[SOLVED] Warning!: FW upgrade broke ST-Link v2 dongle

Hi,
today I’ve installed on a Win7 machine the last version (v4.2.0.0) of the STM32 ST-LINK Utility to use my ST-Link v2 clone.
The dongle worked well until I had the bed idea to upgrade the FW:

ST-Link_2.jpg (57.25 KiB) Viewed 4283 times

Thank you

I did the same using STM32CubeProgrammer and could upgrade st-link stick clone (one of those colorful sticks available on ebay) to V2.J29.S7 with no issues: the device is correctly working.
Did you unplug and re-plug it after upgrade?

Cheers, E.

Would be good to know if the clone that failed had an 101 or 103 MCU, in case the latest FW makes it incompatible with the 101s.

Another data point:

I used the stsw-link007 application on my ubuntu 16.04LTS os successfully with my stlink v2 clone with an stm32f101 chip. My previous firmware was at V2J27S7 before I did the upgrade. I’ve had no problem using it to program a bluepill the first time or any of the multiple times I tried it after.

Here is what it looks like after I upgraded:

screenshot.png (71.64 KiB) Viewed 4249 times

V2J30S7 is the latest… no difference in use with the old V2J24S4

Ok folks, after a good breakfast I think to have solved the mystery….

It seems that the V2.J29.S7 FW behaves differently from the V2J24S4 (and 2J25 too) when used with the STM32 ST-LINK Utility.
If there isn’t any target MCU when the “Settings” button is pressed on the STM32 ST-LINK Utility, it appears the previous error (USB communications error).
But if there is a connected target MCU it works as expected.

This is not true with the older FW versions. In this case when a target MCU is not connected the ST-Link dongle is correctly detected.

BTW: I’ve also tested the STM32CubeProgrammer utility with success and then upgraded to V2J30S7 FW using the current STLinkUpgrade utility as stated by Slammer.

Anyway, because I’ve a couple of ST-Link v2 dongle, I’ve left one with the V2J24S4 FW, just in case…

There are versions of the unencrypted update files kicking around on the internet and also code to extract and decrypt the update files from the updater, so it would be possible to reflash one of your STLinks using the other one, and load an older version of firmware.

In fact it may be possible to flash the STLink dongle with a completely different version of the STLink firmware designed for a Nucleo board, which also has the Serial comms and potentially the USB mass storage upload option as well.

However I am not sure if the STLink software will let you upload beyond the 64k boundary if it detects that the dongle only has 64k flash, even though the flash from 64k to 128k is probably functional in the MCU ( like it is in th BluePill)

I think JLink can do this, and there is firmware to turn a BluePill into a Jlink OBD

Thanks Roger,
I’m using the ST-Link just to burn the bootloader on my custom boards.

BTW: JLink seems interesting… I’ll give it a look…

[Just4Fun – Mon May 21, 2018 4:21 pm] –
Thanks Roger,
I’m using the ST-Link just to burn the bootloader on my custom boards.

BTW: JLink seems interesting… I’ll give it a look…

I forget where it is exactly, but on GitHub someone has done a PCB layout and also has the firmware for a Jlink ODB board using a STM32F103C8

I remember trying the firmware on a BP and realised that to use it, I need to connect 2 pins together via a 100 ohm resistor
I can’t remember which 2 pins it is, it could be A5 and A7, they are SWDout and SWDin which are combined on a lot of MCUs

If you look at the schematic on GitHub you can work out which pins to join, and now I think about it, I am sure I posted about the “jlink odb” ages ago, so it may be worthwhile looking for that post

Roger, I think that you are speaking about this post
viewtopic.php?t=2493#p33353

[zoomx – Wed May 23, 2018 7:57 pm] –
Roger, I think that you are speaking about this post
viewtopic.php?t=2493#p33353

Yes..

Thanks