The QLG2 appears as a removable USB Flash device named “QFU”, and the folder shows
a single file which is the firmware version file, 1_00.QG2 in this example.
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 “QG2” not the
preferred “QLG2”). 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. QLG2 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 QLG2 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 QFU “Flash
disk”. Download the new firmware file from the QRP Labs website, 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 QLG2 QFU “flash drive”, the QLG2 QFU bootloader
erases the current program from its memory and installs the new one.
The QLG2 firmware is 256-bit AES encrypted and this means:
•
The encrypted QLG2 firmware file will only work on a QRP Labs QLG2 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 QLG2 board except an official QRP
Labs encrypted QLG2 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 QLG2 QFU 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 22K for the application itself.
QLG2 manual for firmware 1.00a
22
