How do I manually update to TinyPilot Pro 3.1.0?

Select your device:

• Voyager 3
• Voyager 2a

Overview

If your TinyPilot device is running TinyPilot Pro version 3.0.2    or earlier, your device's operating system will become out of date starting August 31 2026.

To continue receiving new TinyPilot Pro updates, you'll need to manually upgrade your operating system by performing a factory reset.

If you're unsure which version of TinyPilot Pro your device is running, you can find the version by navigating to the "Help" menu on the TinyPilot web interface and clicking "About."

Why do I have to update manually?

TinyPilot Pro runs on Raspberry Pi OS. The latest version of Raspberry Pi OS is version 13, "Trixie." This version offers several improvements that enable new functionality for TinyPilot such as improved networking configuration and security.

The Raspberry Pi OS maintainers now consider Pi OS version 11, "Bullseye," - the version TinyPilot Pro has been running on since 2023 - to be a legacy system. Long-term support for this OS version ends on 31 August 2026.

Unfortunately, Raspberry Pi OS doesn't support major version upgrades in place. In order to transition your TinyPilot to the latest supported OS, you will need to perform a factory reset on your device.

The factory reset process differs slightly based on which TinyPilot device you have. Unfortunately, migrating to the new operating system wipes all system settings, so you will need to set up your device again.

We understand that resetting your device is a burden, and we didn't take this decision lightly. If you need any additional help to migrate your device to the new operating system, please contact us.

Voyager 3

To update to the new Trixie operating system on your Voyager 3, you'll need:

• A USB drive (at least 8GB)
• Balena Etcher, a free, open-source tool for writing images
• The latest TinyPilot Pro recovery image from our downloads page (at least version 3.1.0       )

Flash the image

1. Insert a USB drive into your computer.
2. Open Balena Etcher.
3. Click "Flash from File."

4. Select the Voyager 3 recovery .img        file you downloaded previously. 

5. Click "Select target." 

6. Check the box next to your USB drive and hit "Select." 

7. Finally, click the "Flash" button. 

When the flash is complete, you'll see this screen "Flash Complete!" screen:

Insert your newly-flashed USB drive into your TinyPilot Voyager 3's "Utility" USB port on the front of the device. Press and hold down Button 2, power on your device, and wait around 10 seconds while continuing to hold down Button 2. Your device will boot and perform a recovery, this may take a few minutes depending on your USB drive's transfer speed.

Voyager 2a and earlier

To update to the new Trixie operating system on TinyPilot Voyager device with a microSD card, you'll need:

• A microSD writer
  • There are many different brands, but Anker's model is reliable
• A microSD card (at least 8 GB)
  • This can be the same microSD that shipped with your TinyPilot
• Balena Etcher
  • A free, open-source tool for writing microSD images
• The latest TinyPilot image from our download page (at least 3.1.0       )

Flash the image

1. Insert a microSD card into your microSD writer.
2. Insert the microSD writer into your computer.
3. Open Balena Etcher.
4. Click "Flash from File." 

5. Select the TinyPilot Pro .img        file you downloaded previously. 

6. Click "Select target." 

7. Check the box next to your microSD card drive and hit "Select." 

8. Finally, click the "Flash" button. 

When the flash is complete, you'll see this screen "Flash Complete!" screen:

Insert your newly-flashed microSD into your TinyPilot device, and then power it on. The first boot will take 3-5 minutes to complete.

(Optional) Purge old SSH records

If you used SSH to access your TinyPilot device before resetting it, you may see the following error when you connect in the future:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.

Your computer remembers the devices you connect to and will warn you if their properties change. Factory resetting your TinyPilot device causes it to generate a new SSH configuration, so the error message is alerting you of this change.

You can fix the error above by purging the information your computer saved about your TinyPilot device prior to the reset. To do this, run the following commands:

ssh-keygen -R tinypilot
ssh-keygen -R tinypilot.local
ssh-keygen -R tinypilot.localdomain