Sync Box Firmware Upgrade using dfu-programmer

This describes how to upgrade Sync Box Firmware using the free dfu-programmer on linux. This only applies to the microprocessor; often it is also necessary to upgrade the CPLD.

The https://dfu-programmer.github.io/ software can be installed in Ubuntu like this:

sudo apt-get install dfu-programmer

Make sure your version supports the sync box device:

act@wilson:~$ dfu-programmer --version
dfu-programmer 0.6.1
act@wilson:~$ dfu-programmer --targets
targets:
   at89c51snd1c       at89c51snd2c       at89c5130          at89c5131
   at89c5132          at90usb1287        at90usb1286        at90usb1287-4k
   ...

Connect the sync box to the computer over USB. From the manual: "To reprogram BLJB or to get the bootloader to restart so that you can download new code, the PSEN and RESET switches must be held down while the USB connector is inserted. Reset is then released followed by PSEN. "

When the device is properly detected it will show up in lsusb as something like:

act@wilson:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 049: ID 03eb:2ffd Atmel Corp. at89c5130/c5131 DFU bootloader

To prove things are working, dump the contents of the device into a file:

act@wilson:~$ sudo dfu-programmer at89c5131:2,49 dump > part_dump.bin

Note that we read the address 2,49 from the lsusb output. The contents of part_dump.bin can then be inspected with hexdump -C to confirm it's the sync box code and not some other nonsense.

Then to program the device the syntax is:

act@wilson:~$ sudo dfu-programmer  at89c5131:2,49 flash sync_box_v22_26sept2014.hex