Firmware Upgrades

Owned by Luke Tutty (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 25, 2019 by Tracy W (Deactivated)





This document gives the user an overview of possible firmware upgrade paths. These options only apply to cases where the user is attempting to load a new MBL or OTA file on their MMB hardware. These options do not apply for users who have written their own firmware or are trying to load NodeTest on their hardware.



Deciding best upgrade path:



Mounted Module

If the modules have already been mounted on your board, then a serial firmware upgrade will be necessary.
There are three different options for updating the firmware on a module that has already been mounted on another board:

    1. Using the Host Micro-controller to complete a serial firmware upgrade over UART
      1. There must be an interface to allow the image to be loaded on the Host.
      2. The image must be stored somewhere, either directly in the Host’s flash or on Serial Flash. This will depend on the customer implementing a serial upgrade schema on the Host to send the image piece by piece to the Zigbee Module.
      3. Implement a serial upgrade schema on the Host Micro-controller. Please go to the following section to view support material on implementing a serial upgrade schema.
      4. Note: MMB may also want to revise the serial upgrade protocol in the future to simplify it, so the customer’s serial upgrade processor may need to be updated.
    2. Completing an OTA Upgrade from an OTA server (such as RapidConnect Desktop - see instructions here). This is a slower option because you will be required to join each unit to a Zigbee network.
      1. If the MMB off-the-shelf firmware is being used, then the module must be configured with an OTA client (this is already built in to the MMB custom firmware builds like RapidConnect Lighting & Sensor).

    3. Breakout UART with FTDI Cable.

      See the Hardware Design Best Practices for this and other recommendations here.

      In this option the RapidConnect Desktop application can be used to do the upgrade.


Unmounted Module

If the modules have not yet been mounted on a board, then the RapidConnect Programming Fixture and RapidConnect Desktop can be used to upgrade the firmware on each module.

See the Firmware Upload instructions for RapidConnect Desktop to learn more.

For instructions using our legacy RapidHA Desktop application, see the User Guide here.


Hardware Design Resources can be found here.

RapidConnect firmware downloads can be found here.

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