26 replies to this topic

[Chris Walker]

I'm happy to announce the immediate availability of "Netduino Update", a powerful new PC application which makes it easy to upgrade Netduino mainboards to the latest firmware.

This new application works with Netduino 2, Netduino Plus 2 and Netduino Go.

To use Netduino Update, you'll need the ST DFU drivers pre-installed on your machine. You can get these by installing ST DFU Tools 3.0.3.

The new process for upgrading a Netduino is much simpler than the fairly technical STDFU process previously required. Here's what it looks like:

Step 1
Detach your Netduino from your PC. Press and hold your Netduino's pushbutton while plugging it in via USB; this will put it in bootloader mode.

Step 2
Run "NetduinoUpdate.exe". Your Netduino, now in bootloader mode, will appear in the app.


If your board shows up as an "STM Device in DFU Mode", click the "Options..." link. This will pop up the options dialog. Select your board type and close the dialog.


Step 3
Check the box next to your board and press the "Upgrade" button. After upgrading, your board will automatically reboot into NETMF and disappear from the Update app.


Step 4
If you're using a Netduino Plus 2, use MFDeploy to re-enter your MAC Address as usual.

We will be adding a feature in Netduino Update which gets rid of this extra step in the near future. It will require a newer version of Netduino firmware.

One more feature
We snuck one extra feature into Netduino Update.

Sometimes developers can get boards into an unknown state, generally when an app has opened an invalid pin or otherwise locked out the debugger. We wanted to make it super-easy to erase a malfunctioning app.

If you ever run into this problem, just put your board into bootloader mode and run Netduino Update. Click on the "options..." link next to your board and check out the Tools tab.


Just press "Erase App..." and a few seconds later your board will be back to normal. This feature doesn't kick your board out of bootloader mode, so you'll need to detach and re-attach your board after erasing the app. Unlike "upgrade", this won't wipe out network or USB settings.

Next steps
We plan to include Netduino Update in future Netduino SDK installers. But first we wanted to give the community a chance to spin the tires. And we would love feedback on the application, notes on additional features you'd love to see, etc.

We've been working on a ton of software and a few accessories for Netduino this year. Netduino Update is the first major release--with more goodies to come

BTW, Netduino Update is open source, licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. I'll post the source a bit later this week.

Thank you, and enjoy!

Chris

[Chris Walker]

FAQs: Q: Will this work with my Netduino 1? Netduino Plus 1? Netduino Mini? A: Not today. We have plans to add some features which will work with first-generation hardware in the future. Q: Can I still use STDFU Tester and DfuSe Demonstrator? A: Yes, of course.

[Arron Chapman]

Hey! It's good to see this, updating the devices was arguably the most frustrating part of the process for users

[roguemat]

This is really awesome, nice work to everyone involved!

[Gutworks]

This really does simplify the upgrading process and much less intimidating to new and seasoned users alike.  I love not having to search for the latest and greatest firmware versions and upgrading multiple boards at once!

 

I wonder if it's possible to add the ability to use beta firmware? I often like to have one board with beta firmware installed and another with the latest stable version on it, or at least  able to switch easily from one or the other. 

 

Also after the upgrade process I realize the tool restarts the board(s) once it has completed, but I think a confirmation message would be a great addition. With this current version (v1.0.0) the upgrade process is somewhat anticlimactic and I can see many new users thinking that nothing has happened or they missed a step. 

 

Great job Chris, and thank you to all of the community coding ninjas who worked hard on getting this tool created. CW2, hanzibal, nakchak, Steven Behnke, tim c and ziggurat29 you guys rock!

 

Cheers,

Steve

[gismo]

Thanks! Seems to work OK for me!!

 

BTW, what does this mean?: 

"NOTE: These settings, stored in non-erasable storage, may be changed up to 2 more times."

Another thing...Is the cancel button somewhat useless?...Once you start flashing the firmware, you can't stop in the middle? Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

Thanks Again!

[Chris Walker]

Hey gismo, great questions...

BTW, what does this mean?: 

"NOTE: These settings, stored in non-erasable storage, may be changed up to 2 more times."

When you select your board type, Netduino Update stores it permanently in the special "one time programmable" storage inside the Netduino's STM32 chip. There are a few OTP slots allocated to the settings, in case you accidentally pick the wrong one and need to change it once or twice. Once we write to OTP, we can't re-write the data. Technically we can erase it--but then the OTP is erased and no longer usable.

Another thing...Is the cancel button somewhat useless?...Once you start flashing the firmware, you can't stop in the middle? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

When you press the cancel button, it will tell the app to finish flashing the current board--but to not flash any subsequently-selected Netduinos. We didn't want a user flashing multiple boards to not understand what did/did not get flashed. And there's no roll-back. So it currently finishes up the current task before stopping. Chris

[pdii]

Could we interpret the delivery of this Netduino Update application as an indication that an update <cough>.NET MF 4.3 QFE1</cough> is nearly ready? 

[gordonk]

Hello everyone,

I got the netduino for my son for Christmas thinking this would be a great way to get him started in electronics problem is I can't get it to run the simple blinky program and spent pretty much all day messing with it, I'm the only one learning anything lol.

I'm thinking I need to upgrade the thing but not sure how and I guess it's a netduino 1.

[Chris Walker]

Hi gordonk, Welcome to you and your son Netduino is a lot of fun; let's make sure we get you up and running. With Netduino 1, the easiest way to get started is by downloading Visual Studio 2010, the .NET MF 4.1 SDK and the Netduino 4.1 SDK from the Downloads page. If you're having trouble getting "blinky" to run with that, just let us know. If you'd like to upgrade the board to the latest production firmware, here's the direct link: http://forums.netdui...-v420-update-1/ We're looking at ways to support the gen1 hardware with Netduino Update in the future--but for now it's just for gen2 boards. Chris

[MrSmoofy]

Step 4
[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]If you're using a Netduino Plus 2, use MFDeploy to re-enter your MAC Address as usual.[/color]

 

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]As a newbie I'm not sure how to do this is there instructions?  I tried what I thought was correct and it gave me an error about unable to erase configuration sector memory.[/color]

 

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]Also why do you need to re-assign the MAC address?  I thought the mac address was hard coded to the nic so that it couldn't be changed.[/color]

[MrSmoofy]

Step 4
[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]If you're using a Netduino Plus 2, use MFDeploy to re-enter your MAC Address as usual.[/color]

 

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]As a newbie I'm not sure how to do this is there instructions?  I tried what I thought was correct and it gave me an error about unable to erase configuration sector memory.[/color]

 

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]Also why do you need to re-assign the MAC address?  I thought the mac address was hard coded to the nic so that it couldn't be changed.[/color]

 

Disregard not being able to assign the MAC address apparently I was using an old version of MFDeploy so I got that working.

 

Still curious as to why you must do this though.

[Chris Walker]

Hi MrSmoofy, The MAC address isn't hard-coded by default, although we're working on a way to hard-code it in the future. Chris

[MrSmoofy]

Hi MrSmoofy, The MAC address isn't hard-coded by default, although we're working on a way to hard-code it in the future. Chris

 

Thanks Chris, just wondered if there was maybe a reason it wasn't as it went against all that I knew about the ability of having to nic cards with the same MAC address.

[chris9876]

Hi Chris, great tool, congratulations! Had to reflash my NGO about 15 times in recent days (you know .. unsafe code ... and so on ....). Have not hit upon the new updatetool until today ... OK ... But can now sleep by doing the reflashprocedur with the STtools. Regard and BTW happy new year Christian

[Frode]

Nice. I just used it and it works great.

 

Could you include an option to install the beta-version of the firmware as well?

[Chris Walker]

Hi Frode,

Nice. I just used it and it works great.   Could you include an option to install the beta-version of the firmware as well?

Good idea. We'll add that in a future version. Chris

[escallanio1]

Hi

 

I am new to the NetDuino devices and community. I bought 2 NetDuino board last week. but i am in real trouble as i was upgrading firmware. I downloaded latest version of firmware from  the http://forums.netdui...-v420-update-1/

 

STDFU Tester erase already present firmware but when i download it from above link and tried to upgrade it via Dfuse Demonstation, it is not upgrading. Infact, the file is loaded successfully but the "Upgrade" button is disabled. So There is no firmware on my netduino now.

 

My second NetDuino is in TinyBooter Mode (even without pressing pushbutton on the board). When i plug it in and ping it via MF Deploy, it give message " Pinging....TinyBooter" Bootloader build info: Netduino plus 2 (V4.2.2.2) by secret labs LLC. Target-Device Capabilities always give "Not Supported" response.I have seen several threads on this forum that the pushbutton should be press while plugging usb cable. But in my case, if i do so, the netduino is not picked in MF Deploy. It is automatically in Tinybooter form. Also, it does not appear in DFU Tester and when i try to upload the firmware downloaded from above link, it is uploaded correctly, but again the Upgrade button is disable just like my other NetDuino. Totally clueless about these issues. 

 

Thanks 

escallanio

 

 

[Chris Walker]

Hi escallanio, Do you have an older gen1 Netduino ("Netduino" printed on it) or a newer gen2 "Netduino 2"? If you're using the older gen1 hardware, the upgrade procedure you want is "Atmel SAM-BA for TinyBooter, MFDeploy for TinyCLR" as described in the Netduino 1 firmware update post (linked in your post). If you're using the newer gen2 hardware, the upgrade procedure you want uses ST DFU tools...and the best way to do the upgrade is by using the "Netduino Update" tool which is linked in the first post of this thread. Does that help get you on the right path? Welcome to the Netduino community, Chris

[fbaiti]

For some reason I'm not able to find a download link fot the update application.

Any ideas?

 

Thank you,

Felix