Recovering a bricked CC3D board using a bus blaster

IMG_20150214_155435A few months ago I went to upgrade my OpenPilot CC3D board an something went amiss and I ended up trashing the bootloader. I didn’t have a SWD dongle to reprogram it with so its been collecting dust. I just purchased a v3 bus blaster for a different project I’m working on and it has a SWD firmware so I thought I’d try and recover the CC3D. Below are the steps I used.

Download and install the latest OpenOCD

git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/openocd/code openocd
cd openocd/
./bootstrap
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Re-flash the Bus Blaster v3 for KT-link buffer

The instructions below came from here

git clone https://github.com/bharrisau/busblaster.git
cd busblaster/synthesis
openocd -f board/dp_busblaster_v3.cfg -c "adapter_khz 1000; init; svf system.svf; shutdown"

Getting/Building the bootloader

Now you need to get a bootloader to flash into the CC3D. You might be able to download bl_coptercontrol.hex but I’ve already got the OpenPilot development environment installed so I just built it using

make all_bl all_bu

If you don’t have the dev environment setup there are build instructions.

Here is the file I used bl_coptercontrol.hex but the regular disclaimers apply, if this file damages or bricks your CC3D I am not responsible.

OpenOCD config file

You need create a flashing script “cc3d-swd.cfg” to pass to OpenOCD.

source /usr/share/openocd/scripts/interface/ftdi/dp_busblaster_kt-link.cfg
transport select swd
source [find target/stm32f1x.cfg]

proc program_device () {
    reset init
        sleep 50
        flash probe 0
        sleep 50
        flash protect 0 0 last off
        sleep 50
        flash write_image erase unlock "path_to_hex_file/bl_coptercontrol.hex"
        sleep 50
        reset run
}

init
program_device ()
exit

Obiously replace “path_to_hex_file” to where you built or downloaded bl_coptercontrol.hex

Connect the bus blaster to the CC3d

I got the cable connections from here.

     adapter         ┊            target
                     ┊
     GND ──────────────────────── GND
                     ┊
     TCK ──────────────────────── SWCK
                     ┊
     TMS ──────────────────────── SWDAT
                     ┊

Finally reflashing the CC3D bootloader

openocd -f cc3d-swd.cfg

One thought on “Recovering a bricked CC3D board using a bus blaster

  1. Hi,

    Nice work; I also like the BusBlaster (great for flash/debug), but I’m pretty sure you could have saved you some efforts using the serial bootloader of the STM32F103; I don’t think you can brick that one, it’s integrated in the chip.
    > Bridge the BOOT0 pads
    > Connect a USB-Serial adapter to the Main port
    > Flash your bootloader using a tool like stm32flash:
    stm32flash -w bl_coptercontrol.bin -v -g 0x0 /dev/ttyUSB0
    > Remove the bridge, and you should be good to go.

    At least, that’s the easiest way to flash the OpenPilot/TauLabs bootloader on a blank chip.

    -RedoX

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