mcbootflash

What

Mcbootflash is a tool for flashing firmware to 16-bit Microchip MCUs and DSCs from the PIC24 and dsPIC33 device families, which are running a bootloader generated by the MPLAB Code Configurator tool.

Mcbootflash is intended to be a drop-in replacement for Microchip's official tool, the Unified Bootloader Host Application (UBHA).

Why

Mcbootflash is:

Scriptable

As a command-line application, mcbootflash is easily scriptable.

Extensible

In addition to its command-line interface, mcbootflash can be used as a library by applications wanting to implement firmware flashing as part of a larger suite of features.

Free and Open Source

Mcbootflash is distributed under the MIT license.

Installation

Stand-alone executables for Linux, Mac, and Windows are available from the Github release page.

Mcbootflash can also be installed from PyPI:

pip install mcbootflash

Usage

Mcbootflash can be used as both a command-line application and a library.

Command-line

$ mcbootflash --help
usage: mcbootflash [-h] -p PORT -b BAUDRATE [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--checksum] [--reset] [--debug] [--quiet] [--version] hexfile

mcbootflash is a tool for flashing firmware to 16-bit Microchip MCUs and DSCs from the PIC24 and dsPIC33 device families, which are running a bootloader generated by the MPLAB Code Configurator tool.

positional arguments:
  hexfile               an Intel HEX file containing application firmware

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p, --port PORT       serial port connected to the device you want to flash
  -b, --baudrate BAUDRATE
                        symbol rate of device's serial bus
  --timeout TIMEOUT     try to read data from the bus for this many seconds before giving up
  --checksum            verify flashed data by checksumming after write
  --reset               reset device after flashing is complete
  --debug               print debug messages
  --quiet               suppress output
  --version             show program's version number and exit

Example

$ mcbootflash --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baudrate 460800 firmware.hex
Connecting to bootloader...
Erasing program area...
100%  162.0 KiB  |######################################|  Elapsed Time: 0:00:01
Flashing firmware.hex...
100%  98.8 KiB  |#######################################|  Elapsed Time: 0:00:06
Self verify OK

Library

When using mcbootflash as a library, typical workflow looks something like this:

import mcbootflash as bf
import serial


# Connect to a device in bootloader mode.
connection = serial.Serial(port=<PORT>, baudrate=<BAUDRATE>, timeout=<TIMEOUT>)
# Query its attributes.
bootattrs = bf.get_boot_attrs(connection)
# Load the firmware image and split it into chunks.
total_bytes, chunks = bf.chunked(hexfile=<HEXFILE_PATH_STRING>, bootattrs)
# Erase the device's program memory area.
bf.erase_flash(connection, bootattrs.memory_range, bootattrs.erase_size)

# Write the firmware chunks to the bootloader in a loop.
for chunk in chunks:
    bf.write_flash(connection, chunk)

    # Optionally, check that the write is OK by checksumming.
    bf.checksum(connection, chunk)

    # At this point, you may want to give an indication of the flashing progress,
    # like updating a progress bar.

# Verify that the new application is detected.
bf.self_verify(connection)

See also the API Reference.