Programing new Convoy mcu -> Sonix SN8F5701SG ???

Dear friends
I have a huge problem, I ordered Convoy V2 7135 & good old Atiny 13A based drivers that I always gladly use

but unfortunately and unexpectedly, drivers I received have completely new MCU, unknown to me, Sonix SN8F5701SG.
So now, firmware I most often used, developed by fellow member Mitko is totally unusable with new driver

I would be very-very grateful to anyone who could help me transfer the old firmware to new mcu.

Wait do you mean Convoy board switched from attiny based to SN8F5701SG based?

As mentioned in other thread, SN8F5701SG is an 8051-based MCU, completely different from attiny13a. They can’t run the same hex files.

If you have the C code for your attiny13a then you can possibly adapt it to work on SN8F5701SG. That won’t be a simple recompilation because there will be device dependent parts. However, if you know C and are willing to put some time into it, it might be doable. Whether it is worth the effort is another question. Or you could reverse engineer the board and rewrite the software to do what you want.

That might be worth doing as a contribution to the modder community but probably not worth doing for just a few boards.

The SN8F5701SG is somewhat interesting for use in flashlights because it has 4k of flash and 256 bytes of ram, but is available in sot23-6 package. The ATTinys in that package have less flash and ram.

It looks like that board has an 8 pin dip cpu, so depending on pinout, maybe you could fit in an attiny85, which can run Anduril. Other idea is to port an Anduril subset to the SN8F5701SG. It doesn’t have enough program flash to hold a complete Anduril build with all the stuff that is in there now.

This particular driver (Convoy V2) (and I believe this will affect other drivers that are 7135 & Attiny 13A based) is not produced any more. All new orders (at this point certinly for V2 driver) will come with new MCU.

Concerning recording there is a very small chance I will be able to do it considering that I mostly used visual RAD tools also that was a very long time ago.
Code I am using is very simple, one mode, no pwm, low battery warning at about 3.2V, battery protection at about 2.9V, could fit ten of this in tiny 13a.

I will try to find tool like USBASP AVR Programmer that will work for SN8F5701SG and maybe some development tool, code examples…

I would say the new processor is an improvement over the t13a in terms of capabilities, but the dev tooling including the flash programming hardware will be completely different. Try some web searches, look in the databook, etc. For compiling, sdcc.sourceforge.net can compile for the 8051 though it is nowhere near as fancy as avr-gcc.

Is that particular Convoy driver board all that interesting? We are getting near having some very nice AVR based drivers designed by BLF’ers with boards on OSHPark. Maybe some of the usual suspects like Mtn Electronics can start offering assembled boards once the designs have stabilized. In fact some are there now, but newer and better ones are coming.

I am adding pinout photo and link to a datasheet if someone is also interested in this subject.

A “beauty”, if I could say it like that, of this (convoy) driver is that it does the job I need it to do perfectly and it is very affordable. I can use it for 600mA all the way to 5000mA applications with ease. Yes, there are other solutions as you mentioned but when you look at the price it would be like using laser cutter for job that you can do with scissors.

As a last resort OSHPark or JLCPCB way could be solution but I already checked a price of components and its not looking greath.

I think that, looking long term, “cracking” the new MCU for new firmware programming “at home” would be highly beneficial. I remember when this happend with Tiny 13A, new firmwares were made almost at the daily basis, it was exciting time, so many engaged members that experimented with the code, that was the ting that trigered using some popular firmwares for different lights provided by suppliers like Gearbest, Banggood, even Lumintop.

I wasn’t around for that, but are you sure the tiny13a firmware was developed by reverse engineering an existing driver, rather than designing a new one? Figuring out what the existing board was doing is a task in its own right. Not impossible though, especially for something comparatively simple like a flashlight.

It would help to have a few boards to take apart, plus test equipment etc. Overall this is not on a par with a Mars landing, but it’s a significant amount of work to deal with just one crazy board that might go out of production at any moment, and only comes from one vendor, so we’d be sort of at their mercy.

I think it is best to stay with BLF drivers and BLF firmware if the idea is to make new lights. If you want to customize existing lights, buy lights with reflashable Anduril drivers, since we have all the source code for Anduril. Is there something particularly great about this Convoy light that you can’t get from a Hank light?