Suggestion: Firmware upgrade button

[capitaineflam25]

Hi,

and thanks Bertrand for the great job you've done with companion 9x.

Actually when i want to upgrade my firmware (i do that frequently due to the release frequency, ex. frsky-656 to frsky-666) i do the following steps:

1. Backup my current EEPROM
2. Upgrade my firmware
3. Restore my backuped EEPROM (because AVRDude has erased it)

Maybe i'm doing it the wrong way and i should change my fuse config in order not to erase my EEPROM after flashing, but i've read that it comports risks, i'm i wrong ?

If fuses is not the safest solution, why not imagining an "upgrade firmware" button who will automatically do these 3 steps ?

[bertrand35]

Excellent idea!
You forgot one step: do the automatic EEPROM conversions
Bertrand.

[Romolo]

Indeed can be a good idea to implement your suggestion as an option during flashing of a firmware.
Maybe a checkbox like: restore actual eeprom...

What do you think about ?

EDIT: already implemented in SVN as an option in burndialog:
Backup and restore existing eeprom

[erazz]

If your programmer can read and write EEPROMS and flash the firmware you can safely change the fuses. If you do so from eePe or companion you should be safe. You just need to do it once.

We had a rash of problems when people used bad programmers and inadequate software to write fuses. Now, with the setup we have you don't need to be afraid of setting them.

[capitaineflam25]

Thanks for all your answers.

Erazz: i will give a try to the fuse eeprom protect, thanks for the advice.
Everyone: i'm sure the (optional) backup process still gets an interest: i'll appreciate that a backup is automatically done when upgrading, i love the idea of having a recent version of my EEPROM on my computer to reflect the small changes i do when on the field.