bootloader 1.2.0

A tool for loading firmware onto Dephy devices.

Dephy Bootloader

This is a tool for loading firmware onto Dephy's devices.

AWS Keys

flexsea requires a pre-compiled C library in order to communicate with your device. These libraries are hosted in a public AWS S3 bucket called dephy-public-binaries. You can use the list command to view the available versions (see below).

Additionally, you will need a firmware file (or files) to put on your device. These files are hosted in a private AWS S3 bucket. You should have received access keys as a part of your purchase. If you did not, please contact [e-mail].

Once you receive your keys, you'll need to store them in a credentials file to be read by boto3 (the Python module for interacting with S3).

mkdir ~/.aws
touch ~/.aws/credentials # Note that there is no extension!

Edit the credentials file to contain the following:

[default]
aws_access_key_id=<YOUR ACCES KEY ID HERE>
aws_secret_access_key=<YOUR SECRET ACCESS KEY HERE>

[dephy]
aws_access_key_id=<YOUR ACCES KEY ID HERE>
aws_secret_access_key=<YOUR SECRET ACCESS KEY HERE>

NOTE: If you already have an S3 account, you'll want to put those keys under default and the Dephy keys under dephy. If your Dephy access keys are the only ones you have, you'll want to put the same keys in both sections. boto3 will fail if it does not find a default section, but the bootloader explicitly looks for a dephy section in case you have other keys.

Installation

It is highly recommended, but not required, that you install flexsea in a virtual environment. This helps keep your python and associated packages sandboxed from the rest of your system and, potentially, other versions of the same packages required by flexsea.

You can create a virtual environment via (these commands are for Linux. See the NOTE below for Windows):

mkdir ~/.venvs
python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/dephy

Activate the virtual environment with:

source ~/.venvs/dephy/bin/activate

NOTE: If you're on Windows, the activation command is: source ~/.venvs/dephy/Scripts/activate. Additionally, replace python3 with python.

From Source

To install from source:

git clone https://github.com/DephyInc/boot-loader.git
cd boot-loader/
git checkout main # Or whichever branch you're interested in
python3 -m pip install .

From PyPI

python3 -m pip install dephy-bootloader

Drivers

Bootloading one of Dephy's devices requires communicating with the microcontroller called Manage. Manage is a stm32 chip, which means that the stm32 drivers are needed in order for the bootloader to function correctly. The easiest way to install these drivers is to run the installer for the STM32 ST-Link Utility, which can be found here. Once the installation of the STM32 ST-Link Utility finishes, it should prompt you to install the device drivers.

Usage

This package provides the bootload command-line tool. To see the available commands, simply run bootload --help. Additionally, each subcommand has a --help option that will give you more information on its usage.

The main commands of interest are: microcontroller, bt121, xbee, and list.

Microcontroller

The microcontroller command is used for updating the firmware on Manage, Execute, Regulate, and Habsolute. The usage pattern is:

bootload microcontroller <target> [options]

target is the microcontroller you want to bootload. It can be: * mn * ex * re * habs

The available options are: * --from : The semantic version string of the firmware currently on the device. This is not required for devices running version "10.0.0" or higher. If not given, but needed, the bootloader will prompt you for this information. * --to : The semantic version string of the firmware you'd like to bootload onto the device. If not given, the bootloader will prompt you to enter this information. * --hardware : The version of the device's rigid board. This is not needed for devices running version "10.0.0" or higher. If not given, but needed, the bootloader will prompt you for this information. * --port : The name of the serial port the device is connected to, e.g., "COM3" or "/dev/ttyACM0". If this is not given, the bootloader will attempt to find the device automatically. * --file : If you'd like to manually specify the firmware file to bootload, this is the option for you. If the file is not found locally in the ~/.dephy/bootloader/firmware directory, then the dephy-firmware bucket on S3 will be searched and the file downloaded, if found. * --device : The name of the device being bootloaded, e.g., "actpack" or "eb60". This is not needed if the device is running version "10.0.0" or higher. If not given, but needed, the bootloader will prompt you for this information. * --side : When bootloading "Mn" for a device with chirality, this allows you to specify either "left" or "right". This is not needed if the device is running version "10.0.0" or higher. If not given, but needed, the bootloader will prompt you for this information. * --baudRate : Allows you to specify the baud rate used for communicating with the device. This is only needed if the required baud rate is different than the default value of 230400.

The bootloader will check to make sure that you have all of the required tools needed to update the firmware. If you do not, then it will download them for you.

Examples

The goal is to have the command "read" fluidly. To that end, in order to bootload Regulate on an actpack from version 7.2.0 to version 9.1.0, we would do

bootload microcontroller re --from 7.2.0 --to 9.1.0 --hardware 4.1B --device actpack

List

The list command is used to display information about what firmware is available to be bootloaded. The usage is:

bootload list [options]

The available options are: * --devices : Displays the types of devices that can be bootloaded * --hardware : Displays the rigid board versions that can be bootloaded * --versions : Displays the firmware versions available to be bootloaded

If no options are given, then the available devices, hardware, and versions are all shown.