How to deploy NTMF codes onto STM32F4 based boards in production?

Archive
1

Hi, folks,

I’m working on a project that may end up with production of a few hundred units. Well, I think this is actually the production volume that NTMF is targeting. With that in mind, assume I have written up all the codes in visual studio, tested them on prototype boards, then how do I move on to actual deployment for production?

We are talking about three layers of code:1) tinybooter; 2) NTMF firmware; 3) my application code. For prototype boards or even small production run, I can leave the USB port and load button on board, put tinybooter then firmware then my application code onto board. But for production, this seems not feasible. So can I deploy all those codes in one shot?

I know MSP430 code can be easily burnt into chips through a target board/socket by JTAG. How about STM32F4? I have a J-LINK tool but have never used it. What a shame on me. LOL

2

Did you explore using a serial debug port (eg. COM1) instead of USB ?

3

No, I haven’t. Could you educate me a little bit on the advantage of serial debug port over USB?

4

There seems not solution for this.

From my understanding, tinybooter, tinyclr, and user code are simply bytes stored at different addresses in the internal flash of a MCU. So after I load these three elements one by one into one unit of a MCU, can I do a simple memory dump and then load that dump into other units?

I tried this on my discovery board, it didn’t work. I am not quite sure what I missed. Can somebody educate me on this?

Thanks in advance.

5

Yes you can put everything into one file and load at once. I am not sure why it didn’t work for you.

6

Thanks very much for confirming. I will try it again and see what I did wrong.