Update RFLink gateway on Linux (Ubuntu)

RFLink is a great, flexible and opensource RF gateway for 433Mhz devices. I use it with Domoticz. Every few months, a new firmware is released and they add a lot of new devices. This post describe how to update an RFLink gateway in a Linux environment.

1. Software

Install AvrDude, an Atmel AVR microcontroller programmer :

sudo apt-get install avrdude

2. Update

1 – Plug the gateway (the Arduino Mega board) to your computer using an USB cable.
2 – Check the port :

dmesg

The output should give you something like

=
[ 2135.966103] usb 2-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 2137.722793] usb 2-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[ 2137.835663] usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=2341, idProduct=0042
[ 2137.835667] usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=220
[ 2137.835670] usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: Arduino (www.arduino.cc)
[ 2137.835672] usb 2-1.1: SerialNumber: 95431353438351916190
[ 2137.836212] cdc_acm 2-1.1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

3 – Download and unzip the firmware from http://www.rflink.nl/blog2/download

4 – In the same folder than the extracted firmware, run the following command :

sudo avrdude -v -p atmega2560 -c stk500 -P /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 -D -U flash:w:RFLink.cpp.hex:i

The output should looks like this:

avrdude: Version 6.3
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "/etc/avrdude.conf"
         User configuration file is "/home/ron/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

         Using Port                    : /dev/ttyACM0
         Using Programmer              : stk500
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 115200
         AVR Part                      : ATmega2560
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PA0
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65    10     8    0 no       4096    8      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           flash         65    10   256    0 yes    262144  256   1024  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : STK500V2
         Description     : Atmel STK500
         Programmer Model: AVRISP
         Hardware Version: 15
         Firmware Version Master : 2.10
         Vtarget         : 0.0 V
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.01s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9801 (probably m2560)
avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as D8
avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as FD
avrdude: reading input file "RFLink.cpp.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (194060 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 31.10s

avrdude: 194060 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against RFLink.cpp.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file RFLink.cpp.hex:
avrdude: input file RFLink.cpp.hex contains 194060 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 24.88s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 194060 bytes of flash verified

avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as D8
avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as FD
avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:FD, H:D8, L:FF)

avrdude done.  Thank you.

You’re done, happy home automation 🙂