DFU - Device Firmware Upgrade

Gateways 2.s have now a new user convenient way of upgrading firmware without any external programmer. As STM32F4xx devices include built in USB DfuSe bootloader, I was wanting to implement such functionality into OHS as well. Since software version 1.2 there is an option in shell interface to boot the device to dfu mode., and then upgrade the firmware directly via USB cable.

DFU tools:

dfu-util  is a simple multi-platform command line tool that can upload binary data directly to flash.

List DFU ready devices via: dfu-util -l

Example output of gateway 2.x, most important is the 'alt=0, name="@Internal Flash  ' descriptor that we gonna use:

Found DFU: [0483:df11] ver=2200, devnum=12, cfg=1, intf=0, path="3-6", alt=3, name="@Device Feature/0xFFFF0000/01*004 e", serial="336A34763437"
Found DFU: [0483:df11] ver=2200, devnum=12, cfg=1, intf=0, path="3-6", alt=2, name="@OTP Memory /0x1FFF7800/01*512 e,01*016 e", serial="336A34763437"
Found DFU: [0483:df11] ver=2200, devnum=12, cfg=1, intf=0, path="3-6", alt=1, name="@Option Bytes  /0x1FFFC000/01*016 e/0x1FFEC000/01*016 e", serial="336A34763437"
Found DFU: [0483:df11] ver=2200, devnum=12, cfg=1, intf=0, path="3-6", alt=0, name="@Internal Flash  /0x08000000/04*016Kg,01*064Kg,07*128Kg", serial="336A34763437"


Flash the firmware via: dfu-util -a 0 --dfuse-address 0x08000000 -D ch.bin

STM32CubeProgrammer is also multi-platform tool but with graphical user interface. One downside is that you need older Java version installed to run it, but once you have it it will work nicely.

DFU howto:

1. Connect your laptop/PC via USB cable to gateway. Status LED on gateway should change to short rapid flashes.
2. Open any terminal emulation program like Putty and open serial connection to new enumerated USB device. On Linux it will be ACM0.
3. In the terminal issue command 'boot dfu'.
4. The gateway should close the USB connection, terminal will exit, or close, and the status LED will stop blinking.
5. New USB device should be enumerated as 'STMicroelectronics STM Device in DFU Mode'
6. Use any of DFU tool to list, connect and to download(in terms of to download a file to a DfuSe device) firmware into gateway.
7. Reset the gateway via onboard reset button.

 

Skeches for nodes compatible with OHS 2.x gateway

Recently I have pushed to GitHub new example sketches for the Arduino like remote nodes. These include software modifications, that are needed for the changes made in gateway 2.x software. Hardware part of nodes is still the same for both wired(RS485) and radio(RFM69) nodes.

Changes include:

• Periodical ping to gateway. OHS 2.x gateway require a ping command from every registered node at lest one in an hour, or it is removed from node list.
• Arm home. This new functionality is added to authentication mechanism on node, precisely to iButton routine. It works as usual for arm away, that is a quick touch of iButton arms away or disarms the group. When arm home state is required, user needs hold the iButton in probe for more then 1 second. Disarm is same as for arm away, a quick touch only is enough.
• Authentication key is sent to gateway, and OK / Not OK sound is result of gateway accepting the packet with key. This does not mean that the key is valid and accepted, only that the gateway has received the key. On old node software, the OK / Not OK sound was result of iButton probe reading the iButton correctly or not.
• New method for CRC signature for RS485 packets.
  

Repositories with software for nodes compatible with OHS 2.x gateway has name starting with: OHS_2-node

I will add new node examples as I build them.