F3 board bootloader

Owned by Lalanne Laurent
Last updated: Jun 16, 2017

Introduction

All F3 boards (SPracingF3, SPracingF3Evo, PikoBLX, tinyFISH FC...) comes usually with BetaFlight firmware flashed on it.

We need to flash LibrePilot bootloader before firmware update using GCS.

F3 support

Currently only the Next branch supports all the F3 boards

In this page


Flash bootloader

Download bootloader

BoardBootloader
SPracingF3

bl_spracingf3.hex

SPracingF3Evo

bl_spracingf3evo.hex

PikoBLX

bl_pikoblx.hex

tinyFISH

bl_tinyfish.hex

Flash bootloader using BF

Open the Betaflight Gui app and connect the board to the USB port

  1. Disconnect the board using the disconnect button,
  2. Go to the Firmware flasher tab,
  3. Load Firmware and browse where you downloaded the bl_<BOARD_NAME>.hex file,
  4. Flash firmware,
  5. Check status.


Update firmware

After you flashed the bootloader, the board does nothing because there is no firmware running, only a slow fading led blinking.

Steps for firmware update:

  • Disconnect board from the USB port and disconnect external power (Lipo) if any.,
  • Click the 'Upgrade&Erase' button. (Board still disconnected)
  • Connect board to the USB port

The board will:

  • be recognized just after connected to the USB port,
  • flashed using the appropriate firmware for the board (according to the bootloader you flashed previously),
  • reboot and erase settings,
  • and finally remains connected, running the new firmware that matches your GCS.