Guide: how to flash ATtiny13a based drivers (NANJG, QLITE, etc.) with custom firmware

Thanks! Great job and this is very nice compilation indeed. :slight_smile:

Love it!

I like having all useful info in as few posts as possible!

When I flashed a few of mine (never done it again after) I had to ask people through PM, and most information was hidden deep in threads..

luckily you have made a good overview.

you could even change the title to "Guide: How to flash a "you name it" with custom firmware."

edit: it would be very nice if there would be a thread where everyone can post their codes in, so people can copy and paste them....without having to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks Mr Hoop. Seem to remember that you and I had a reflector transaction a few years back. Hoop is a real stand up guy.

Any reason why the wiring is changed at BOTH ends? I mean pulling out the delicate pins on the SOIC clip, when you have already had the connector open a the other end. I’d be inclined to do all the wire swaps at the black plug end

Simply put: you’ve misunderstood which section is the most fragile.

  • The fragile part of the SOIC clip is the “next” section, the section after the part Hoop shows that you need to change. There are 16 pins in the clip itself. The delicate part contains the 8 pins which interface with the IC (they are retained somewhat precariously by melting plastic, glue, etc). The top section of each of those pins is nicely nested inside the middle of the clip and interfaces with it’s mating pin. From that section up is very solid and easy to assemble/disassemble.
  • The IDC connector and ribbon cable is quite sturdy… as long as it’s a cohesive whole. Once you start taking it appart things get worse. Once you start attempting to manually punch things down into those pins without a punchdown tool, it doesn’t feel as sturdy. Once you don’t have a ribbon cable at all and have to tear the ribbon up for 5 centimeters back in order to trade the pinout around…. it really feels like crap. If you broke the cap when you took the IDC connector apart you’re really sunk at that point.

The provided cable (IDC to ribbon to male pins) does not give all necessary signals. It’s an 8 conductor ribbon and 10 pin connector; two of the 10 female pins of the connector do not make a connection to the ribbon. It’s missing MISO. Nobody would take apart the IDC connector if they didn’t need to get MISO. Once you’ve got the appropriate 8 connections on that end swapping the other end is super easy. The end result is as sturdy as a person can expect to get at this price point.

I don’t know which piece is more delicate than the next.

I was just going by what was posted in the very first post of this thread, where he says, in relation to the clip

It just seemed to me easier to only open and tinker with one end. But as long as it wired correctly, it won’t matter

Great job thanks for writing this up. Its just what I needed to get me started.

Well now you know. The part that gets killed is the “business end”. You’ll see wearing out clips mentioned in other SOIC-clip related discussions here on BLF. Damaging the solder joints like Hoop warns about is nothing but an annoyance. Once you have one in hand you’ll understand.

Good idea NeilP. I’ll have to try that and see if it’s any easier.

but only 6 conductors used, so no big issue.

One of us does not understand the other. What are you getting at?

I was not understand what you were getting at with a quote without any text of your own.

It is a 10 pin connector, with an 8 pin cable, we know that, and only 6 are used for programming the driver chip
The connector has to be opened up to move one wire over from pin 8 to pin 9, which is the MISO output, this is then connected to pin 5 on the ‘crocodile clip’.

Hoop mentions that pulling the pins at the crocodile SOIC clip is ‘iffy’ as the connectors and solder joints are delicate.

My initial post was merely to ask why the complete swap of all the wires was not done at the IDC plug.

Hoop got what I was saying, but you thought that moving the IDC pins was more ‘risky’ than moving the pins at the crocodile plug without a proper insertion tool.

all of these little connections are difficult, so my thought was simply one to try to keep the risk at just one end of the cable…so only have to fiddle at one end.

When I have done these IDC connectors before, I don’t recall any problem with them in relation to not having a proper insertion tool.

I could not quite not quite get what you were getting at quoting the post from earlier.

Ah, I see. You replied to FmC’s post. Since there wasn’t any additional text at first I thought you were quoting me…

Ah yes I replied to FmC post…the danger of using an iPhone!!

I did not say it is iffy; I said don’t pull on the wires, pull on the pins. Soldered connections in themselves are not that strong. If you pull a wire off of a pin all you have to do is resolder it to fix it. No big deal.

Working with just the connector end is a good suggestion, though I will have to see if it is actually easier to do and to explain how to do. There is the variable that the pins may not always be in the same spot on the clip end from the factory so you would have to connect the wires to the connector according to how they are in the clip. I could probably make it relatively easy to understand but I don’t think it will be as simple as the method I describe in post 1.

I have ordered one of the multicolored ribbon cables as well so I’ll add that connection method in post 2 eventually.

No, you did not say iffy…that was just my take on what you said…a very brief paraphrase if you like.

I’d probably just put a single table quoting pin number on the USB board, and the pin it has to connect to on the IC.

if any one is going to be attempting this, they are pretty likely to be capable of working that out. This is all of course assuming that the pin out of the USB board from each supplier is the same. is it an industry standard pin out? I know with the programming cable we use to flash the MCU on the e-bikes, various RS232 to USB boards all seem to have different pinouts.

Post 2 may eventually explain alternate cable connection methods and also add labels to the programmer board’s pins.

As mentioned by MikeC in post #15, he’s put together a compilation graphic with header labels as well here. With enough brain power it can all be figured out from that.

I tried to order some today but bloody Paypal account playing up.

Sorry - ignore my last post… :zipper_mouth_face:

I was thinking it was unavoidable to do both ends.