Programming the iMX1176 from UART when its in Internal Boot mode and not in serial Downloader mode

[kishore1]

Hello,

I'm new to the NXP ARM processors, I'm trying to build a custom PCB with the iMx1176 MCU and I want to be able to flash a new program remotely using the LPUART (onto the FlexSPI NOR flash). But I cant physically change the BOOT_MODE[1:0]  switches for this. Is there anyway I can overcome this. FYI I plan on flashing the code more than once as I release new firmware updates so I cant blow the Fuses. 
Or is there another way to load the new program ? 

[EdwinHz]

Hi @kishore1,

I'm afraid this is not possible. As the boot mode names imply, Internal boot does not use an external method of booting since it boots directly from the flash. On the other hand, for serial downloader mode is what enables the RT to boot from a host via a serial communication like UART. The only way of switching between modes is directly via the pins, so the only way of choosing between booting from flash or uart is by changing the values of the boot pins. For flashing the RT remotely, perhaps you could look into a OTA implementation instead: https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-RT/RT1170-support-is-OTA/td-p/1260372

BR,
Edwin.

[kishore1]

My apologies for the late reply. Thank you for the support Edwin. I will look for other ways to switch between the modes. I had a question about booting the MCU with an arduino using the serial interface. Is there any documentation on how that can be done ?

 

[EdwinHz]

Hi @kishore1,

I'm afraid we don't have any documentation of this topic. Usually clients use a host PC or a i.MX MPU that program the RT via SDP on USB, with tools like sdphost or blhost. Although we do not have any documentation on how to program the RT with SDP via UART from an Arduino, I'm sure you can find other community posts that could be insightful for this implementation. (i.e. https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-Processors/UART-serial-downloader-settings/m-p/527703)

BR,
Edwin.