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Updating the firmware

Should you update the firmware?

The firmware of the tinySA can be updated by the user. If your device is functioning well there is no need to upgrade the firmware. A new firmware can add new functionality or even improve performance but if your tinySA is performing well there is no need to upgrade.
Updating the firmware is a safe as it is impossible to brick the tinySA. If an upgrade failed you may have to open the tinySA basic case and connect two points on the PCB (BOOT0 and VDD) to be able to try to upgrade again. For the tinySA ultra just press the jog button and power cycle to try again.

Before updating the firmware

It is strongly advised to run a selftest BEFORE updating the firmware. Sometimes users have unknowingly damaged their tinySA, in particular the input switch and/or the LNA, and only discover this after updating the FW. This sometimes does result in lengthy discussions about the cause of the failing selftest. This all can be avoided by running the selftest before updating.

Saving your device specific configuration data (optional step)

If you have a new device and you did not change device specific configuration data you can skip this step

As the firmware update may clear the configuration data you may need to redo or save/restore any configuration data changes you made. If you only changed settings using the menu there is no need to save/restore as all settings can easily be redone. If you made changes to the frequency correction tables and/or the output calibration data, it is best to redo the calibration after the firmware update.

The next step is to update the firmware. This can be done either using a .dfu file or using the .bin file. Only one of these updates is needed, not both.

Video guide

Searching YouTube for "tinySA firmware update" will bring up several videos, one of the better is: https://youtu.be/i8CYCua8vqQ?t=396

Getting new firmware

New versions of the tinySA firmware can be downloaded from:

• tinySA http://athome.kaashoek.com/tinySA/DFU/
• tinySA Ultra http://athome.kaashoek.com/tinySA4/DFU/

WARNING: double check if you are downloading from the correct location for the tinySA version you want to update

A sub folder contains all the old FW versions so you can go back to a previous version if needed.
Download the applicable tinySA_{version_number}.bin or tinySA_{version_number}.dfu file to your PC

Updating the firmware using TinySA-App(Windows)

Next step:

Updating the firmware using a bin file and STM32CubeProgrammer(Windows)

WARNING: STM32CubeProgrammer version 2.16 has a bug and is NOT able to update the tinySA. Use version 2.15, 2.17 or newer

For a nice guide to update using STM32CubeProgrammer and a bin file see this document: http://athome.kaashoek.com/tinySA/DFU/tinySA_Firmware_Update_STM32CubeProgrammer.pdf

When you can not connect using STM32CubeProgrammer and you are using a PC with USB 3.0 or newer a possible solution is to use an old USB 2.0 hub between the PC and the tinySA. Or you may try the next option, dfu-util.

Another possible problem with loading the DFU driver is an additional protection in Windows 10 and 11 that is enabled by default on some computers and that will block the DFU driver from loading. For more information see this post: https://groups.io/g/tinysa/message/10816

Updating the firmware using a bin file and dfu-util(Windows, Linux and Mac)

This is an alternative to using STM32CubeProgrammer

Get the tinySA_version_number.bin file from http://athome.kaashoek.com/tinySA/DFU/ or for the tinySA Ultra from http://athome.kaashoek.com/tinySA4/DFU/ and also download from there the files with names starting with DFU

Rename the downloaded file to tinySA.bin

Connect the tinySA with USB and activate the DFU mode:

• tinySA: switch the tinySA on and enter DFU mode.
• tinySA Ultra: press the jog button before switching on the tinySA Ultra. Switch on and the screen should stay black.

Download dfu-util from http://dfu-util.sourceforge.net/releases/ and check that you can execute it.

For windows, open a command window and go to the folder with the downloaded files and run DFU_LOAD_BIN.bat. The tinySA should now be updating with the tinySA.bin file using dfu-util-static.exe

On Linux and Mac make sure dfu-util can run from the command prompt. Go to the folder where you downloaded and renamed tinySA.bin and execute
dfu-util -a 0 -s 0x08000000:leave -D tinySA.bin

If the upgrade fails and you get a white or black LCD screen.

If the upgrade fails for some reason (wrong file, power failure) you may get a tinySA that seems to be bricked. Luckily it is impossible to brick the tinySA. Follow these steps to unbrick:

tinySA

• Switch off.
• Open the case by removing the 4 screws at the back
• Connect the two pcb edge points marked VDD and BOOT0
• Switch on.
• Lcd turns white
• You can disconnect the VDD and BOOT0 if needed
• Connect to PC using the USB cable
• Just to be double sure, open the device manager or Linux equivalent and check a DFU device is added and the driver is correctly loaded (no yellow exclamation mark)
• Update firmware

tinySA Ultra

• Switch off.
• Press the Jog button down.
• Switch on.
• Lcd stays black
• Connect to PC using the USB cable
• Make sure you hear the happy sound from your PC to be sure a driver is correctly loaded. If this does not happen, try a different USB cable, a USB 2.0 port or different computer
• Just to be double sure, open the device manager or Linux equivalent and check a DFU device is added and the driver is correctly loaded (no yellow exclamation mark)
• Update firmware

After upgrading the firmware

Once the FW is upgraded reset the tinySA by switching off and on. The normal scanning screen should appear and the tinySA (if still connected) should appear as a serial over USB device in the Windows device manager or as a /dev/tty device under Linux

The FW maintains a checksum over the config data to detect if the structure of this data has changed with a new FW version. It is however good practice to clear the config data to be absolutely sure no old data remains possibly causing problems. This can be done with the CONFIG/MORE/CLEAR CONFIG command. After clearing the config the tinySA will automatically reset

Confirming performance after update

Make sure to run the selftest after performing a firmware update. Test results should be identical to the test results before the firmware update. Except when you started with a very old firmware as some new tests have been implemented.