User Manual

XBee® Wi-Fi RF Modules
© 2012 Digi International, Inc. 57
utility provided by Digi) using the radio's serial port interface. Firmware can also be
updated using the radios' RF interface (Over-the-Air Updating.)
The over-the-air firmware upgrading method provided is a robust and versatile
technique which can be tailored to many different networks and applications. It has
been engineered to be reliable and minimize disruption of normal network operations.
There are three phases of the over-the-air upgrade process: distributing the new
application, verifying the new application, and installing the new application. In the
following section the node which will be upgraded will be referred to as the target node.
The node providing the update information will be referred to as the source node. In
most applications the source node will be locally attached to a PC running update
software.
Distributing the New Application
The first phase of performing an over-the-air upgrade on a module is transferring the
new firmware file to the target node. The new firmware image should be loaded in the
target node's GPM prior to installation XBee Wi-Fi RF modules use an encrypted binary
(.ebin) file for both serial and over-the-air firmware upgrades. These firmware files are
available on the Digi Support website.
The contents of the .ebin file should be sent to the target radio using general purpose
memory WRITE commands. The entire GPM should be erased prior to beginning an
upload of an .ebin file. The contents of the .ebin file should be stored in order in the
appropriate GPM memory blocks. The number of bytes that are sent in an individual
GPM WRITE frame is flexible and can be catered to the user application.
Example:
If the size of the .ebin file is 217,088 bytes, then it could be sent to the module in 1024
byte blocks as follows:
CPT_BLOCK_NUM GPM_START_INDEX GPM_NUM_BYTES .ebin bytes
0 0
1024
0 to 1023
0 1024
1024
1024 to 2047
0 2048
1024 2048 to 3071
0 3072
1024
3071 to 4095
1 0
1024 4096 to 5119
1 1024
1024 5120 to 6143
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
52 1024
214,016 to
215,039
52 2048
215,040 to
216,063
52 3072
216,064 to
217,087