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Duet In-application firmware updates!

By SublimeLayers Sunday, March 13, 2016
I've been testing some new firmware and Duet Web Control code developed by Christian Hammacher. I initially contacted him with some DWC connection issues and provided some network logs to help out. He's made great progress on eradicating the disconnects but this post is about the great feature he's developed along the way - in-application firmware updates.

What's this all about? Basically, iap.bin (the name of the new utility) runs on the Duet and allows users to upload new firmware binaries from the Web interface and installs them! No more bossac, no more command line stuff, no more USB needed. Once installed, iap.bin installs any RRF release, including dc42, right from the DWC Settings page. You can install iap.bin the first time via the web interface too (I think you need to be using the absolute latest DWC though for this to work, otherwise you can simply transfer the file to the CF card). I've been switching back and forth painlessly as Christian has worked on the disconnect stuff. It is implemented as the new M997 code and the gcode wiki page has some info on it.

On top of this, Christian has implemented in-place config.g editing in DWC and the ability to upload zip packages. For instance, you can use the zip uploading to upload all of the Duet Web Control files to update DWC.

Here's a screen shot of the in-place config.g editing:


These new features now allow almost complete "hands-off" configuring and firmware updates via the web interface with no need to remove the CF card or hook up a USB cable.

This just in, David Crocker has just released an updated dc42 firmware that includes Christian's iap.bin! 

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