Updating BOB P.I.D. Firmware

Connect a USB (or RS-232) to TTL serial converter to the J2 connector. e.g. FTDI Friend, RLC3 Again, pin 4 "TX" is data FROM the USB/Host going TO the PID controller. RX is TO USB/Host FROM PID controller. Configure your serial terminal program (e.g. Hyperterm, RealTerm, PuTTY, etc...) for whatever COM/TTY port shows up, and 38,400 baud, No parity, 8 data bits, and 2 stop bits. Select X-ON / X-OFF handshaking if available.

When the BOB P.I.D. first starts, with a terminal program attached, you should see:

Type "Boot" to start bootloader.9876543210

If you don't see this, power cycle the BOB P.I.D. You may need to disconnect the USB converter from the BOB, don't disconnect it from your PC. If you type Boot before it finishes that countdown you will get a small menu:

 PIC18F14K22 BootLoader v0.63 installed at 0x3A40.
©2013 by vegipete@strongedge.net
 Commands:
[P] Program FLASH and EEPROM 
[W] Write EEPROM
[E] Erase EEPROM
[R] Read EEPROM
[?] Help
[X] Reset MCU

BL> 

Reprogram the device by pressing P and the enter key. Confirm your choice, and then it will be ready to accept the new file.

Here is the trick: You must have X-ON/X-OFF enabled when sending the new firmware. This allows the processor time to program one line of data before receiving the next line.

• It's not available in the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor, so you can't use it to update the firmware
   
• In RealTerm^, just click "Receive" and "Transmit" under Software Flow Control and press Change. Then go to Send, and under Dump File to Port, press ... to select the file, Ok, Send File. If you have problems, add a line delay of 10.
   
• In PuTTY^, Session / Connection type: Serial, Serial line: your com port, Speed: 38400. Connection / Serial / Serial line to connect to: your com port, Speed (baud): 38400, Data bits: 8, Stop bits: 2, Parity: None, Flow control XON/XOFF. Then press Open.
   
• In HyperTerm (if anyone still uses that) "Xon/Xoff" is under the port setup, "Flow control" pull down list.
   
• If your software doesn't have that protocol, see if you can setup a line delay of about 10 ms.
   

You should see a long series of lines like:
OK:1000A000AF13AF51040B12E0AF51080B0FE0010E7C
and that should end with
Finished!
and the BL> prompt should re-appear. Now you can hit X or just power cycle and then do not go back into the boot loader mode, like the countdown finish. You should see the new welcome message from the updated firmware version.

If you see likes starting with NA: RE: SQ: or anything else besides OK: there is a problem. It probably won't come back to the menu at the end. You can try sending :00000001FF to get back to the menu or just power cycle it and start over. The firmware will NOT be updated. Check to make sure you have XON/XOFF flow control enabled, try increasing line delay, and make sure the file is valid.

Worse comes to worse, send me back the chip along with a few dollars for the return shipping cost and I'll do it for you.

See also:

• http://picprog.strongedge.net/bootloader/bootloader.html We use a slightly modified version of this bootloader. (the error LED has been changed, and XON/XOFF added)

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