The FEZ Config tool is now listed here
http://www.ghielectronics.com/support/.net-micro-framework
This is an MFDeploy replacement. Works great in production (no need to install NETMF SDK) and includes LCD config and covers the network settings, where MFDeploy failed to work.
Please try it out and let us know what you think
so far, so good. i tried it with cobra2 and emx dev sys both attached via USB at the same time. nice job!
now if we could just deploy/debug multiple attached devices in VS…
Ohh that would be soooo sweet!
When creating a HEX file from a current deployment, it would be nice to have a visual acknowledgement that the HEX file is indeed being created as it’s happening.
Since the process can take up to 20 minutes, when I click the “Create” button, it would be nice to have a message pop up and stay up, informing the user that the HEX file is being extracted, that we should wait for it to finish, and that it can take up to 20 minutes. When the process is complete, this message can go away.
In the current beta version, when I click “Create”, the program simply becomes unresponsive for several minutes. If I were new to NETMF, I wouldn’t know whether this was because the program crashed or because it’s simply busy doing what I told it to do.
[EDIT]: It’s purely cosmetic, but the deployment tool assigns a file extension of “.HEX” (all upercase), whereas the other firmware files from GHI have a lowercase “.hex” extension. Just thought I’d point it out for visual consistency.
This is great!! Will the source be available?
@ GHI - I seem to have bricked a G120 attempting to upgrade the firmware from 4.2.7.0 to 4.2.10.1 using the beta tool. Screenshots attached. I think it’s related to the USB connection somehow being lost. For example, when querying Device Version, I notice that my G120 reboots once, returns the device version, and reboots again after that.
Where is the old firmware updater program? The link pointed to by Josh in this post appears to be broken: http://www.ghielectronics.com/community/forum/topic?id=11849
Worst case, I can try TeraTerm and see if I can recover my G120 that way.
@ Iggmoe - you can’t brick G120 by updating, no worries.
The thing about the new tool is that it does not update tinybooter. You will need ot update tinybooter once, manually, and then you should be fine.
There will be no changes on tinybooter going forward, at least that is the plan.
I do not think that is the problem but you still need the latest tinybooter anyway.
A guess a possible improvement to teh tool is to check to make sure the latest tinybooter is up on the device first.
So . . . how do I update Tinybooter? 
The preferred method now is to use terminal XMODEM manually. You can also use the old tool once last time 
I will check with the team on this. There has to be a clearer way.
Where is the old tool? (Josh’s link is broken.) It apparently got uninstalled from my system when I upgraded to the latest SDK.
Also, how would I upgrade Tinybooter manually? I’ve got LDR0 and LDR1 set for Tinybooter, so now I just need to know what serial commands to send so I can upload G120_TinyBooter.GHI?
This is what I get when following the links to update TinyBooter: http://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/177/tinybooter#1672
@ Iggmoe - they should be in manual but they are same as EMX http://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/54/firmware-update-emx
Looks much better!
A few notes:
[ul]Still too many poping message boxes. When I need to flash 10 boards with the same firmware, it’s kind of annoying to click those pointless boxes. I would prefer a progress bar on the main program window, at the end telling “success”. Then I could just plug the board, click deploy, plug the board, click deploy - plug&deploy, in short Now it’s more like plug/click deploy/find the popping window-that-pops-out-hell-knows-where…
When I create a hex image, program freezes during the process, so it’s unclear what’s happening. Sometimes it even hangs forever (not often, but still). This part should be improved to give some feedback.
Debug output window is here! Sweet. The only thing I miss now is keyboard shortcuts to connect/disconnect. Why not setting those to F5/Ctrl+F5, as in MFDeploy?[/ul]
Looks like MFDeploy can now be pretty much relieved off duty. The world has just became a little bit better.
@ Simon from Vilnius -
You are right, we did look into it and see that it is really not good for user. We will change in next one.
Depends on how big your application is. But it is always take a lot of time in G120, even 20 mins. We will try to see why if we have time.
I am not sure but we will try our best if we can.
Thanks for your feedbacks
Does FEZ Config tool still require that visual studio, netmf and ghi sdk to be installed? Or can it be used to update the spiders in the field by only installing the Config tool and copy the firmware & app files the a laptop?
Whoa, 20mins! No one is THAT patient Scientifically proven: if some operations takes more than 1 second, provide a progress bar, and, preferably, a “Cancel” button…
Anyway, at least some indication that program is alive would be nice.
Well, as far as I remember, the previous version (“alpha 003”) didn’t require this. Only the program executable and a driver.
Never mind, I didn’t read the first post!!
A Request: is it possible to use a fixed width font in the command / connection dialog? Now it uses a proportional one and messes up the reading of debug info.
Indeed, would be very useful.
Purely Cosmetic Suggestions:
Advanced->Disconnet should be Disconnect
Sizable window would be nice. Output textbox could scale, other items need not.
“About” box could show a build date?
The link in it could open the default browser rather than IE
About->Help (Link to relevant page on GHI site)
We are looking at sending this tool or something like it to OS clients with early releases of our hardware and no IFU capability, so as user-friendly as possible is good.