Possible to load firmware (UART) from host (ESP32) to i.MXRT1064 ?

[morphee909]

Hi,

I want to load a firmware from an esp32 to a i.MXRT1064 via UART. The purpose is firmware update.

The esp32 holds the firmware bin file in its flash memory in a littleFS partition. It was sent OTA directly to that partition.

Now I want to send the firmware via UART to the internal flash memory of the MXRT1064 chip ( MIMXRT1064CVL5B, the one with 4MB on chip flash).

Is it possible ?

When I search docs I only find computer as a host with flashloader tools.

But I will not be able to access the board so I can't connect it to a computer.

[mjbcswitzerland · Accepted solution]

Hi

The SDP protocol, as used by the Boot ROM (in ISP mode), is described in the iMXRT1064's user's manual and can be implemented in the ESP32 in order to load a flash loader and then send the code to. It requires that the ESP32 also can reliably set the iMXRT1064 back to its ISP mode in order to use it as firmware update technique.

Alternatively you can load a serial loader once to the iMXRT1064 and then communicate with it from the ESP32 to load new code with the protocol supported by the serial loader. See this for some examples that can be loaded: https://www.utasker.com/iMX/RT1064.html
iHXEX or SREC loading is popular as protocol: https://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerSerialLoader.pdf

With the ESP32 I however prefer to perform OTA uploading directly to the iMXRT1064 memory - this is a product that I have designed and manufacture that includes an ESP32 for this purpose so that users can update the i.MX RT 106x code themselves from a mobile phone via WiFi Access Point connection and Web browser: https://www.roth-kippe.ch/waeschetrockner/angebot

All solutions (SDP, serial loading and OTA via ESP32) are available in the uTasker project: https://www.utasker.com/index.html

Regards

Mark

[morphee909]

Thanks for the infos, didn't know about uTasker and OTA update. I will read the documentation.