Who is (not) using the HR500-bootloader tool?

[Geert Jan PE1HZG]

Hi all,

In case you have not seen it, Joe VE7VXO has updated his HR500 code and we're now on version 6.0.4, see https://github.com/ve7vxo/HR-500-v6.04-custom-firmware.
The old link gives a github 404 so I thought I should give a heads-up.

I had trouble with the HR500 bootloader before. What it'd do is find the com port of the HR500, send a "HRFW" command" which would trigger a hardware reset of the MEGA2560, during startup the MEGA would probe for communication to try an upgrade and if it would find a downloader (AVRDUDE) talking to it, download the new code and flash it.

For whatever reason, Jim's code gave me trouble and I made some changes in Serial_proc.ino:
***************
*** 296,305 ****
        found = strstr(workStringPtr,"HRFW");
        if (found != 0) {
          Serial.end();
!         delay(50);
!         Serial.begin(115200);
!         while (!Serial.available());
!         delay(50);
          digitalWrite(8, LOW);
        }
 
--- 299,305 ----
        found = strstr(workStringPtr,"HRFW");
        if (found != 0) {
          Serial.end();
!         // Trigger hardware reset
          digitalWrite(8, LOW);
        }
 
(basically, the code highlighted was taken out)

During software development, I had fashioned a cable to connect to the USB port of the MEGA2560 itself so I could use Arduino IDE to upload new code.

After I switched to Joe's code branch, I see I have my download problem back.

But I don't see troubles listed on the forum and Joe's code has the old mechanism:

      found = strstr(workStringPtr,"HRFW");
      if (found != 0) {
        Serial.end();
        delay(50);
        Serial.begin(115200);
        while (!Serial.available());
        delay(50);
        digitalWrite(8, LOW);
      }

My question:

• Am I the only one with the download issue?
• Are others using the Arduino loader, the reason the bootloader doesn't give them issues?

73, Geert Jan PE1HZG