Pololu Simple Motor Controller Boot Loader

Support Motor controllers/drivers and motors
1

We are using 4 Pololu Simple motor controllers to drive the main wheels of our Rascal Robo-Ops mars rover and I, in my infinite wisdom, did not make a keyed connector for the serial interface. Of course I plugged it in backwards somewhere and connected one of the inputs to our 26 Volt supply, thus releasing the magic blue smoke from the micro controllers on 3 of them. We have already ordered replacements, but I also ordered the same STM32s that are being used in their implementation. I have already reworked one of them with the new uC and I was wondering if anyone knows if I can somehow load the Pololu Boot loader onto this board so that I can get it up and running again. I have several JTAG probes that will work with the STM32, or if there is a serial boot loader factory installed in the STM that I can program through as well.

I have not had the opportunity to debug the rest of the hardware but I figure since the only thing connected to the driver at the time of the burnout was the serial connector, that the micro controller is the one thing that got fried.

Also check us out on Facebook facebook.com/roboutesroboops. The more likes we get the more points we get in the competition.

Thanks ahead of time for any help

2

Hello.

I’m sorry to hear your SMCs were damaged. Unfortunately, we are not willing to release the SMC bootloader. If something like this happens in the future, please contact us and we might be able to at least get you some sort of discount on replacements. It sounds like it’s too late for that now, but if you are planning on placing another order soon, we might be able to do something for you on that if you email us and link to this forum thread.

- Ben

3

Ben,

Thanks for the fast reply. I understand wanting to protect your source code, however is there anyway I could get the compiled image? And if not are the swd pins routed out of the chip so that I can write my own firmware?

Thanks

4

Never mind about the swd pins, I found the test points.

Thanks

5

I’m sorry, but we are not willing to send you the compiled firmware as there’s no way for us to release it to you in a secure way. You are welcome to try to write your own firmware (we program the MCU in-system) and reverse-engineer the product, but we will generally not reveal part numbers of subcomponents and schematics beyond what is found on the product page and in the user’s guide.

- Ben

6

Cool, thanks for your help!