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Convert RAK4631-R to RAK4631

The only difference between the RAK4631-R (RUI3) and the RAK4631 (Arduino) is the bootloader it is shipped with - the hardware is the same.

Meshtastic requires the Arduino bootloader on RAK WisBlock nRF52-based boards. The process of converting the bootloader only needs to be performed once.

Here are two ways to flash the bootloader:

USB Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU)​

  1. Install Python
  2. Install adafruit-nrfutil 
    pip3 install adafruit-nrfutil
  3. Download the required bootloader: WisCore_RAK4631_Board_Bootloader.zip
  4. Connect your RAK device by USB.
  5. Flash the bootloader 
    adafruit-nrfutil --verbose dfu serial --package ./WisCore_RAK4631_Board_Bootloader.zip  -p /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 --singlebank --touch 1200
    Note: The serial port name (/dev/ttyACM0) may differ depending on your operating system. Make sure to identify the correct port name for your setup.
  6. Continue with the normal flashing instructions

Extra RUI3 Steps​

If the above steps fail with errors like:

Touched serial port COM11
Opened serial port COM11
Starting DFU upgrade of type 2, SoftDevice size: 0, bootloader size: 39000, application size: 0
Sending DFU start packet
Timed out waiting for acknowledgement from device.
Failed to upgrade target. Error is: No data received on serial port. Not able to proceed.

You will need to follow the first part (through the AT+BOOT command) of the Converting RAK4631-R to RAK4631 instructions.

Debugger​

This conversion requires the use of either a DAPLink or J-Link. The most reasonably priced and available is the RAKDAP1.

  1. Install Python
  2. Install pyOCD 
    pip3 install pyocd
  3. Download the required bootloader: WisCore_RAK4631_Board_Bootloader.hex
  4. Connect the RAKDAP as follows:
  5. Flash the bootloader 
    pyocd flash -t nrf52840 .\WisCore_RAK4631_Board_Bootloader.hex
  6. Continue with the normal flashing instructions

Alternate methods of flashing are outlined here.