Field Upgrade of 1701 EEPROM without SigmaStudio
We have a mature product in the field that contains the 1701 that boots from EEPROM. We have since developed new features that numerous customers would like to take advantage of but I have no convenient means of upgrading these devices in the field. There is no microcontroller of ours on the I2C bus of the DSP and EEPROM.
Is there anyway of using either the USBi or some other programmer to connect and program the EEPROM without SigmaStudio. I definitely don't want to put SigmaStudio in my customers hands to do it, and I don't want to have large numbers of units shipped back for upgrade. I basically need to emulate what SigmaStudio does purely for the EEPROM write.
I know there are plenty of similar questions on the forum for this, but I've never seen anything covering field upgrades (ie: after a product has shipped and is in customers hands). I'm hoping by now that someone has come up with something to cover this.... 3rd party solution maybe?
Hello ByronS,
This is a good question for the forum users to make suggestions. The HEX file is produced from SigmaStudio so you certainly can use any EEPROM programmer to write it to the EEPROM. So the key is if there is a low cost EEPROM programmer that can take an image from its own EEPROM and write it out to another one. Should be a simple PIC that can do this. So all you would have to do is have SigmaStudio program the EEPROM on the programmer board, then attach the programmer board to the DSP board. You would have to wait until the DSP has completed booting then the programmer can reprogram the EEPROM by copying over from its EEPROM to the DSP EEPROM. Once the DSP boots the serial port reverts back to being a slave port so therefore an external device can access the EEPROM at that point.
I am not sure if anyone has done this before. Search the web?
Anyone else have suggestions?
Dave T
Thanks Dave. The key piece you mentioned that I didn't realize is that the DSP reverts back to being a slave device after boot. I knew I could connect an external device to program the EEPROM, but thought I'd have issues with the DSP being connected to the same I2C bus (and possibly still the master) with no means of being disconnected. I guess I should have inferred this because SigmaStudio can do it.
We have resources in house to do a simple PIC solution to write the file, however based on time I think I'll be looking for a 3rd party solution.
Greatly appreciate the help, and would love any suggestions on 3rd party devices.
Looks like the simplest thing will be to take a PICStart programmer and dump the .hex file to it. I can then make up an adapter cable to go between the programmer and my target board, move a jumper on my target board to enable the WP pin on the EEPROM and dump the file. It will still require a PC purely for powering the programmer. This looks to be a simple low cost solution assuming it works.... still have to try it. :-)
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