Standalone Portable Host for Unified Bootloader in PIC devices using CAN interface

摘要

Bootloader is a program that runs in a microcontroller to be programmed. It receives an application image externally from a host via a communication interface and writes that information onto the program memory of the controller. Each bootloader host will follow a certain file transfer protocol which is usually unique to the chip vendor. Generally, the host is a Personal Computer (PC) which has a User Interface where the users can select the device and send the application image via different interfaces like USB, UART, and I2C etc. This paper presents a Standalone portable host which is a Microcontroller(PIC18F66K80) that is capable of receiving the image from the PC via Xmodem protocol, storing the image in the external flash, performing Intel hex parsing on the stored image and programming the target (another PIC18F66K80) using the Unified bootloader protocol. The Communication medium between the host and target is via Controller Area Network (CAN). The main advantage of implementation of this paper is that the host is a portable, handy controller which is capable of programming individual targets under consideration. This could be used as a potential improvement in the automotive industry.