blueflyvario-hex2sh

This program makes it possible to update the BlueFlyVario firmware using only your Kobo. It does this by converting the BlueSkyVario PIC24F firmware hex files to sh script that you then copy onto your Kobo and run to update your BlueSkyVario firmware.

I don't believe there is anything specific to the BlueFlyVario about it though. It should work with PIC24F that uses the ds30loader.

Sample usage

Install the require haskell libraries (Text.Trifecta and Text.Parse) and download the zip file corresponding to the firmware you wish to flash onto your PIC24F device. Unpack it and then run

runhaskell hex2sh.hs $FIRMWARE_FILE > update-firmware.sh

where $FIRMWARE_FILE is the name of the appropriate firmware hex file you unpacked from the downloaded zip file (e.g., BlueFlyVario_TTL_GPS_10.208.hex). Copy this shell script to your XCSoar enabled Kobo. Telnet into the Kobo and run the script

chmod +x update-firmware.sh
./update-firmware.sh

While the script is saying that it is "establishing communication with ds30loader" power on (or power cycle) the BlueFlyVario with the PIC24F RA0 pin high (programming pin PGC shorted to programming pin VDD). See the BlueFlyVario blogs for more details on the pins and pictures.

Notes

A reported verificaiton failure for address 0xf8000 can be safely ignored. This is the configuration range. It reads back different than written as some bits hardwired to zero. It should likely be filtered from the script as I'm also not sure if it is suppose to written using the same procedure as the regular flash program memory (i.e., the PIC24F manual doesn't seem to indicate it needs to be done in row sized blocks or that it requires an erasure operation).