topic Re: IAP Reprogram Sector 0 on LPC15xx in LPC Microcontrollers

IAP Reprogram Sector 0 on LPC15xx

gato — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 13:21:49 GMT

Hi,

I'm currently porting an secondary bootloader to the lpc15xx platform. Part of this bootloader is, that it may update itself remotely. But for the LPC15xx I read in UM10736.pdf on Chapter 34.9.3 (Page 575), that "The boot sector can not be erased by this command.".

A first test showed, that an erase of Sector 0 returned with SUCCESS, but without actually erasing the contents.

I'm wodering however, is there a way to erase Sector 0 from within the running software?

Thank you, sincerely

tom

Re: IAP Reprogram Sector 0 on LPC15xx

Alice_Yang — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 02:13:45 GMT

Hello @gato

I'm wondering however, is there a way to erase Sector 0 from within the running software?

Sorry no, you can enter ISP mode or other program/debug tools to erase.

Alice

Re: IAP Reprogram Sector 0 on LPC15xx

frank_m — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 06:10:27 GMT

> Part of this bootloader is, that it may update itself remotely

Why ?

The incentive for a (second-stage) bootloader is the capability to update device software in the field. A bootloader update is only necessary for critical bugs. My company uses such bootloaders in about half a dozen different ECU devices in heavy machinery, and none of them is designed to update itself.

This "self-update" very much complicates the design. The bootloader, or crucial parts of it, must be relocated to RAM at runtime, since it cannot erase/program the section it runs from. Most MCUs cannot run any code from Flash while an erase program is ongoing (depending on bank design).
Rather do proper tests, considering all probable scenarios.