Trouble with WINC1500 on Mega2560

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sparweb
 
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Trouble with WINC1500 on Mega2560

Post by sparweb »

Hi,
I got to the step of updating firmware on the WINC1500 and then I ran into some trouble. I'll post a photo of the hardware setup in case that is the source of the problem, but the actual problem comes after making the connection and reading the firmware version. Here's the firmware check:

Code: Select all

22:23:24.156 -> WiFi101 firmware check.
22:23:24.190 -> 
22:23:24.190 -> WiFi101 shield: DETECTED
22:23:24.733 -> Firmware version installed: 19.5.4
22:23:24.766 -> Latest firmware version available : 19.6.1
22:23:24.800 -> 
22:23:24.800 -> Check result: NOT PASSED
22:23:24.834 ->  - The firmware version on the shield do not match the
22:23:24.902 ->    version required by the library, you may experience
22:23:24.970 ->    issues or failures.
Then I uploaded the firmware updater program and it seemed to upload properly. But when I ran the update utility it cannot make a connection.
It seems others have had this problem too:
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=181966&p=884911&hi ... ga#p884285
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=149461

I don't see a resolution in those threads that will help me, though.

Just to cover all the bases, I had to make a number of external wire harnesses to use the WINC1500 independently of the Mega2560. I will try to include a photo so you can see it. This is because the Mega already has a life in a datalogger and there are already a couple of shield boards on it. The shields are off the Mega now for the sake of testing and running the WIFI code without other things going on. As you can see, I chose not to use stacked-header pins on the WINC1500 for now. It can't sit on the datalogger shields anyway, they are far too busy. That's also why I used a right-angle header and a ribbon cable for the Mega's ICSP port.

AFAIK there are no pins with conflicting assignments, but you will know more than me, and may notice something wrong or that I've missed.
WINC1500 connected to Mega 2560
WINC1500 connected to Mega 2560
20220111_183601-s.jpg (216.92 KiB) Viewed 131 times
Lastly, if it's at all relevant, the I bought WINC1500 just last month, but the Mega is probably 5 years old, maybe more. Have there been changes to the WINC1500 that this Mega can't support?

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sparweb
 
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Re: Trouble with WINC1500 on Mega2560

Post by sparweb »

Thread bump.
Still trying to solve this problem.

Trying this: viewtopic.php?f=53&t=174701&hilit=mega&start=30

Worth noting, I have reviewed the product specification and the user tutorial which do say this:
The Adafruit ATWINC1500 WiFi Shield [...] works best with SAMD21-based boards like the Arduino Zero or Metro M0 Express, or Megas or M4s. It will not work/fit on other Arduinos such as 328P or 32u4-based or attiny-based boards. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-win ... or-arduino
Clearly it is supposed to work on a Mega2560 because that is what the product documentation says.

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sparweb
 
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Re: Trouble with WINC1500 on Mega2560

Post by sparweb »

I want to give a "THANK YOU" to forum member moreglia for this work-around: viewtopic.php?f=53&t=174701&hilit=mega&start=30#p870909

It wasn't a lot of information to go by, but just enough for me to figure it out. In a nutshell, you must do two things:
1) Use an older IDE version because the current one won't connect, and
2) Fool the updater into uploading a file that it's not intending to.

With the hint from @moreglia I started a laptop that hadn't been updated in a while. It still had IDE 1.8.2 on it. This probably would have worked with that version because I did get the firmware updater to connect to the WINC1500. At the moment I did that, I hadn't quite figured out the trick with the files, so the update didn't make sense: It wanted me to update my firmware from 19.5.4 to 19.5.2. Seemed like nonsense so I chose to update the IDE on the laptop to 1.8.8 as @moreglia suggested.

I did the installation process again, and found the WIFI101 library still there at version 0.16.1. That was my first hint that maybe it's the library I need to manipulate. Retracing my steps with the firmware check (same) and the updater, I got back to the firmware updater utility screen, and the connection still worked. Now I was looking at firmware 19.4.4! Somehow updating to a slightly later IDE had sent the firmware library backward. That's when the coin dropped and I understood what the last instructions from @moreglia meant.

I copied the BIN file from the WIFI101 tools folder \19.6.1 and put it into the \19.4.4 folder. This would have overwritten one of the the files in \19.4.4 folder, so I copied them into a sub-folder for safekeeping. I also duplicated the 19.6.1 firmware file to have two identical files with the same names as the two files that were previously in the \19.4.4 folder.

I restarted the updater in the Arduino IDE and "updated" the firmware to 19..4.4, this time subtly tricking the updater to use the 19.6.1 file.

Once the update process was complete, I confirmed that the CheckFirmwareVersion gave me "19.6.1" for both installed and current. Success

This sleight-of-hand should not have been necessary, and was completely counter-intuitive. I'm posting this in hopes that a more detailed explanation might possibly help someone else before they break down in tears.

I still have no idea what the differences are between firmware model "A" or "B" or how it might impact WINC1500 functionality, and still not finding info to help gauge whether I've just make this thing into a brick. Now that I've done what I've done, I don't really know what I have on the WINC1500 board or how to find out. There could be more hiccups to come as I try to use this.

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