control.dmg.
  2. Drag the Green-GO Control app to the Application folder

Windows

Prerequisites

The following are suggested minimal system configurations for running Green-GO Control 5 on a Windows computer:

  • Operating system: Windows 10 or higher
  • Processor: Intel Core i3 or better
  • RAM: 4 GB or more
  • Disk space: 600 MB or more
  • Display resolution: 1024 x 728 or higher

Download firmware & software

  • Download our new Green-GO Control software for Windows.
  • Download and extract our latest firmware available.

How to install

Installer: Step 1

  1. To install Green-GO Control 5, you need to execute the green-go-control.msi.
  2. Start the installer by pressing Install.
  3. Confirm the Windows UAC dialog, allowing the installation to proceed.
  4. The program will be installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Green-GO Control\. Additionally, a shortcut on your desktop and in your start menu will be created.
  5. After the installation is finished, you can close the installer by pressing Finish.

Windows Defender Firewall

After opening the software and loading or creating a configuration file for the first time, Windows Defender Firewall or other security software may inform you about blocked communications.

Please make sure that you allow all local (private) network traffic from the application!

Upgrade your devices

The new Green-GO Control software is not compatible with devices using version 4 firmware. However, upgrading devices using version 4 firmware is easily possible.

Before upgrading your devices, you should download and extract the latest firmware. The package ggo-firmware.zip contains the latest firmware for all Green-GO devices.

Warning: Devices using version 5 firmware will lose all compatibility with old version 4 software.

Wired devices

Connection View

To upgrade the firmware of your wired devices, you first need to make them available in the Network tab inside the organization-solid connection view.

Tip: This guide assumes that your Green-GO device's and computer's network configurations are either controlled by a DHCP server or using the 169.254.0.0/16 link-local address space.

Scan your network

Connection View: Update

Normally, Green-GO devices using version 4 firmware will not appear in your Network tab. You have to initiate a manual scan of your network; this is done by clicking the UPDATE button on the top right and selecting the Scan option in the drop-down menu.

Devices using a version 4 firmware will always show up with the device status Boot Mode, regardless of the actual mode of operation.

Select devices & firmware

If your devices are displayed, you can upgrade all available devices by clicking the UPDATE button and selecting the Firmware option.

Alternatively, you can manually select specific devices by activating their respective checkboxes and choosing the Firmware option.

Connection View: Update Confirmation

With the open confirmation dialog, you can choose the option Update all or Update selected. The latter is only available when manually selecting devices in the Network tab.

After pressing the UPDATE button, a file picker opens, asking you to select your Green-GO firmware files (*.dfu).

Navigate to the location where you have extracted the latest firmware package (e.g., C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Downloads\ggo-firmware\). Here, you can either manually select specific firmware or select all firmware files and press Open to close the file picker.

Choosing all available firmware files will update all available devices, regardless of device type. The software will automatically match the correct firmware to the selected devices and initiate the upgrade process by rebooting the devices in forced Boot Mode.

Subsequently, the new firmware will be transferred and installed on the devices. All operations during this process get reported in the Firmware version column (connecting, erasing, writing).

The devices will check the received firmware file after it has been written and automatically reboot after a successful installation.

Notice: Your devices will remain in (or boot into) Boot Mode showing a firmware error should the firmware upgrade fail for whatever reason. In this case, you need to try again by repeating the process described above.

Attention: Don't forget to reset your device's memory cache to avoid potential malfunction after upgrading to version 5.

Wireless devices

Upgrading your wireless Green-GO belt packs to version 5 requires a different process that only allows upgrading your devices one by one. Simultaneously updating multiple wireless devices is only supported for devices already using version 5 firmware.

Forced Boot Mode

Forced Boot Mode

To upgrade wireless devices like the WBPX or WBPXSP belt pack, you first need to boot the device into the forced Boot Mode.

To do this, you need to press and hold Button 4 while powering on the device.

Once your device shows the forced boot screen, you can connect it to your computer with a USB adapter cable (Type-A to Mini-B).

Flash the preload firmware

Your device needs to be prepared with the preload firmware before you can flash any version 5 firmware via USB. This firmware is included in the control software itself and allows the new USB update method to work.

Connection View

Devices booted into the forced Boot Mode will appear immediately in the USB tab of the organization-solid connections view.

To flash the preload firmware onto a device, you need to:

  1. Select a single device using the Boot Mode status by activating its checkbox.
  2. Start flashing the device by pressing the UPDATE button on the top right and selecting the Recover/Upgrade option.
  3. Wait until the device status changes to Please reboot.
  4. Manually reboot the device.

After the reboot, the device will show the string PreLoad Firmware on the screen. The software will recognize this device as Connected and allow you to update to any version 5 firmware using the new update method.

Flash the latest firmware

Flashing the latest version 5 firmware is only possible when your prepared devices show up as Connected in the USB tab.

If this is the case, you can either select specific devices by activating their respective checkboxes or simply flash all available devices by leaving everything unchecked. Pressing the UPDATE button and selecting the Firmware option will bring up a dialog asking for confirmation.

Connection View: Update Confirmation

Here you can either choose the option Update all or Update selected. The latter is only available when you have manually selected devices in the USB tab.

After pressing the UPDATE button, a file picker opens, asking you to select your Green-GO firmware files (*.dfu).

Navigate to the location where you have extracted the latest firmware package (e.g., C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Downloads\ggo-firmware\). Here, you can either manually select specific firmware or select all firmware files and press Open to close the file picker.

Choosing all available firmware files will update all selected devices, regardless of device type. The software will automatically match and install the correct firmware.

All operations during this process get reported in the Firmware version column (connecting, erasing, writing). Once the firmware has been flashed, the device status will show Please reboot.

Finally, manually reboot your device to apply the update.

Attention: Don't forget to reset your device's memory cache to avoid potential malfunction after upgrading to version 5.

Reset the memory cache

It is strongly advised to reset a device's memory cache after the upgrade process has been completed. Resetting a device's memory cache is done in the forced Boot Mode:

  1. Power down your device.
  2. While powering up your device, press either the:
  3. You can release the button after the device booted into the forced Boot Mode.
  4. Press and hold the button identified in step two again for approximately 30 seconds.
  5. While resetting, devices with a display will show a countdown; devices without any display will feature a fast blinking status LED.
  6. Release the button after the countdown has run down or the status LED starts slowly blinking .
  7. Restart your device.

Validate your upgrade

Following a successful firmware upgrade, you can check the firmware version of your devices either in the Firmware version column or directly in your device's Info setup menu.

Setup Menu Guide
Setup Menu
└──> Info
     └──> Firmware: <device-type> 5.0.0

Migrate your configurations

Green-GO Control 5 can load legacy v4 (*.ggc) configuration files and convert them to version 5 (*.gg5) configuration files. When loading a legacy v4 configuration file, the following will be imported:

  • Configuration Name
  • Users (ID and Name)
  • Groups (ID and Name)
  • Channel assignments and settings for each user (assignment ID, Talk mode, Call mode, Priority, and Listen)
  • Special channel configurations (Group assignments for Announcement, Emergency, Program Audio, PGM Level, and PGM Dim)

Other properties and config settings are not imported as there is no unambiguous way to convert these to the new system. The original configuration file will not be altered; the new configuration will be saved with the new file format *.gg5, not overwriting any legacy files.

To open a configuration file, you need to click on the folder-solid File menu in the top right. Next, you need to click on Open and select and open your old configuration.


Written by: Henk-Jan Blok, Timo Toups