New feature: automatic reloading of MAC address after upgrades

Netduino Update makes upgrading mainboards a breeze. But until now we've still had to re-enter the board's MAC address in MFDeploy after the upgrade.

No more. The newest firmware (4.3.2.1+) for Netduino Plus 2 and Netduino 3 does away with this extra step: the firmware now automatically retrieves the default MAC address from write-once flash.

A few notes:

• Netduino 3 Wi-Fi mainboards were already pre-programmed with a default MAC address.
• The default MAC address is written into write-once flash, but can still be changed once or twice.
• The current MAC address can be updated at any time using MFDeploy's Network Configuration. Reflashing later on will reload the permanently-stored default MAC address.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to permanently set the default MAC address in your Netduino Plus 2 board.

Step 1: Select your Netduino in Netduino Update; click Options...



Step 2: In the options dialog, switch to the new Network tab.



Step 3: Enter the default MAC address for your board (from the sticker on the back of your board).



Step 4: Close the options dialog to save your board's MAC address.


That's it! If you reflash your board and open up MFDeploy's Network Config dialog, you will see that your MAC address is reloaded automatically!

Please let us know your feedback/experiences with this new feature,

Chris

P.S. If you don't see your mainboard in Netduino Update, switch it into bootloader mode using the following instructions:

• Press the pushbutton on your Netduino mainboard.
• Hold the pushbutton while powering up your Netduino via your computer's USB port.

P.P.S. If you are concerned about having a permanent MAC address stored in OTP flash, simply set it to all-zeroes. Write-once flash works by flipping bits from 1 to 0 (i.e. erasing bits).