[sdiy] ARM Dev Boards Possibly Lunatic Idea

[Jay Schwichtenberg]

Typically there is a boot loader or boot manager that is programmed into blocks of flash memory. Depending on the boot loader it will use USB or maybe some other HW interface to load firmware. To enter the boot loader from a reset you usually hold a switch down or strap a jumper to say enter the boot loader and not run the user firmware. With software on your development host you can load your firmware image and reboot to your firmware without telling it to run the boot loader.


There are other techniques of doing this too. Like putting an image on a USB stick and having the boot loader see, validate and program flash from a file on the stick.


In most embedded systems that use this technique the boot loader is small and usually is never upgraded.


Jay S.

> 
>     On May 12, 2017 at 2:22 PM Scott Gravenhorst <music.maker at gte.net> wrote:
> 
>     No idea, other than the FTDI port, I don't see a connection that hooks to the appropriate pins on
>     the ARM to do (for example) parallel programming of the Flash - there are no connections to the
>     required pins for that. JTAG pins aren't connected. From what I see (and I could be "blind"), the
>     only way they could have done it is via FTDI or possibly using a socket that accepts the SMD part,
>     program it first and then solder it, but that seems a bit labor intensive to me. The datasheet
>     lays out (I believe) 4 methods of programming the Flash, and the schematic didn't seem to support
>     any except for FTDI. Note though that the FTDI port was just .1" spaces holes into which pins
>     could be soldered, but the board comes with nothing soldered there. I suppose it would be easy
>     enough to deal with that using some clip-thingies.
> 
>     And that's why I'm asking this question here.
> 
>     MTG <grant at musictechnologiesgroup.com> wrote:
> 
>         > > 
> >         How did the developer do it? There must be some kind of ISP connection
> >         on the board.
> > 
> >         On 5/12/2017 12:29 PM, Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
> >         >
> > 
> >             > > > 
> > >             Here's a possibly lunatic idea I've been mulling for awhile.
> > > 
> > >             I was thinking that the Tsunami Super WAV Trigger Board has essentially everything I'd
> > >             want on a dev board, including the Microchip (Atmel) ATSAMS70N20 ARM (and again, the
> > >             only reason I'm interested in that particular chip is that the speed is almost 40%
> > >             higher than the STmicro ones).
> > > 
> > >             What I first wondered is whether it would be possible to completely replace the program
> > >             in it. There is a firmware update function, but I doubt if that _completely_ erases and
> > >             replaces the code. If I'm not mistaken (from looking at the schemo and reading the
> > >             datasheet) I might be able to program the board through the FTDI port on the board.
> > >             However, I'm not sure, so maybe someone here has advice. Anyway, my whole idea was to
> > >             buy a second WAV trigger and blow out the WAV trigger program and replace it with my own
> > >             designs - and use it as a dev board. It's a bit more expensive than the other
> > >             selections we've discussed, but failing finding a dev board for ATSAMS70N20, if that
> > >             could actually work, I wouldn't mind spending the money. The development platform for
> > >             the Microchip/Atmel parts is Atmel Studio, which itself is free, but I don't know if as
> > >             you use it you find that it needs bits and pieces that cost money - can anyone say if
> > >             that is true or not?
> > > 
> > >             So is this total lunacy?
> > > 
> > >             -- ScottG
> > > 
> > >             ________________________________________________________________________
> > >             -- Scott Gravenhorst
> > >             -- http://scott.joviansynth.com/
> > >             -- When the going gets tough, the tough use the command line.
> > >             -- Matt 21:22
> > > 
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> > >         > > 
> >     > 
>     -- ScottG
> 
>     ________________________________________________________________________
>     -- Scott Gravenhorst
>     -- http://scott.joviansynth.com/
>     -- When the going gets tough, the tough use the command line.
>     -- Matt 21:22
> 
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