How to recover a ConnectCore Wi-i.MX53 module using SD or MircoSD card, programming the card under Windows.

If U-Boot in flash fails to boot & NO output is being observed on the serial port during Power up, you can try recovery using a MicroSD Card or SD Card.
For the recovery you need:

*JSK Development board.
*A Micro SD Card or SD Card

NOTE: This procedure will work ONLY in windows XP.

Part one, configure MicroSD or SD card :
 1) Plug your MicroSD card or SD card into your PC.
 2) Get a copy of flashnul: http://shounen.ru/soft/flashnul/flashnul-1rc1.zip

We will use this program to write U-Boot to the SD card. Just extract it to a location on your C drive. Mine is in: c:\flashnul-1rc1.
3) Copy the U-boot image you want to use to the flashnul path. I will use the one from:
C:\Program Files\Digi\Windows Embedded CE 6.0\Images\ConnectCore Wi-i.MX53\JSK\bootloader\u-boot-ccwmx53js.bin

4) Start up a command prompt (Press Windows Key + r, then type cmd and press enter). Find the flashnul path. Your directory should look like this:
C:\flashnul-1rc1>dir

Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4487-EDF4
Directory of C:\flashnul-1rc1
03/17/2011  07:43 AM    <DIR>          .
03/17/2011  07:43 AM    <DIR>          ..
09/23/2008  03:23 PM             2,729 CHANGELOG
06/12/2008  01:19 AM               373 devnotes
09/22/2006  12:20 PM             1,639 flashnul.conf
09/23/2008  03:17 PM            48,640 flashnul.exe
09/22/2006  12:20 PM             6,420 flashnul.png
11/22/2007  08:30 PM               741 readme.eng
09/23/2008  03:18 PM            34,756 readme.rus.html
09/23/2008  03:17 PM    <DIR>          src
09/23/2008  03:23 PM               446 todo
11/23/2010  11:24 AM           293,796 u-boot-ccwmx53js.bin
               9 File(s)        389,540 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  28,717,142,016 bytes free

5) Get a listing of your drives by typing 'flashnull -p'
You should get output like below:

C:\flashnul-1rc1>flashnul -p
Avaible physical drives:

0       size = 120034123776 (111 Gb)
1       size = 3965714432 (3782 Mb)

Avaible logical disks:

C:\
D:\
E:\
H:\
X:\
Y:\
Z:\

The flash disk is number 1 on my PC, you can tell by the size (my system disk is the 111GB disk). Make sure that you pick the right one, as flashnul can erase your system disk!

6) Now we need to write the U-Boot image to the flash disk. Just type:
flashnul <disknumber> -L u-boot-ccwmx53js.bin
(where <disknumber> is the disk from above. You should get output like below:

C:\flashnul-1rc1>flashnul 1 -L u-boot-ccwmx53js.bin

Disk PhysicalDrive1 (UNC name: \\.\PhysicalDrive1)
------------------------------------------------------------[Drive geometry]--
Cylinders/heads/sectors  = 482/255/63
Bytes per sector         = 512
CHS size                 = 3964584960 (3780 Mb)
---------------------------------------------------------------[Device size]--
Device size              = 3965714432 (3782 Mb)
delta to near power of 2 = 329252864 (314 Mb), 8%
Surplus size             = 1129472 (1103 kb)
-----------------------------------------------[Adapter & Device properties]--
Bus type                 = (7) USB
Removable device         = Yes
Command Queue            = Unsupported
Device vendor            = HP
Device name              = USB20 HS-COMBO
Revision                 = 4.82
--------------------------------------------------------------[Hotplug info]--
Device hotplug           = Yes
Media hotplug            = No
        Selected operation:      load file content
        Selected drive:          PhysicalDrive1, 3965714432b (3782 Mb)
        THIS OPERATION IS DESTRUCTIVE!!!

        Type 'yes' to confirm operation. All other text will stop it.
        Really destroy data on drive PhysicalDrive1?  :
(Type yes, press Enter)
        Really destroy data on drive PhysicalDrive1?  :yes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------[Log]--
Runing operation [load file content] for drive PhysicalDrive1
Writing 0x10000 (128 kb), 303701 b/s
Warning: size of file u-boot-ccwmx53js.bin do not match sector size for Physical
Drive1 (512 b)
image load finished
----------------------------------------------------------[Operation result]--
passes:                 1
errors:                 0
write bytes:            293888 (287 kb)
avg. write speed:       1112412 (1086 kb/s)
max/min write speed:    0 (0 b/s) / 0 (0 b/s)
Press ENTER to exit.
If everything worked, the above result should give passes 1, and errors 0. Now we can try to boot the module.

Part two, configure the module on digi dev kit :
Note: Do not connect any peripheral to dev kit now. You need to detach touchscreen display also.

1) Set the boot strapping, set S8=01 to boot from MircoSD card or S8=10 to boot from SD card. Set S9=00 all to off. (Down if you are holding the board with the serial ports on the left). Also set S7.1 to on, and S7.2 to off.
2) Connect to UART1(console) at 115200,8,n,1,n with a NULL modem cable.
3) Connect to the module to your local network via Ethernet.
4) Insert the MicroSD card into X14 or SD card into X18, power on the module on dev kit. You may see a ‘>’ displayed on the screen, press enter and the module should boot into U-Boot.
5) Copy the U-Boot image that you loaded on the module into C:\tftproot
6) Start up your tftp server.
6) Set up your module to use dhcp, and set the serverip address to that of your PC.
setenv serverip 10.4.105.1
setenv dhcp on
saveenv

7) Update the image:
 update uboot tftp

 8) If you do not get any errors, then remove the (Micro) SD card, and set S8 all back to off. Then try to boot the module.
Last updated: Jun 06, 2019

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