Particle Device OS Updates Thread

Firmware 0.6.0-rc.2 Pre-release is out on the Build IDE for Core/Photon/P1/Electron

More Updates!

  • Please make sure to update your CLI to >= v1.16.0 for proper handling of 3 system parts for Electron.
  • You must update your Electron to >= v0.5.3-rc.2 first before attempting to use OTA or YModem transfer to update to v0.6.0-rc.2. If you use DFU over USB, you can update to v0.6.0-rc.2 directly, but make sure you have installed >= v1.16.0 of the CLI first.

Note: This is a pre-release and is not intended for production yet. We've tested this pre-release to the best of our ability and we want to know what you think now! Please understand that some care and attention is necessary when testing this pre-release, and be sure to upgrade to the final release when it's available. It will not be available by default. To use you must select the version dropdown from the devices drawer. Downgrading back to the current release info is at the bottom of this post.
0 6 0-rc 2

v0.6.0-rc.2

ENHANCEMENTS

  • USB HID enhancements, please see PR: #1110 for a list. Closes #1096

BUGFIX

  • Consecutive HID reports were overwriting previous the report before it was delivered to the host. Fixes #1090.
  • Disabling multiple USB configurations (normal/high power) as this breaks composite driver on Windows. Fixes #1089 Serial and USBSerial1 not working at same time on Windows 8.1 Pro.
  • Do not run the event loop from delay() when threading is enabled. Fixes #1055
  • Cancel current connection attempt before entering the listening mode with WiFi.listen(true) and also WiFi.off(). Fixes #1013

INTERNAL

  • Removed hardcoded server IP that was used when DNS resolution fails. Instead, the cloud connection is failed and the system will have to retry. This means DNS lookup failure is now consistent with other modes of connection failure. Addresses #139 Related to #1024

System Binaries (all devices) & Device Upgrader (Photon & Electron)


Updating System Firmware (and optionally adding Tinker)

To update your device, compile and flash your application in the Build IDE, selecting version 0.6.0-rc.2 (prerelease) in the devices drawer. Update instructions for Core, Photon, P1 and Electron below.

The OTA method using Particle CLI

For devices already online and connected to the cloud, the system firmware can be updated OTA using these commands:

If your device is online, you can attempt to OTA (Over The Air) update these system parts as well with the particle-cli:

Note: You must download system binaries to a local directory on your machine for this to work.

Core:

particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME tinker-0.6.0-rc.2-core.bin

Photon:

particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME tinker (optional)

P1:

particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME tinker (optional)

Electron:

particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME system-part3-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash YOUR_DEVICE_NAME tinker (optional)

The local method over USB using Particle CLI

This requires CLI version 1.16.0 or newer. You can check with particle --version.

If you have the Particle CLI installed already, make sure it is updated with the following command. Make sure the device is in DFU mode and run:
sudo npm update -g particle-cli (note: you can try without sudo first if you wish)

Core:

particle flash --usb tinker-0.6.0-rc.2-core.bin

Photon:

particle flash --usb system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin
particle flash --usb system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin
particle flash --usb tinker (optional)

P1:

particle flash --usb system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin
particle flash --usb system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin
particle flash --usb tinker (optional)

Electron:

particle flash --usb system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash --usb system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash --usb system-part3-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
particle flash --usb tinker (optional)

The local DFU-UTIL method

can be applied to offline devices locally over USB using dfu-util

  • Put the device in DFU mode (flashing yellow LED)
  • open a terminal window, change to the directory where you downloaded the files above, and run these commands:

Core:

dfu-util -d 1d50:607f -a 0 -s 0x8005000:leave -D tinker-0.6.0-rc.2-core.bin

Photon:

dfu-util -d 2b04:d006 -a 0 -s 0x8020000 -D system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin
dfu-util -d 2b04:d006 -a 0 -s 0x8060000:leave -D system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-photon.bin

P1:

dfu-util -d 2b04:d008 -a 0 -s 0x8020000 -D system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin
dfu-util -d 2b04:d008 -a 0 -s 0x8060000:leave -D system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-p1.bin

Electron:

dfu-util -d 2b04:d00a -a 0 -s 0x8060000 -D system-part1-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
dfu-util -d 2b04:d00a -a 0 -s 0x8020000 -D system-part2-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin
dfu-util -d 2b04:d00a -a 0 -s 0x8040000 -D system-part3-0.6.0-rc.2-electron.bin

Downgrading from 0.6.0-rc.2 to current default firmware

Current defaults

Core: v0.5.2
Photon: v0.5.2
P1: v0.5.2
Electron: v0.5.2

The easiest way to downgrade from a 0.6.0-rc.2 prerelease system firmware, is to use the CLI and run these commands in order. First put the Tinker back on the device, then downgrade the System firmware. This requires CLI version 1.15.0. You can check with particle --version.

If you have the Particle CLI installed already, you can update it with the following combined command. Make sure the device is in DFU mode and run:
sudo npm update -g particle-cli (note: you can try without sudo first if you wish)

  1. Make sure Tinker is installed, instead of a 0.6.0-rc.2 app that you may currently have running on your device. Have the device in DFU mode and run:
particle flash --usb tinker
  1. Make sure the device is in DFU mode and run:
particle update

This works for downgrading without specifying --target X.Y.Z because the 0.6.0-rc.2 pre-release firmware is not the default, and therefor particle update effectively downgrades your firmware.


Debugging for Electron

Instructions on using the Tinker USB Debugging app are here

This is useful for simply capturing the Electron's connection process.


Instructions on using the Electron Troubleshooting app are here

This is useful for interacting with the Electron's connection process.