WiFire failed to upload code

[Muminek]

Hi, 

I have 5 ChipKit Wifire boards. I have received them with preloaded FlowCloud app. I have experience with different embedded boards - I was able to use them without problems. 

After connecting Wifire with my PC (Windows 7) I'm able to connect with FlowCloud app on the board through serial communication. I can set up wifi configuration etc. But I can't upload any code to the board - if I compile & try to upload example code (Blink) MPIDE compiles and then infinitely tries to upload code. Sometimes it throws back an error " Serial port already in use" - probably it's FlowCloud app trying to configure through serial port. Manually resetting device didn't help, either installing FTDI drivers, using different boards ( from 5 available), different PC, different cable, different version of MPIDE. I don't own chipKIT programmer (like this http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,892,1078&Prod=chipKIT PGM) and I would like to avoid buying this - unfortunately I don't have money for that atm : ) 

LED states - first LED is blinking in interval of 1000ms ( according to FlowCloud documentation, it tries to configure WiFi). 

FlowCloud documentation didn't help me. They suggest using PGM programmer, but I don't think that's the best solution - I prefer to use bootloader on the board and upload code with USB cable. Is this not possible in Digilents chipKIT solution? 

[JColvin]

Hi Muminek,

Presuming you already have the J16 jumpered in the UART position (which is usually the source of the error you're describing), there isn't going to be a whole lot you can do through MPIDE.

If it is in fact the FlowCloud app that is using the Serial port which is not letting you program the board otherwise, the only thing I can conveniently think of is if the FlowCloud app allows you internally change which Serial (UART) port it is using on the chipKIT WiFIRE since the USB port on the board is hard-wired to Serial (as opposed to Serial1 which uses alternate UART pins available on the MZ chip). I do not know if this is possible with the FlowCloud app though.

However, even if you do manage to do that, when you upload the Blink sketch from MPIDE, it is my understanding that it will overwrite any pre-existing code that has been uploaded to the board (excluding things like the bootloader and whatnot), so it would likely overwrite the FlowCloud app that has been preloaded. 

After doing some digging around on my own, it looks like (according to this page) that no configuration exists for the WiFi setup. It looks like you can change some of those settings as listed here. 

In the end though, I don't think you're going to be able to use MPIDE to program the board conveniently. The MPLAB X (developed by Microchip) looks like it could program the board without overwriting some of those settings, which is probably why they recommend using some sort of programmer like the chipKIT PGM. Digilent only manufactures the Wi-FIRE board though; the FlowCloud app was developed by Imagination and appears to be (I can't speak on this for certain) supported through their forum.

Thanks,
JColvin