Linux/BQ28Z610: How to reflash BQ28Z610 firmware from Linux userspace

Georgii Staroselskii

Part Number: BQ28Z610
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: BQSTUDIO

Tool/software: Linux

Hello everyone!

I have a seemingly trivial question that I haven't found an answer to, though.

We intend to use BQ28Z610 in our design and want to reflash all gauges to have the same firmware (v0.20) from Linux. Being able to do it from Linux is more of a must, actually. After the reflashing, we intend to access it from a simpler Cortex-M MCU, if it's relevant.

We can reflash the gauges from bqStudio (AFAIR, Windows only) w/o any difficulties but unfortunately, in production, we'll need to do it on a Linux host as the firmware is quite big and we cannot fit it into MCU's memory.

After some research, I stumbled upon bqtool that looks very promising but the git repository seems to be abandoned. I was wondering if we can adapt this piece of software for use with newer BQ28X series?

Any comment on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Basically, we'd like to flash the golden image to our devices at a production site where having a Windows with bqStudio is a serious bottleneck in the production line that we would like not to have at the first place.

Thanks!

over 6 years ago

0 Batt over 6 years ago

TI__Mastermind 42535 points

Yes, you can. However, we don't have a particular tool available for that. You just need to put the gauge in fw program mode and mass write (block write) the srec file.

0 Georgii Staroselskii over 6 years ago in reply to Batt

Prodigy 110 points

Batt said:

Yes, you can. However, we don't have a particular tool available for that. You just need to put the gauge in fw program mode and mass write (block write) the srec file.

Thank you for the quick answer! It'd be extremely useful if you could point to a relevant page in the datasheet or the technical reference. Could you please elaborate on the procedure? We can already read the voltage, the device name and send simple commands (AltManufacturerAccess and the like) but I don't quite get how and where would one write the firmware for the internal MCU.

Thanks in advance.

0 Batt over 6 years ago in reply to Georgii Staroselskii

TI__Mastermind 42535 points

Actually, the problem is we don't have a ready public app note. We're working on one. But in the meanwhile, if you use bqstudio and a sniffer when you're programming fw, the initial commands are the fw update mode commands. I'll try to get clearance to get a note out but until then my suggestion should help you out.

0 Georgii Staroselskii over 6 years ago in reply to Batt

Prodigy 110 points

Batt said:
Actually, the problem is we don't have a ready public app note. We're working on one. But in the meanwhile, if you use bqstudioand a sniffer when you're programming fw, the initial commands are the fw update mode commands. I'll try to get clearance to get a note out but until then my suggestion should help you out.

I hope you'll get the clearance because otherwise we'll need to reverse engineer this part of protocol. Thanks!

0 Batt over 6 years ago in reply to Georgii Staroselskii

TI__Mastermind 42535 points

OK, let's take this over in private.

0 Georgii Staroselskii over 6 years ago in reply to Batt

Prodigy 110 points

Any update on a public note? I haven't got any feedback in more than two weeks. Cheers.

0 Batt over 6 years ago in reply to Georgii Staroselskii

TI__Mastermind 42535 points

Georgii,

Unfortunately things like this requiring paperwork and permissions take time. I have your messages in private. I will reply back as soon as I get the clearance.

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Linux/BQ28Z610: How to reflash BQ28Z610 firmware from Linux userspace