Issues Flashing V6.1 Bootloader and Firmware

[QuickLime]

I've finally gotten everything assembled, but it seems that I can't get any response out of the device at all. I have it plugged in using an FTDI cable to UART1, but there's no indication that it's powered on or anything. I tried holding BOOT0, then RESET, releasing RESET, and releasing BOOT0 and nothing happens.

I have the STM32 FLash Loader Demo program installed but it crashes whenever I try to search for the device to flash the Bootloader. Is there any documentation on flashing the STM32? Everything I'm finding is for the older versions.

Thanks!

[Karlis]

The particular STM32 chip comes with UART bootloader preinstalled. It just sits there and waits for new firmware to be provided via UART1.

First things first - are you getting power to STM32? Is power LED turning on when you connect FTDI cable?

[QuickLime]

I must not be getting power then, no LEDs on or anything when it's plugged in. Any ideas on where to start debugging first?

[Karlis]

Yeah, when you connect power to the module, the power LED should turn on.

I'd let Seth chime in on debugging steps. He's our hardware expert. :)

[QuickLime]

Sounds good! When I connect a 5V supply to the EXT VCC pins the LED does turn on, so maybe it's just a cheap FTDI cable? Not sure what my next step should be from here.

[Karlis]

Ok, in this case what you can try to do is to use EXT VCC and GND pins for power supply and use Rx/Tx/Rst pins on UART1 and give it a try that way.

[QuickLime]

I still don't seem to be able to communicate with it. What baud rate etc. should I be specifying?

[Karlis]

The baudrate should be set to 115200.

1. Press and hold BOOT0 button
2. While holding BOOT0, press and release RESET button
3. Release BOOT0 button

Now STM32 should be in DFU mode and accept firmware over UART1.

[QuickLime]

When I have the terminal open in PuTTY, I'm not able to send messages, and pressing the buttons doesn't prompt any response.

[Karlis]

OK, let's take a few more steps back.

Did you flash BlueSaab firmware onto the module? If so, when you open PuTTY at 115200 you should see a BlueSaab welcome banner. If you don't see it, the firmware is not running.

[QuickLime]

I haven't, I thought I was supposed to set up the serial connection first, oops! I've got the firmware binary downloaded, how would I go about flashing it?

[Karlis]

Heh, no worries. Yeah, you kinda need the firmware so serial port would be enabled on STM32. :)

If you are on MS Windows, get Flasher-STM32 tool from st.com: https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/flasher-stm32.htmlv

Pick the .bin file -> do the button magic as described above -> flash the firmware onto the module -> done.

[QuickLime]

Okay cool. I have the flasher installed but every time I run it, put in the connection information, then hit "next" it crashes... I can try another PC but I'm not sure that'll really help.

[Karlis]

Out of curiosity - what kind of FTDI cable are you using?

[Seth]

I read above you put 5v on ext pin....no bueno. That’s a 3.3v rail...hopefully you didn’t smoke anything......

On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 20:57 Karlis [via BlueSaab Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Out of curiosity - what kind of FTDI cable are you using?

2001 9-5 SE V6; 2006 9-5 Wagon; iOS; BlueSaab version = "latest and greatest" :)

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[QuickLime]

It's a cheap FT232RL based cable from eBay. Given that the power isn't working over it, I guess it's very possible that's the problem.

Edit: Hm, just wired directly from the FTDI cable to the EXT VCC pins and the LED came on, thinking that maybe there's a problem with my soldering in between.

[QuickLime]

Oof, everything seems okay visually and no magic smoke as far as I can tell. I can try 3.3V but at this point I'm not sure what to do after that since it seems like the problems go deeper than that...

[homerisback]

Hi,
I had issues to flash with my FTDI cable as well, because it wouldn't provide enough power to the module.
What I did to have it running flawlessly was to power it via EXT_VCC & GND with 3v3 from an arduino uno board AND connecting all pins from FDTI to UART. Then BOOT0 & RESET put the STM32 into "ready to be fed" mode.
As Seth said, I hope you didn't burn anything by applying 5V to EXT pins...

[QuickLime]

Okay. I'm still a little lost on the procedure. Currently, before having flashed anything or loaded any files onto the device I can give it power via the external Vcc header and connect to it using UART1, but the buttons don't prompt anything on the serial terminal. Should I expect something to come up when I follow the RESET and BOOT procedure?

[Karlis]

You won't see anything until BlueSaab firmware is loaded onto the module. Here's how it goes:

- There's a distinction between UART1 and UART2 pins.
- UART1 is used exclusively to flash firmware onto STM32 as that's the interface STM32 bootloader is listening to out of the box.
- UART2 pins Rx and Tx are used for debugging. That's where you should see a welcome message once you successfully flash the firmware onto STM32.

So you would need to:

1. Power on the module and do the button sequence to push it into DFU mode.
2. Use UART1 to flash BlueSaab firmware onto module.
3. Power down the module.
4. Connect UART2 Rx pin to Tx pin of your FTDI cable.
5. Connect UART2 Tx pin to Rx pin of your FTDI cable.
6. Connect any GND pin on the module to the GND pin of your FTDI cable.
7. Open serial connection using PuTTY at 115299 8 data bits; no parity; one stop bit.

You should now see a message (you might need to hit RESET button again):
"BlueSaab"
"Hardware version: 6.1"
"Firmware version: 6.1.1"