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bfeixas
bfeixas
Associate II
July 6, 2011
Question

STM32 flash-reprogram throught memory stick

Posted on July 06, 2011 at 13:38

Hi,

I am trying to reprogram the flash memory of an ARM (STM32F105RC) trhought a memry stick (USB OTG) and I would know if it is possible and someone has any experience on that.

Reading the documentation it seems it should be possible but I'm not sure.

Any help?

#usb-host-iap-flash
This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

Andrew Neil
Andrew Neil
Super User
July 6, 2011
Posted on July 06, 2011 at 14:51

Yes, it should be possible.

You need a USB Host and (presumably) a filesystem to read the image from the stick. There should be plenty of examples of this.

You also need to write the image to Flash, and then run it; which is what a Bootloader does.

Bootloader examples are available.

One potential issue is the amount of code space that all this will take - which will limit the size of image that you can load...

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
Tesla DeLorean
Tesla DeLorean
Guru
July 6, 2011
Posted on July 06, 2011 at 15:22

Any time you can see and touch data in your system, you should be able to use that as a source for an update.

So you'd need a USB stack, a mass-storage driver, and a minimalist file system (ie find one specific file in the root directory) for FAT 16/32. As Andrew points out the foot print (FLASH and RAM) to do this will likely be quite substantial.

People have done similar things with MMC cards, serial flash, ethernet networks, wireless modems, etc. Basically any data conduit you have access to.

If you have enough memory, you could use application code to get the data into the system, and then the boot loader would then just need to copy that into FLASH, simplifying the boot loader significantly.

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bfeixas
bfeixasAuthor
Associate II
July 6, 2011
Posted on July 06, 2011 at 18:43

Ok, I will start looking for some examples then, thanks :)

alok472
alok472
Associate
July 7, 2011
Posted on July 07, 2011 at 14:46

The USB Host library example (UM1021  STM32F105/107xx USB Host library  ) for mass-storage already has the code for reading files from the USB-Disk. I have used this FW. Once the file is read, you can use this to program the flash. For this, use the IAP related examples. for example refer to AN3226  (& also UM0462)

Tesla DeLorean
Tesla DeLorean
Guru
July 7, 2011
Posted on July 07, 2011 at 16:07

The USB Host library example (UM1021  STM32F105/107xx USB Host library  ) for mass-storage already has the code for reading files from the USB-Disk. I have used this FW. Once the file is read, you can use this to program the flash. For this, use the IAP related examples. for example refer to AN3226  (& also UM0462)

Out of curiosity, How large was the footprint you ended up with?

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Nickname12657_O
Nickname12657_O
Associate III
July 29, 2011
Posted on July 29, 2011 at 11:43

Hi,

Please refer to this Application note, it covers your needs:

http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHNICAL_RESOURCES/TECHNICAL_LITERATURE/APPLICATION_NOTE/DM00023593.pdf

http://www.st.com/internet/com/SOFTWARE_RESOURCES/SW_COMPONENT/FIRMWARE/stm32f105_107_usb_fw.zip

Cheers,

STOne-32.

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