The file name must not be longer than 8 characters
, and cannot contain punctuation or spaces;
the file extension must be no more than 3 characters (hence “PR2”). This is because the file
system emulation is FAT16 and these are the specifications of the FAT16 format.
You may check the properties of the file and will note that it is a 23.5K file. ProgRock2 firmware
images are always a 23.5K file. The creation date and modification date etc. have not been set,
because it was important to minimize the size and complexity of the ProgRock2 QFU bootloader,
in order to maximize the space available to the application firmware.
You may copy the existing firmware file to another directory of your computer. Crucially, to do the
firmware update, all you need to do is copy the new firmware file to this “Flash disk”. Download the
new firmware file from the QRP Labs website, unzip it, and simply drag it into the folder where the
existing firmware file version is shown. Or copy and paste it, however you wish.
As soon as you copy the new file to the ProgRock2 “flash drive”, the ProgRock2 QFU bootloader
erases the current program from its memory and installs the new one.
The ProgRock2 firmware is 256-bit AES encrypted and this means:
•
The encrypted ProgRock2 firmware file will only work on a QRP Labs ProgRock2 board, it
cannot be installed on any other board, even one containing the same processor.
•
No other firmware file will work on the QRP Labs ProgRock2 board except an official QRP
Labs encrypted ProgRock2 firmware file.
The procedure will vary slightly for different Operating systems but in all cases is just a simple
matter of copying the new firmware file to the emulated ProgRock2 USB Flash drive.
The above firmware update procedure works on ANY modern OS because the QFU
bootloader emulates a USB Flash memory stick with the USB Mass Storage Device (MSD)
class, for which drivers are already present.
The QFU bootloader implements a USB device stack (Mass Storage Device class), emulated
FAT16 file system, Flash erase/write, and 256-AES encryption. It occupies the first 10K of Flash
memory leaving 21K for the application itself and 1K for the non-volatile storage of the
configuration parameters.
Important notes about the ProgRock2 firmware implementation
1. The only way to enter firmware update mode, is to press ‘f’ on the terminal screen
2. The only way to get out of firmware update mode, is to update the firmware by copying in a
new firmware file. Even power cycling doesn’t get you out of firmware update mode. If you
enter firmware update mode by mistake, you can just to a “Copy and paste” of the current
firmware in the directory. This will overwrite the firmware with itself, which is pointless
except that it does get you out of the firmware update mode.
3. When you execute a firmware update, the stored configuration parameters are set back to
their defaults; so effectively a firmware update is also a factory reset.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b
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