dg9bfc / nanovna-v2-firmware

Firmware for NanoVNA V2

This repository contains the source code to build the firmware for the NanoVNA2 (or SAA2) See https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html for more info.

Below is information for building the firmware on Linux.

Installing the compiler

Debian based systems

On any recent Debian based installation:

sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi

Installing the upstream toolchain

If you want to install the latest version of the gnu ARM toolchain:

1. get the latest version from https://developer.arm.com/tools-and-software/open-source-software/developer-tools/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads . You can download it using your browser or a command line tool like wget:

wget https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu-rm/9-2020q2/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2

2. untar it, eg. in /opt/toolchains:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/toolchains
sudo tar xvf -C /opt/toolchains gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2

3. set your PATH environment variable:

export PATH=/opt/toolchains/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update/bin:$PATH

Installing dependencies

To upload the firmware on the NanoVNA2, you will need:

• Python 3
• pyserial

On a Debian based system, you can use:

sudo apt install python3-serial

Getting the source code

The code is spread out over 3 repositories, 2 of which are submodules of the main NanoVNA-V2-firmware one:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/nanovna/NanoVNA-V2-firmware.git
cd NanoVNA-V2-firmware

Building

Now you can build the firmware by running make in the firmware sources directory:

cd NanoVNA-V2-firmware
make

Flashing the firmware

There are two options to update the firmware when using the regular USB interface:

• Use NanoVNA-QT
• Command line For this to work the device must stay in the bootloader and enter DFU mode

Another option is using a debugger using the debug pins.

Entering DFU mode

Switch the device off
Press and hold down the left button (the one closest to the Port 1 or the On/Off switch)
Switch the device on (screen stays white), release the button

The current user probably needs to be part of the dialout group to allow access.

Flashing can be done by running:

python dfu.py -f binary.bin

On some systems you may need to invoke python3 instead:

python3 dfu.py -f binary.bin

Note that depending on your installation the device might be seen as an Mobile Modem (3G/4G/etc) and it will not open the /dev/ttyACM0 port. After a while the modem manager will give up and you can access the device. If this is too much of a burden, you need to add udev rules to block modem manager from doing so.