Flashing Electron with Broken Micro USB Port

Hardware
1

The micro USB port on our particle electron board has been damaged and is unfixable (unless I attempt to replace the micro USB and solder a new one down). Our internet connection is spotty where the board is resting so flashing from the command line over the cloud is not working. Can you flash the board again with the Rx and Tx pins using a serial to UART converter? Also, we have access to another board but are under the impression that a set board is tied to the demo app given to us. Is there a way to change the board without changing anything in the app?

Thanks

2

No, but I think you could use JTAG.

I'm not familiar with JTAG but this thread may help.

Also, @ScruffR @kennethlimcp or @peekay123 might be able to help.

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3

Try this if you have another particle device: https://github.com/m-mcgowan/embedded-swd

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4

Just to clarify - Can I flash a new/updated binary file to my particle electron using this or is this just to help fix it if it’s bricked? The microcontroller itself is working fine I just simply need to replace the receptacle for the USB, but don’t want to waste the effort/frustration getting it replaced. My dexterity is not quite at a level where I can solder something that small.

5

You can flash everything via SWD or JTAG. Bootloader, firmware, and user code can all be put on the device this way.

If you have these things you can flash without USB or cellular quite quickly:

ST-Link Programmer: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/stmicroelectronics/ST-LINK-V2/497-10484-ND/2214535

Particle Programmer Shield: https://store.particle.io/products/prog-shield

A third option is to buy a less expensive programmer from Adafruit and run 5 wires between the programmer and your Electron. The link to the device and the wiring are detailed in the first post of this topic: SWD programming with ST-Link Utility problem

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