Flash Download Tool User Guide

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Preparation

The software and hardware resources required for downloading firmware to flash are listed below.

• Hardware:

  • 1 x module to which firmware is downloaded

  • 1 x PC (Windows 7 [64 bits], Windows 10)

• Software:

  • Flash Download Tool

Tool Overview

User Interface

Open the Flash Download Tool, double-click the .exe file to enter the main interface of the tool, as shown in the figure below:

Flash Download Tool Main Interface

• ChipType: Selects the chip type for your product.

• WorkMode: Work mode of the tool. Below are the differences between the two modes supported currently, Develop and Factory modes.

  • Develop mode uses the absolute path of the firmware and only allows flashing firmware to one chip at a time.

  • Factory mode uses a relative path. It is recommended to place the firmware to be flashed in the bin folder at the same level as the .exe file. It will be automatically saved locally when closed after configuration.

  • Selecting Factory mode leads you to a locked interface in order to prevent misoperation by your mouse. Please click the LockSettings button to enable editing.

• LoadMode: Only supports UART

SPIDownload Tab

Here is the configuration descriptions.

• Download Path Config You can configure the firmware loading path and downloading address (in hexadecimal format), such as 0x1000.

• SPI Flash Config

  • SPI SPEED: SPI boot rate

  • SPI MODE: SPI boot mode

  • DETECTED INFO: Flash & crystal oscillator information that are detected automatically.

  • DoNotChgBin: If it is enabled, the tool flashes the original content of the bin file. If not enabled, the tool updates the firmware according to the SPI SPEED, SPI MODE configuration on the interface before flashing.

  • CombineBin button: combines all the selected firmware in Download Path Config into one firmware. If DoNotChgBin is enabled, combine the original firmwares. If DoNotChgBin is not enabled, combine them according to the SPI SPEED and SPI MODE configuration. Any unused areas between firmware files will be filled with 0xff. The combined firmware will be saved as ./combine/target.bin. Each click of this button will overwrite the previous firmware.

  • Default button: restores the SPI configuration to the default values.

• Download Panel

  • START: Starts downloading

  • STOP: Stops downloading

  • ERASE: Erases the entire flash

  • COM: Serial port used for downloading

  • BAUD: Baud rate

SPIDownload Tab

FactoryMultiDownload Tab

• Factory mode uses the relative path. By default, the tool loads the firmware from the bin folder of the tool directory. Whereas, Develop mode uses the absolute path. The advantage of the Factory mode is that as long as the firmware to flash remains in the bin folder of the tool directory, path problems will not occur when the tool package is copied to other factory computers.

• In Factory mode, the tool enables LockSettings by default. When LockSettings is enabled, firmware download path config and SPI flash config cannot be configured. This is to prevent production line workers from accidentally clicking and causing errors. (When factory managers need to configure these settings, they can click LockSettings to unlock.)

FactoryMultiDownload Tab

The download path config and SPI flash config section on the FactoryMultiDownload Tab are basically the same as those on the SPIDownload tab. Please refer to SPIDownload Tab for descriptions. Do not forget to configure the serial port number and baud rate of each download panel.

chipInfoDump Tab

• Device: Selects the device’s serial port number and communication baud rate.

• Read Flash: Specifies the start address and size of the content to be read from the flash. This setting is only required when reading flash.

chipInfoDump Tab

• Function Description

  • Chip Info: Reads the chip model, flash ID, and flash status register values. The read content is displayed directly in the tab.

  • Read Flash: Reads data stored in the flash. The read content is saved in a generated bin file, which is named in the format “Chip MAC + Start Address of Reading + Data Length of Reading + Reading Time”.

  • Read Efuse: Reads the chip’s eFuse content, with functionality identical to esptool summary. The read content is stored in a generated text file, named in the format “Chip MAC + Reading Time”.

Note

• To use the above reading functions, the product should enter download mode after startup.

• Tool version >= 3.9.8

Download Example

This section takes ESP32 as an example to demonstrate how to perform both regular and encrypted download operations. ESP32 supports regular and encrypted download.

Regular Download

1. Pull GPIO0 low to enter the download mode.

2. Open the download tool, set ChipType to ESP32, WorkMode to Develop, and LoadMode to UART as shown in the figure below. Then, click OK

Selecting Device — ESP32 Download Tool

3. In the appeared download page, enter the path to the bin file and the address where it should be downloaded, check the box before the path, and select SPI SPEED, SPI MODE, COM, and BAUD according to your requirements.

4. Click START to start downloading. During the download process, the tool will read the flash information and the chip’s MAC address.

5. After the download is complete, the tool interface is shown in the following figure.

Download Completed

Encrypted Download

The encrypted firmware downloading process is as follows:

• Flash Download Tool downloads the plaintext firmware to the chip.

• The chip uses the key in its eFuse to encrypt the firmware and write it to the flash.

• If there is no such key in the eFuse, the tool will automatically generate a random one and flash it to eFuse. You can also prepare your own encryption key. If there is, the tool skips the key generation and flashing process.

To configure the encryption function, follow the steps below:

• Open the configuration file ./configure/esp32/security.conf. If there is no such file, for example, when you open the tool for the first time, restart the tool.

• Update the configuration options as needed.

Below are the configuration options. The equal sign is followed by the default value of the option. True means enabling the option; False means disabling it.

• [SECURE BOOT] Secure boot related configurations:

  • secure_boot_en = False (Configures whether to enable secure boot)

  • secure_boot_version = 1 (Selects secure boot version)

  • public_key_digest_path = .securepublic_key_digest.bin (Path to the public key digest file. This file is generated using the command espsecure digest_sbv2_public_key -k pem.pem -o public_key_digest.bin. The .pem file is the private key file specified during compilation.)

  • public_key_digest_block_index = 0 (Index of the eFuse block where the public key digest file is stored. Default: 0.)

• [FLASH ENCRYPTION] Flash encryption related configurations:

  • flash_encryption_en = False (Configures whether to enable flash encryption)

  • reserved_burn_times = 3 (Configures how many times [3 in this case] are reserved for the flashing operation)

• [SECURE OTHER CONFIG] Other security configurations:

  • flash_encryption_use_customer_key_enable = False (Configures whether to enable a customer-specified encryption key)

  • flash_encryption_use_customer_key_path = .secureflash_encrypt_key.bin (If using a customer-specified key, the key path needs to be specified here.)

  • flash_force_write_enable = False (Configures whether to skip encryption and secure boot checks during flashing. If it is set to False (default), an error message may pop up when attempting to flash products with enabled flash encryption or secure boot.)

• [FLASH ENCRYPTION KEYS LOCAL SAVE] Determines whether to store the encryption key file locally. Default: False.

• keys_save_enable = False (Configures whether to save the key.)

• encrypt_keys_enable = False (Configure whether to encrypt the locally stored key.)

• encrypt_keys_aeskey_path = (If you encrypt the locally stored key, please fill in the key file here, such as ./my_aeskey.bin)

• [ESP32* EFUSE BIT CONFIG] Determines whether to set encryption items when flash encryption is enabled. Default: False.

[ESP32 DISABLE FUNC] Config Option

[ESP32 DISABLE FUNC] Config Option	Description
dl_encrypt_disable = False	Configures whether to disable encryption
dl_decrypt_disable = False	Configures whether to disable decryption
dl_cache_disable = False	Configures whether to disable cache
jtag_disable = False	Configures whether to disable JTAG

There will be a prompt message (shown below) when the tool is running. Check if the message is correct. The figure below shows the prompt message of enabling both flash encryption and secure boot:

ESP32 Prompt Message of Enabling Flash Encryption and Secure Boot

During the firmware flashing process, the key and other information will be flashed into the chip’s eFuse. After the flashing process is completed, FINISH/完成 will be displayed.

Note

Prior to downloading, the tool verifies flash encryption and secure boot information in the eFuse, so as to prevent re-downloading to and damaging the encrypted module.