SPI flash programmer.

This project is an another SPI flash programmer. I need a SPI flash programmer to burn a flash chip to repair LCD monitor. As I hadn't any programmer I decided to make one by my own using Arduino nano.

As a result a complete solution was implemented.

Features.

• supported modules:
  • Arduino nano compatible
  • RPi Pico (RP2040)
• universal SPI flash programmer
  • Predefined chips:
    • MX25L2026E
    • MX25l2005A
    • MX25V16066
    • W25Q32
    • W25Q80
  • Generic chips
    • easy configurable with --flash-geometry parameter
    • easy configurable via chips.json
• unprotect operation
• erase/write verification
• communication protocol secured by CRC checksum
• high-speed SPI
  • 8MHz - Arduino
  • 60MHz - RPi Pico
• high-speed USART/CDC
  • 0.5Mbaud - Arduino
  • 4Mbaud - RPi Pico

Arduino

Arduino connections.

• D10 (PB2) ------ CS (chip select)
• D11 (PB3) ------ MOSI (SPI data output)
• D12 (PB4) ------ MISO (SPI data input)
• D13 (PB5) ------ SCK (SPI clock)

NOTE For communication with 3.3V chips simple resistor voltage divider can be used. In my case voltage divider using 1K and 2K resistors was enough.

Flash connection.

• WE (write enable) pin should be connected to ground

Building and writing Arduino firmware.

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -S ../recipes/firmware/arduino/ -B .
make all upload_firmware

Writing precompiled images.

NOTE Prebuilt firmware is available at firmware/arduino/dist/firmware_<clk>_<baud>.hex

cd firmware/arduino
./burn.sh -m atmega328p -f dist/firmware_16mhz_19200bps.hex

By default, burn.sh scripts writes the firmware using avrdude via arduino programmer (arduino resistant bootloader). Programmer type, MCU and optional communication baudrate can be adjusted for particular hardware configuration. Please find the following syntax of burn.sh script:

Usage:
   ./burn.sh <-m mcu> [-P programmer] [-p port] [-b baudrate] [-m mcu] [-L lfuse] [-H hfuse] [-E efuse] [-f flash.hex] [-e e2prom.hex]

RPi-Pico

Linux Environment preparation.

sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

Building and writing firmware.

mkdir build; cd build
cmake -S ../recipes/firmware/rpi_pico/
make

RPi-Pico connections.

• 21 (GP16) ------ MISO (SPI data input)
• 22 (GP17) ------ CS (chip select)
• 24 (GP18) ------ SCK (SPI clock)
• 25 (GP19) ------ MOSI (SPI data output)

Building flashutil.

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ../recipes/flashutil/
make all

Flash chips repository.

There is a predefined list of flash chips added to this project at flashutil/etc/chips.json. It contains declaractions (geomtry) of all chips mentioned in the 'Features' section. Other custom chips can be added by analogy without adding -g option to flash-util call.

All size-related values are string values and optionally support binary metric modifiers such as Kib, Mib, Gib (representing kibibit, mebibit, gigibit), as well as KiB, MiB, GiB (representing kibibyte, mebibyte, gigibyte).

Use cases

• Print help and exit

flash-util -h

• Erase whole chip (without verification)

flash-util -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -R ../flashutil/etc/chips.json -e

• Erase whole chip (with verification)

flash-util -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -R ../flashutil/etc/chips.json -e -V

• Write image to chip (with verification)

flash-util -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -R ../flashutil/etc/chips.json -w -i /tmp/flash.src.bin -V

• Read whole chip

flash-util -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -R ../flashutil/etc/chips.json -r -o /tmp/flash.dst.bin

• Writing image to unknown chip

flash-util -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -e -w -i /tmp/flash.src.bin -V --flash-geometry  65536:64:4096:1024:fc