Firmware Update

The MDB Pi Hat can easily be updated from the Raspberry Pi both in Raspbian (Linux) and now Windows 10 IoT, thanks to Golang.

You must use the "Full" UART (PL011) for the update as this requires parity support (while the Mini UART does not support it)

When trying to update Pi Hat, please make sure that there is no other application trying to use its serial port, otherwise the updater will run into errors.

Update on Raspbian/Linux

Get the updater software from our webserver:

Download the file from this link, or use the command line:

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wget firmware.qibixx.com/pihatupdater.zip
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Unzip the updater:

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unzip pihatupdater.zip
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Then, in the command line, add execution permission to the file:

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sudo chmod +x pihatupdater
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Then, all you need is to run the updater. The updater must be ran with sudo, and supports the following options:

If the updater is run without any flag, then it will grab the file from Qibixx webserver (if it doesn't exist, otherwise, it will load that file), and try the update without jumper.

If updating from a version lower than 3.7.2.0, please use the force jumper update.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ./pihatupdater -h-------Pi Hat updater v1.0.1Usage of ./pihatupdater:  -j    Forced Update Jumper  -p string        Serial port name (depends on OS) (default "-")  -w string        Path to binary file to upload to PiHat (default "mdb_pihat.bin")
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Typical usage is no arguments, which gets Latest version available to public and installs it to the default device (/dev/ttyAMA0):

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sudo ./pihatupdater
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If the device is not responding, or you are trying to update from an older firmware version (version < 4.0.0.0), you might want to use the jumper update:

Place the J_BOOT jumper in the board (for more info, please check Connectors & Jumpers section) like depicted below:

In case you have a specific firmware version you want to load, just add it to the command line with a "-w" prefix:

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sudo ./pihatupdater -w FIRMWARE.bin
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Example output:

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ./pihatupdater-------Pi Hat updater v1.0.1Portname not specified. Proceeding with PN=/dev/ttyAMA0  |  FN=mdb_pihat.binGPIO Initialized successfullyWill reboot PihatStarting update with commandCurrent Version: v,4.0.0.0,392138333736360230333631​Will reboot PihatWill Init BootloaderBootloader initialized successfullySuccessfully Got ID: 7Successfully Got Boot Version: 22Successfully Erased ChipFile: mdb_pihat.binLen: 110180 BChunks: 430B per Chunk: 256Remainder 100 B..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Finished Upload!Launching new firmware​​-------UPDATE SUCCESSFULL-------pi@raspberrypi:~ $
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When the firmware update is finished, remove the jumper in case you had to plug it.

That's it ! Enjoy the updated firmware!

Windows 10 IoT Update

In case you need to update your Pi Hat using Windows 10 IoT, please reach out to us at support@qiba.pt

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