This article describes how to perform firmware updates on Ethernet based ABCC40 products from the network side. This solution is practical when you don't have access to an Anybus Starterkit.
APPLICABLE PRODUCTS
All Ethernet based Anybus CompactCom 40 products
PRE-REQUISITES
An Ethernet based Anybus CompactCom 40
Anybus Firmware Manager II
Anybus Transport Provider
Host Application Example Code V3.x (or alternatively your device application that initializes the ABCC40)
SOLUTION DESCRIPTION
A new firmware can be flashed into the ABCC40 from the network side.
This is done in three steps :
Adding the firmware file to the repository
Copying a new firmware file into the firmware repository in Anybus Firmware Manager II is a simple drag and drop process.
- First, open Anybus Firmware Manager II
- Then select File > Firmware Repository or click directly on the Firmware Repository icon in the toolbar.
- Now, simply drag and drop the new file into the repository and voilà!
Loading the firmware file into the ABCC40
You can load the firmware file into the ABCC40's file system at runtime. To do this :
- Open Anybus Firmware Manager II, and select the Automatic Firmware Update option.
- Click the Scan button in order to discover your ABCC40 on the network.
- Click on the checkbox next to it, and make sure the latest version of the firmware is selected from your repository.
- Click on Update Module and on Yes for confirmation in the dialog box that opens.
- The file will be loaded into the file system. This will only take a couple of seconds.
Resetting the ABCC40
After loading the firmware file to the file system of the ABCC40, you need to reset it so that it can flash the firmware into its NP40 network processor.
Manual reset
By default, you will reset it manually after the firmware has been copied to the file system.
As you can see at the end, when we try to restart the ABCC40 from Anybus Firmware Manager II, we get the message "Command rejected by the module". In this case, the ABCC40 has to be reset manually.
Reset from network
Optionally, it is also possible to reset the ABCC40 from within Anybus Firmware Manager II. In order to do this, your application needs to set attribute #15 in instance #1 of the Ethernet Host Object 0xF9 to TRUE.
Once this is done, you should be able to reset the ABCC40 from Anybus Firmware Manager II after the firmware file has been transferred. That way, the firmware can be flashed from the network, and the ABCC40 automatically reinitialized.
The video below shows an example of this. The flashing part has been fast forwarded, since it takes over a minute to complete the NP40 flashing process.