OTA flash types for MySensors

[bjacobse]

@Dirk_H
Thank you Dirk for checking the flash I asked about. I have noticed that the company I'm working is using this device. And then I hoped I could buy it from the company to a hopefully reduced price compared to retail price for private.

[LastSamurai]

Hey, guys I am currently looking for a (cheap) solution for OTA available in germany. I wanted to use the AT25DF512C-SSHN-B but the only source I could find was aliexpress which only sells 150 pcs at a time (a little too much, although future proof for me I guess ;) ).
I did not really understand this thread so far: is there another model that works with my sensors?

Or do you by chance know a place where I can get some of the AT25DF512C-SSHN-B ones here in europe? Thanks!

[jbjalling]

@LastSamurai said:

AT25DF512C

Well not in EU, but you can order from DigiKey or Mouser if everything else fails - thats where I order my parts.

EDIT: And I live in DK - maybe worth mentioning.

BR Jonas

[LastSamurai]

@LastSamurai said:

AT25DF512C-SSHN-B

Thanks, but both have shipping costs of abount 20€ (if you pay <50€ overall). Or is there a way around it?

I also found SST25VF020B‑80‑4I‑SAE and 25VF512A33-4C-SA flash modules in german stores though. Would they work too?

[jbjalling]

@LastSamurai Yes, thats true. My order is always above the "free shipping" limit :-)
I'll give the datasheets a look, of the devices you mentioned.

BR Jonas

[Dirk_H]

@LastSamurai The SST25VF020B... should work fine with the 2.0 developversion and #define MY_SPIFLASH_SST25TYPE set. It seems to be very close to the SST25PF020B I used. However keep an eye on the even more limited voltage range of the SST25VF Type which needs at least 2,7V which would be a problem if you want to power your circuit directly by 2xNiMH Batteries.

The SST25VF512 needs also 2,7V but additionally does not support the 64k erase command (see my comments on that issue some posts above where I wrote something about the AT25F512).

[XavTroniC]

Hi all,

A question, why don't use an EPPROM SPI 25AA020A or 25AA512?

They works between 1.8 and 5.5V.

BR
Xavier

[alexsh1]

I have AT25512N-SH-T SOIC-8 -> http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/36/Atmel-5165-SEEPROM-AT25512-Datasheet-476711.pdf

Anyone knows if it is fully interchangeable with AT25DF512C? I cannot see any difference from the datasheet. The pinout is the same.

[XavTroniC]

Hi all,

Any news with the EEPROM compatibility and the new Mysensors version 2.0?

BR,
Xavier

[tbowmo]

@XavTroniC

It's the bootloader that sets the limit on which flash / eeprom you can use, not the library. So the support in 2.0.0 is the same as for 1.5.x

[mardah]

Hello,

Would AT45DB041E be a good choice as a OTA flash? I see it's in the schematics for the new Sensebender Micro mk2.

https://www.adestotech.com/wp-content/uploads/doc8783.pdf

BR
Martin

[tbowmo]

@mardah

I can't remember if I just dumped components in there at the moment, or if I actually looked at the datasheets :)

[shabba]

@XavTroniC said in OTA flash types for MySensors:

25AA512

Seems these are only 2K in size.
I would like something similar though!

[tbowmo]

@shabba

It's a 512kbit device, which is 64 kbytes

[Samuel235]

@mardah said in OTA flash types for MySensors:

Would AT45DB041E be a good choice as a OTA flash? I see it's in the schematics for the new Sensebender Micro mk2.

Did you ever figure out if this works with Optiboot for OTA flashing?

I must admit that i'm very confused at this thread, it was setup to advise of other Flash IC's for us to use but there seems to be no 'solid' alternatives that you guys have suggested. For me, living in the UK, its near impossible to grab any of the AT25DF512C-SSHN-B without paying through the roof for shipping.

I can see that AT45DB041E is JEDEC compliant but that is as far as i can go with knowing if it will work. Flash architecture is way out of my depth right now.

[Koresh]

@Samuel235 said in OTA flash types for MySensors:

AT45DB041E

Hello. This chip (AT45DB041E) has no erase 32kb command (0x52), status read command has a strange opcode too (D7h). So it is no trivial task to use this chip.
I can suggest Micron M25P40 as widespread IC. But it requires one trick and I will try to describe it. This chip has no erase 32kb command (0x52) too. It means OTA code will not erase memory and update will be failed. We (me and Yury) bumped into this problem when we started intensive tests of my nodes before production (we use micron M25P40). Moreover, when I try to investigate inexpensive avaliable chips I find an interesting thing. Chips with 64kb erase option (0xD8 opcode) are more common than chips with 32kb erase option (which support 64kb erase option too). So it can be worth adapting mysensors for use of any flash chip which supports 64kb erase option. To adapt your sketches you should do only two things

1. Add this code into your sketch after including mysensors.h

#define SPIFLASH_BLOCKERASE_32K   0xD8

So OTA library will call erase 64kb command instead of erase 32kb command. It is very easy.
2) You should use Bootloader which calls erase 64kb command instead of 32kb command.
Bad news. It is not an easy task and you should recompile dual optiboot and burn it. :anguished:
Good news. I've recompliled dual optiboot and all my nodes will burn with it by default. :yum:

My changes in bootloader are very simple but it sutable for my boards. We update it many many times and the process is absolutely bulletproof (especially after Tekka's update :+1: ).
But how about a more universal solution? I think it is not too hard to modify dual optiboot to check flash first 10 bytes (OTA flag) after 32kb erase command call and try another command? I will try this idea later but may be someone will do it faster :smiley:

[Samuel235]

@Koresh - Thank you for explaining this to me. I think i understand this a little more clearly now. Like i said, i've never dealt with flash so its all a grey area for myself.

I'm currently looking at recompiling MYSBootloader for use with an 8Mhz crystal instead of this work around. The whole reasoning behind me asking this question is simply because i wanted OTA updates on a battery powered node. Now, this means i need OTA updates on 3.3v, but my MYSBootloader nodes require 16Mhz crystal to work. So its either use 16Mhz on 3.3v (while it works, its not the correct solution) OR to get a bootloader working with an 8Mhz crystal setup. I chose the later, and therefor its either recompile MYSBootloader to work with 8Mhz OR to get a flash IC on the board to allow for Dual Optiboot.

At the moment i'm toying with the idea of going the software issue route and attempting to recompile MYSBootloader for 8Mhz (just need to workout what to change for the recompiled version). Seems a little easier and cheaper than going the route of flash considering my location and not being able to get my hands on the recommended/mostly used flash IC.

[alexsh1]

@Koresh what about Winbond W25X40CLSNIG - the same used by Moteino? It seems to me this could be a good match?

https://www.winbond.com/resource-files/w25x40cl_e01.pdf

@tbowmo Thomas, what do you think?

[Koresh]

@alexsh1 It seems suitable at first sight :wink:

[alexsh1]

@Koresh I have just tried it and it works nicely.

Start...Init OK!
DeviceID: EF30
Flash content:
FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.

WriteByte(1)
WriteByte(2)
WriteByte(3)
WriteByte(4)
WriteByte(5)Flash content:
FF.BB.BB.BB.AA.BB.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.
Erasing Flash chip ... DONE

The only disadvantage to me is voltage given that nrf24l01+ can run down to 1.9V

Features

• 2.3V to 3.6V supply
• 1mA active current,
• <1μA Power-down

Aliexpress: $0.25 a piece + postage ($2.50 to Europe)