14 replies to this topic

[boiacchi]

Hi guys,

unfortunately I was trying to flash the 4.2 on my netduino mini too late last night and I did it wrongly :-((

while I was deploying it I receive a message from MF Deployoment tool saying that the deployment fail.

I was doing it using an FTDI basic board but I did't Flash the TinyBooterDecompressor.bin using SAM-BA v2.12+ as showed

here

I have tried to reset my netduino aplying +5 at the little gold square on the top of the chip but now when I try to ping

it using the MF Deployoment tool it seems it cannot find it "Pinging... Error: No response from device"

Is there any way to restore the old firmware on my netduino mini?

Another thing that I notice is that the procedure to flash the TinyBooterDecompressor is done by using the SAM-BA software but it does not show my chip type which is at91sam7x512-cu (there is only at91sam7x512-ek) :-((

Could you please help me ?

[Chris Walker]

Hi boiacchi, at91sam7x512-ek is the proper selection for Netduino Mini. The EK means "development board" and it works with both the -CU (Netduino Mini) and -AU (Netduino/Netduino Plus) boards. After erasing the current firmware, you'll need to reflash your Netduino. Pinging it via MFDeploy won't work right now because there's no longer any NETMF firmware on it. Please try this: 1. Erase your Netduino Mini (using the ERASE pad) 2. Power down your Netduino Mini 3. Re-power your Netduino Mini and make sure it's connected properly for reflashing (pin 1/2/GND) 4. Use SAM-BA to reflash TinyBooterDecompressor on the Netduino Mini. Verify that it was written properly (using "compare"). 5. Power down and re-power your Netduino Mini. You should now be able to ping your Netduino Mini and flash the TinyCLR runtime. Chris

[boiacchi]

Hi boiacchi,

at91sam7x512-ek is the proper selection for Netduino Mini. The EK means "development board" and it works with both the -CU (Netduino Mini) and -AU (Netduino/Netduino Plus) boards.

After erasing the current firmware, you'll need to reflash your Netduino. Pinging it via MFDeploy won't work right now because there's no longer any NETMF firmware on it.

Please try this:
1. Erase your Netduino Mini (using the ERASE pad)
2. Power down your Netduino Mini
3. Re-power your Netduino Mini and make sure it's connected properly for reflashing (pin 1/2/GND)
4. Use SAM-BA to reflash TinyBooterDecompressor on the Netduino Mini. Verify that it was written properly (using "compare").
5. Power down and re-power your Netduino Mini.

You should now be able to ping your Netduino Mini and flash the TinyCLR runtime.

Chris

hi Chris thanks for your answer.

Do I need to do all that using the RS232 ? (at the moment I only got the FTDI cable and board)

One more thing. After unpacking my netduino mini the first thing I did was to switch it to TTL UART mode (default is RS232) using the below procedure

If you want to use the 3.3V TTL UART (pins 11, 12) instead:
* Connect your computer to the 3.3V TTL UART (pins 11, 12).
* Open a serial connection to your board (115200 bps, No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no flow control) using Putty, HyperTerminal, Tera Term or other terminal software.
* Press ESC. You will see a prompt offering to let you select the deployment/debug port.
* Select the TTL UART (COM1).
* You will see the Netduino Mini reboot and start sending debug data over the port.

Is that ok?

thanks

[NooM]

yes you need rs232 for flashing the tinybooter.
you can do that with an max232, it works like a charm for me (also with ftdi chip)
the 232 just need 4x 1uF capacitors, thats all.

you can also connect it to your pc's com-port (at least if it has one. i did that too the first time)


my ftdi - rs232 adapter

//edit: the other 2 files you can flash per normal uart/mfdeploy than

[boiacchi]

yes you need rs232 for flashing the tinybooter.
you can do that with an max232, it works like a charm for me (also with ftdi chip)
the 232 just need 4x 1uF capacitors, thats all.

you can also connect it to your pc's com-port (at least if it has one. i did that too the first time)


my ftdi - rs232 adapter

//edit: the other 2 files you can flash per normal uart/mfdeploy than

when I try to open SAM-BA on the com7 (my rs232 I'm using an usb to rs232 converted) I receive the below message.

no valid processor ID found :-((

[NooM]

tried changing rx/tx? sure its a rs232 and no ttl/uart/whatever ? board is: at91sam7x512-ek just before you wrote that you only got ftdi, wich is usb -> uart. its both serial but rs232 has much higher voltage levels than uart has

[boiacchi]

tried changing rx/tx? sure its a rs232 and no ttl/uart/whatever ?
board is: at91sam7x512-ek


just before you wrote that you only got ftdi, wich is usb -> uart. its both serial but rs232 has much higher voltage levels than uart has

I have bought an USB serial converter cable and I wire it up to my bread board look here

[NooM]

ah ok. sorry i have no more ideas than. it should work. //edit: i looked at your picture more closly: it doesent look like hooked up correctly. first: pin1/2 is rt/tx (netduino side) you dont need dtr. but you have to connect gnd from the cable to netduinos gnd.

[boiacchi]

ah ok. sorry i have no more ideas than. it should work.

//edit: i looked at your picture more closly: it doesent look like hooked up correctly.

first: pin1/2 is rt/tx (netduino side)
you dont need dtr. but you have to connect gnd from the cable to netduinos gnd.

Hi thanks for your help!

it worked !! :-)

anyway I used the SAM-BA 2.8 on Windows 7- 64 BIT and I have correctly flashed the 4.2 firmware !

[Nym]

Why it have to be [color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]rs232 cable and not TTL UART in order to [/color][color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]flashing the tinybooter using SAM-BA? I currently have a TTL cable and doesn't work at all, sam-ba gives me error of no "[/color][color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]no valid processor ID found[/color][color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]". I have a mini and also a custom pcb using at91sam7x512 AU chip and for the sake of me I cannot get sam-ba to flash anything and I guess because I'm using TTL cable and not RS232, can anyone confirme this and shed some technical light why rs232 is capable of doing so and not TTL cable? AT the end both are converted from usb to serial not?[/color]

 

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]Thanks[/color]

[CW2]

Why it have to be [color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]rs232 cable and not TTL UART in order to [/color][color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]flashing the tinybooter using SAM-BA?[/color]

 

Because Netduino Mini has RS-232 level converter on board.

[Nym]

Clear as water...Since I'm not using RS-232 level converter,my TTL should work. I'm using this cable from Sparkfun https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717

 

I cannot get samba to work with, so I think that it doesn't like that specific cable,any other options that someone might be used?

[NooM]

it totally likes this cable. its i/o is 3.3v (only the supply from the cable is 5v, dont use that)

in chat you just called this adapter. its an ftdi cable wich is good.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Nym, Just to clarify: The Atmel SAM7 chips can be flashed via their USB port or via the _first_ serial port ("DBGU"). On Netduino Mini, that serial port uses RS-232 voltages. This lets you have a regular TTL serial port if you want to use RS-232 for code deployment...or an RS-232 serial port if you want to use TTL for code deployment. NETMF can deploy to either. But for flashing the initial bootloader, the Amtel chip will only "listen" on the RS-232 serial port. If you try to connect a TTL serial cable to that port, you could damage your cable because of the negative voltages coming from the RS-232 converter chip. If you connect to the TTL serial port instead, the Atmel chip's bootloader will never even see the SAM-BA queries. Does that help explain the bootloader flashing process for Netduino Mini? It's really not something that you should need to do...unless you're wanting to upgrade to a major new version of firmware. Chris

[kiwi65]

Very helpful. Thank you Chris.