Replacing SD Card (Original Helium Hotspots)

Required Tools:

• Phillips Head or T8 bit screwdriver
• Strong fingernails, tweezers, or needle-nose pliers to remove the old SD card
• The ability to read/write a 64gb microSD card (unless pre-flashed card is acquired)

In the event that your microSD card fails, here are the steps to re-flash it or replace it with a brand new one:

1. Unplug and remove the 4 screws from the bottom of the unit using a Phillips head screwdriver (Note that 1st gen Hotspots will need a T8 bit screwdriver, and also have a gps antenna wire attaching the top plastic to the board, this should stay connected.)
2. Carefully remove the installed microSD card located by the fan - tweezers or needle-nose pliers may help with this. (see image below)
3. Format the new card or re-format the existing card into ExFat format.
4. Download and install a program to Flash the card such as Etcher, if needed: https://www.balena.io/etcher
5. Download the firmware image file to Flash. Note: Since 24 Jan 2022 the Firmware and Miner Images are now separated, and can have different date releases Replace the date part of the following URL with the latest GA tagged >>FIRMWARE<< release in the Community Discord's #announcements channel.. i.e. new firmware date of 2022.07.15.0 and https://helium-nextgate.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/artifacts/<date>-sdcard.img.gz becomes https://helium-nextgate.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/artifacts/2022.07.15.0-sdcard.img.gz and enter that URL in your browser.
6. Unzip the .gz file.
7. Use Etcher to Flash the newly formatted microSD card with the file.
8. Place the newly flashed card back into the card reader slot.
9. Plug the Hotspot back and and confirm that it boots up.
10. Screw the Hotspot back together.

info

This set of instructions are for Original Helium Hotspots. The instructions for RAK/MNTD Hotspots can be found here.

If you have purchased a pre-flashed card, the only steps you need are:

1. Unplug and remove the 4 screws from the bottom of the unit using a Phillips head screwdriver (Note that 1st gen Hotspots will need a T8 bit screwdriver, and also have a gps antenna wire attaching the top plastic to the board, this should stay connected.)
2. Carefully remove the installed microSD card located by the fan - tweezers or needle-nose pliers may help with this. (see image below)
3. Place the pre-flashed card into the card reader slot.
4. Plug the Hotspot back and and confirm that it boots up.
5. Screw the Hotspot back together.

If successful, everything should boot up normally.

SD Card Sources

A 64GB SD card (or, even better, 128GB) like this would work, but any endurance type SD card comparable should suffice. Be careful to buy from a trusted vendor, as fake SD cards are often sold on the secondary market.

You can also buy pre-flashed SD cards from Parley Labs 64GB or PPL 128GB.