Pololu Orangutan USB - Manual (Page 30)

2. Enter the programmer’s firmware update mode
When you connect your programmer to your computer via the USB cable, you should see both the red and green
status LEDs light for approximately five seconds. During this time, the programmer is waiting for the proper
input sequence that will put it into firmware update mode. The procedure for entering firmware update mode is as
follows:
• Bring up the Tera Term serial port setup dialog as described in part 1 above, but do not connect yet.
• Plug your programmer into your computer via the USB cable and wait for the green USB status LED to
light. It usually takes around 0.5 s for the USB connection to be established.
• Once the green USB status LED is lit and while both red and green programmer status LEDs are still lit,
click OK in the Tera Term serial port setup dialog to establish a connection and type fwbootload. This string
must be in all lowercase. With every successfully entered letter, the 5-second timer resets, so the biggest
difficulty is typing that first “f” before the first 5-second period expires and the two status LEDs turn off.
As you type the string, you will see the uppercase version of the letters you type echoed back, so as you type
“fwbootload”, you will see “FWBOOTLOAD”. If you enter a letter incorrectly, a “?” will be echoed back to
you and both status LEDs will turn off immediately. If this happens you will need to disconnect from Tera
Term, unplug your programmer, and repeat the process again.
If you enter the string successfully, you will see the bootloader version number echoed back to you (probably
“1.2”). Note that this bootloader version number is not the same as the the programmer’s firmware version
number. This version number is the version of the small piece of code (called a “bootloader”) that is
reprogramming the programmer’s flash.
• At this point you can type x to exit firmware upgrade mode or s to load the new firmware. If you type
s, there will be a brief delay as the current firmware is erased, after which you will see S echoed back. Now
the programmer is waiting for you to upload a binary data file containing the new firmware. This data file
should have a .pgm extension.
Pololu Orangutan USB Programmer User's Guide © 2001–2011 Pololu Corporation
8. Updating Your Programmer's Firmware Page 30 of 32