FUOTA – ?'s, Details, and Use

[Nick]

Hey all,

I saw the update email come through and read the details on the new updates, especially for mDots. I have a question though: does the firmware update OTA allow new mBed programs to be uploaded to the mDots? I want to make sure I have the proper contextual definition of “firmware”. I am thinking this may only be for the hardware firmware. In my mind, one could interpret firmware as the mBed program. Relatively new, so feel free to educate or verbally berate me.

Either way, specifically, how is this accomplished? I am assuming mDots that do not have the new firmware will have to be updated manually, but after that they can be updated OTA style. Is there a tutorial anywhere?

Thank you in advance for clarifications.

[Ryan Klaassen]

It will flash a new mbed program for the mdot.

Here is information:

https://www.multitech.com/documents/publications/manuals/s000612_DB9.pdf

[Nick]

Awesome! I’ll have to dive in and figure out how to do it. This ability will be very useful.

[John Greene]

Any guidance on what needs to be done on the Conduit (AEP 1.6.2) for FOTA?

[Nick]

The link that Ryan posted above contains a lot of information regarding a required update for Conduit. When I read through the information on the link, it appeared to be pretty complete. I only had a handful of questions that I figured I could work out when I gave it a run through. Unfortunately, I have gotten bogged down on another project and I haven’t tried it yet, though it is on my list of things to complete before the end of October. I was also in the middle of development and didn’t want to update any software on my devices for fear of breaking anything software wise.

When I get through it, I can post some info regarding my experience. I will try to make a list of things that I saw as “holes” in M-T’s literature.

Sorry I can’t be of more help at the moment.

[Chad Goyette]

Any update on when this will be available for the xDot?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Chad Goyette.

[Ryan Klaassen]

The xDot does not have external flash to store the firmware image. We are extending serial data mode so the xDot will send the packets to another processor. That processor will have to reconstruct the firmware image, and then flash it into the xDot using the xDot’s bootloader.

[Chad Goyette]

does the mDot have external flash?

[Ryan Klaassen]

Yes, and fota is fully implemented on the mDot.

[Nick]

Maybe a dumb question, but it possible to execute a FUOTA from MT DeviceHQ? Or would we have to be connected directly to the gateway to execute?

[Ryan Klaassen]

It can be done from LENS and AEP.

[Nick]

Roger that. Thanks.

[Chad Goyette]

so just for clarification, are you saying that you are working on a solution to implement FOTA on the xDot in its current configuration, or are you saying that external flash would need to be added to my xdot solution to allow FOTA to work?

[Ryan Klaassen]

An external flash would need to be added to the xdot to store the firmware image coming down, or a host processor could use extended at+rxo to allow a host processor to reconstruct that binary and flash the xdot. The host processor would need somewhere to store the firmware image.

[Chad Goyette]

Is a host processor required to flash the xdot? I am in the process of adding an external flash to my xdot implementation. can I just add the external flash or would I need other hardware to accomplish the update?

[Jason Reiss]

The xDot bootloader does not support an external flash to self flash.
The bootloader would need to know the connection parameters of the flash and file-system type.

[Chad Goyette]

does Multitech have any reference designs we could use to enable an xDot implementation to have FOTA ability? What are our options regarding getting the bootloader the information needed to access the flash? I would like to incorporate any needed hardware now while my PCB design is mid-spin.

Thanks

[Jason Reiss]

A host processor is required to perform the fragmentation re-assembly.
It can also be used to flash the xDot over serial with the default bootloader.

This open-hardware board uses xDot with an external flash.
It is used with mbed-os for lorawan FUOTA demos, the lorawan fuota example includes a bootloader to flash the xDot from flash, it does not have the serial transfer of firmware of MTS bootloader. The example is using the mbed-os lorawan stack with the full FUOTA application with multicast setup and packet fragmentation implemented in an xDot firmware with no AT commands.

https://github.com/L-Tek/L-Tek-FF1705
https://os.mbed.com/platforms/L-TEK-FF1705/
https://github.com/ARMmbed/mbed-os-example-lorawan-fuota

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