Author: admin

Updating firmware on a piece of hardware in your system is essential to keep it up to date.  VSCP can handle both it’s own firmware loading algorithm or uP specific algorithms for greatest flexibility.  But how does it work? Here is a short step by step walk through.

1.) A module should be updated with new firmware.

2.) The MDF (module description file) of the module is read form the manufacturers web server.

3.) By reading standard register 0x97 (or 0xffffff97 for Level II devices) the bootloader algorithm the module uses can be determined.

This information is also in the MDF under the boot tag

<boot>         
        <algorithm>1</algorithm>     
	<!-- Size of boot block/sector -->     
	<blocksize>20</blocksize>          
	<blockcount>66</blockcount> 
</boot>

4.) The MDF also contain available firmware for this module under the firmware tag.

<firmware path="url where firmware can be found" 
				format="intelhex8|intelhex16|intelhex32"
    size="Optional size in bytes for firmware file (not image)"
    date="ISO date year-month-day when released."
    version_major="x"
    version_minor="y"
    version_subminor="z">
    <description lang="en" >Firmware description</description> 
</firmware>

One can now  let a user select the firmware to load or load the latest available firmware.

The same security applies to firmware upgrades as for the rest of the system.

A big problem for all people working with open source is how to finance the time it takes to do the work. For instance am I in the process now of adding a real web admin user interface and databases and other high level things to the VSCP  & Friends suite. This is work I estimate will take up to six months. Yes that is full time or more likely around 16h/day for a full seven days of a week. That is a long time without a possibility to take other paid work.  Yes and there are hosting bills, electric bills, and all the rest of the  bills a company have, and they all need to be paid by open source people to. Yes it is strange. I know. Who could ever thought it was like that? 😉

Fortunately  the project get some donations from time to time. That is a big help and I really would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that have sponsored the project over the years.  But donations counts for only about one percent or less of the total cost to run the project.  The rest is money I have to take from my own pocket. Multiplied with the sixteen years the project has been on the road this adds up to quite some large sums I can assure you.

I know we are not as used to supporting free projects  in Europe as people in the US are,  but anyway I ask all of you guys out there who like the project or even use it, to support the VSCP project  with a few cents or a couple of Euros, or even  with some hands that can help. Make life a bit easier for  this free and open alternative for an IoT protocol.

Donations can be sent using the donate button on the home page.

/Ake Hedman