Updating a repeater
How to update your node =
Physical update
Connect to your computer and update using the flasher
Over the Air update
Stuff you'll need to do this:
- A computer running MacOS (linux and windows how to not yet complete)
- A phone with the Meshcore app and the Nordic Semiconductor DFU app installed
- A Meshcore node that you want to use as repeater.
- A Meshcore node that you use as companion.
How to
With Over The Air (OTA) updates you can flash the lates MeshCore firmware to your node using Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, you probably first need to flash your node with different bootloader firmware. In this case we do this for the Sensecap Solar P1. But you can find this firmware for other nodes in the Adafruit Bootloader Repository on Github.
Install adafruit-nrfutil
In order to install the firmware, you first need to install the `adafruit-nrfutil` on your computer.
To install the utility, run the following command:
pip3 install adafruit-nrfutil
IF all is fine you should see:
Successfully installed adafruit-nrfutil-0.5.3.post16 ecdsa-0.19.1
Download the Firmware
After that you need to download the firmware for the Solar P1.
Note: the file is named: Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 BLE (and Seeed SenseCAP Solar Node).
It is currently available here:
After downloading, you don't need to unzip it. Navigate your terminal to the folder where you saved the firmware using cd.
For example
$ cd ./Downloads/
Make sure that the node is in DFU mode.
For Mac
You can do this by - Connecting the node over USB to your Mac - opening a Chrome browser and navigating to the flasher app - selecting your device from the list - choose any mode (like repeater) - press the big purple button that says DFU.
The browser then asks you to connect to your node. And the purple button should change to "DFU MODE ACTIVE".
You can now return to the terminal and check which port the node is connected to using
ls /dev/cu.usb*
Now run the following command to flash the firmware:
NOTE! Make sure that the file name of the zip is identical to the one you downloaded and replace the XXXX string of the usbmodem with the number you found in the previous step.
adafruit-nrfutil --verbose dfu serial --package xiao_nrf52840_ble_bootloader-0.9.2-OTAFIX2.1-BP1.2_s140_7.3.0.zip -p /dev/cu.usbmodemXXXX -b 115200 --singlebank --touch 1200
On Linux
_needs to be added_
On Windows
_needs to be added_
Run the following command to flash the firmware:
adafruit-nrfutil --verbose dfu serial --package [write_the_actualname_of_the_file_you_downloaded_here.zip] -p /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 --singlebank --touch 1200
If all is correct you should see this:
Upgrading target on /dev/cu.usbmodem101 with DFU package /Users/douwe/Downloads/xiao_nrf52840_ble_bootloader-0.9.2-OTAFIX2.1-BP1.2_s140_7.3.0.zip. Flow control is disabled, Single bank, Touch 1200 Touched serial port /dev/cu.usbmodem101 Opened serial port /dev/cu.usbmodem101 Starting DFU upgrade of type 3, SoftDevice size: 152728, bootloader size: 39000, application size: 0 Sending DFU start packet Sending DFU init packet Sending firmware file ######################################## ############### Activating new firmware DFU upgrade took 20.776023864746094s Device programmed.
NOTE: If the device no longer shows up on your Computer, quickly tap the RST button twice on the node.
Flashing Steps
- Open Meshcore Flasher.
- Select the "Sensecap Solar P1".
- Put the Solar P1 in DFU mode.
- ERASE FLASH (Unfortunately, settings and history are lost).
- Flash the (pre-last, not the newest) Meshcore firmware.
- The device will reboot.
Go to the [config settings](https://config.meshcore.dev/) of your newly flashed node and give it a nice name, make a copy of it's public key and make sure the radio settings are the same as on your companion node (in our case: EU/UK Narrow)
Then click on the large 'Start OTA' button.
- It will respond:
OK - mac: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx.
Now we move to your phone and your companion app.
OTA (Over the Air - Using Bluetooth to Upgrade Firmware)
- Open the "Nordic Semiconductor DFU" app.
- Download the latest firmware to your phone. (currently 1.14.0)
- Select the ZIP file containing the firmware you want to update.
- Select the device.
- Bluetooth will be turned on.
- Select the Solar P1 (check if the MAC address corresponds with the MAC address you got from the Remote Management command).
- Press "Start".
- Mostly, the first attempt fails... When you try again, it works
Retry the Upgrade
- Open the DFU app again.
- Select the device (which is now called "XIAO-DFU").
- Press "Start".
- Wait and monitor the progress until it says "Completed".
- The node will reboot into the freshly installed firmware.
