How to manually OTA upgrade your Photon!

Hi All!

Last week we released new photon firmware and a bunch of new features!

You might have noticed that you can now target a particular version of firmware in the build IDE ( https://build.particle.io )

If you’re targeting a version that’s newer than what is on your device, the cloud will try to auto-update your device as you flash your new app. If that process doesn’t work, you might notice that your photon starts up in safe mode, or “breathing magenta / purple”. Your device might be in the process of getting an update, so don’t interrupt it if it’s blinking magenta / purple for a long time, this is the update being sent over the air.

If these updates are too slow, you can use the CLI to update your photon to the latest version of firmware over the air, or via DFU. We’ll be continuing to make this process as smooth as possible, here are some tips and tricks if you run into safe-mode in the meantime.

##updating your photon via DFU

# grab the latest version of the CLI, use of "sudo" is optional
[sudo] npm update -g particle-cli

# put your device into DFU mode, and connect to your computer
[sudo] particle update

##updating your photon over the air

If you are on windows, and don’t have dfu-util or the drivers installed, the OTA update is much easier! Try putting your photon into safe mode before doing these updates, since sometimes custom apps can interfere with OTAs. To go into safe mode, hold down both buttons on your photon. Release the reset button and continue to hold the setup button. When your device blinks magenta, release the setup button. The photon will now reconnect in safe mode. :slight_smile:

#download these
https://github.com/spark/firmware/releases/download/v0.4.4/system-part1-0.4.4-photon.bin
https://github.com/spark/firmware/releases/download/v0.4.4/system-part2-0.4.4-photon.bin
# flash the first part to your device
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME  system-part1-0.4.4-photon.bin

# wait for the first flash to finish, and for your device to come back online

# then flash the second part
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME  system-part2-0.4.4-photon.bin

Thanks!
David

6 Likes

Thank you for this! I’ve been looking forward to the updated WebIDE for a while :smile:

2 Likes

Is the windows based IDE going to be updated with these new features too?

1 Like

Hi @SteveB,

The Windows IDE can do many things, and compiling and flashing an app to your device will cause it to be updated automatically when it connects to the cloud if necessary.

Thanks!
David