Upgrading the Arduino Uno 8U2 using Fli

The instructions on the Arduino DFU update page are pretty vague when it comes to updating to the latest firmware using the Atmel Flip utility. Here’s what I did to get my Uno 8U2 firmware updated using Windows XP:

  1. Install Flip from the Atmel webpage. If you don’t already have a JRE, you probably want the 20 megabyte package that includes one.
  2. Download the 8U2 firmware. That’s the “Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex” file. The “UNO-dfu_and_usbserial_combined.hex” is the Arduino Uno bootloader firmware for the 328p. If you try installing the 328p firmware onto the 8U2 in Flip, you’ll get an error dialog:
    class com.atmel.flipGui.FileMenuHandler
    Address is out of range.
    
  3. I ended up cutting & pasting the hex file contents into a text editor because I couldn’t figure out how to download a single file from github, and I didn’t want the whole 200 megabyte wad.
  4. Hook up wires and touch them to the right spots on the Uno at the right time as described in this Arduino forum post by pluggy. You’ll know you did it right when Windows detects a new device. It took me a few tries to keep the first wire steady enough when touching the second wire. Make sure you’re going to the right pads – you could short out your Uno if you touch the wrong place!
  5. After Windows detects the new device, you don’t have to hold the wires in place any more. Move them to the side so you don’t accidentally short out something.
  6. When the Windows device installer comes up, select “have disk” and install the Atmel USB driver. By default the Atmel USB driver is installed in C:\Program Files\Atmel\Flip 3.4.2\usb\atmel_usb_dfu.inf
  7. Notice that the driver is AT90USB82, not ATmega8U2
  8. Although it tells you that you have to reboot XP when you install the driver, I didn’t bother.
  9. Start Flip from the Program menu
  10. File->Load HEX file->Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex
  11. Device->Select->AT90USB82
  12. Settings->Communication->USB and press Open
  13. At this point, you should be ready to program. Press the “Run” button on the main screen.
  14. Programming is quick, taking about 4 seconds. After it’s done, remove the two wires you put in earlier, then unplug the USB cord and reinsert it.

Once you’ve done that, your Uno should be out of DFU mode and back into normal mode.

You can go to My Computer->Manage->Device Manager->Ports (COM & LPT), right-click on “Arduino UNO” and select “Properties”. Under the Details tab, Firmware Revision should now be 00.01.

8 Responses to Upgrading the Arduino Uno 8U2 using Fli

  1. Kyle says:

    Hi, I’m new to using Arduino and am trying this as a first project. I’ve followed these steps successfully, and I’m not exactly sure what to do next. I’ve tried giving the Uno some sample code I found and it compiles, but won’t upload. The error says:

    avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0×00
    avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0×14, resp=0×51

    If you could give some more guidance to a complete noobie, I’d appreciate it. Thanks for the tutorials so far.

  2. colin says:

    For one of my projects I need to get the Arduino appear as a 3D mouse rather than a serial device.

    Has anyone tried to reprogram / reconfigure the Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex code to appear as a HID device – but still allow the ATmega8U2 to upload sketches to the Arduino as normal?

    I know Teensy managed to have this an option on their devices.

  3. MikeMike T. says:

    Thank you – thank you – thank you!!

    This worked perfectly!

  4. MikeMike T. says:

    Oh one slight thing, I don’t know if it is the particular version of flip I downloaded, but in step 10 where you say: “File->Load HEX file->Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex” this is grayed out, and can’t be selected.

    I had to do step 11 first “Device->Select->AT90USB82″ then I could select the .hex file

    Other than that, all went very well! Again thank you!

  5. Hui says:

    Thanks a lot for your post helped me a lot.

    One addition the file name and the path to the hex file should have no special charakters. When you get message “cannot open file” in flip change directory or file name.

  6. chris says:

    hi not sure if this post will get checked however;
    im using your instructions to get my arduino uno out of DFU mode (not sure how i got into it), and when i press Run in FLIP i get a Blank Check error at 0×0000.. do you have any tips to go about this? I also tried running FLIP in admin mode. :(
    everything else in the instructions seems to have worked fine, i skipped the wire-touching as my board was already in DFU mode, should i go back and start again from there? :S
    cheers

    • andrewmemory says:

      You might want to try not selecting the “Blank Check” box – that will prevent the test that does the blank check. According to the FLIP user manual it looks like there needs to be some config for blank checking to work.

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