stc8prog - STC MCU ISP flash tool

stc8prog is a command line flash programming tool for STC 8051 series microcontrollers, Currently, only STC8H/STC8G/STC8A, STC15 (FWVER > 0x72) series are supported.

STC microcontrollers have an UART/USB based boot strap loader (BSL). It utilizes a packet-based protocol to flash the code memory and IAP memory over a serial link. This is referred to as in-system programming (ISP). This tool is built according to the ISP described in STC8H datasheet.

Tested MCU Types:

STC8A8K64S4A12
STC8A8K64D4
STC8G1K08A
STC8H1K08
STC8H3K32S2
STC8H3K64S4
STC8H8K64U
STC15W104
STC15F104W
STC15W408AS
STC15F2K60S2

How To Use

CLI Tool

Usage: stc8prog [options]...
  -h, --help            display this message
  -p, --port <device>   set device path
  -s, --speed <baud>    set download baudrate
  -r, --reset <msec>    make reset sequence by pulling low dtr
  -f, --flash <file>    flash chip with data from hex file
  -e, --erase           erase the entire chip
  -d, --debug           enable debug output
  -v, --version         display version information

Baudrate options: 
   4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 230400, 460800, 500000, 576000,
   921600, 1000000, 1152000, 1500000, 2000000, 2500000, 3000000, 3500000,
   4000000

Check

Communicate with MCU without changing anything. It will communicate in 2400 baud first, then switch to a higher baud for a second check

# 2400 baud -> 115200 baud
./stc8prog -p /dev/ttyUSB0

You can specify other baud with parameter -s

# 2400 baud -> 1152000 baud
./stc8prog -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 1152000

Erase Flash

This will erase the flash.

./stc8prog -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -e

Write Flash

Suggest to erase before writing flash

./stc8prog -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -e -f foo.hex

High baudrate will speed up the writing

./stc8prog -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 1152000 -e -f foo.hex

PlatformIO Integration

1. Add it to packages

By default PlatformIO places packages at /home/[username]/.platformio/packages

create a folder named tool-stc8prog under it
and place stc8prog executable under it.

2. Configurate platformio.ini

Create a new env in platformio.ini, it can be a clone of existing one, change the name and change upload_protocol option to custom, then configurate the rest accordingly, for example:

[env:stc8h3k32s2-stc8prog]
platform = intel_mcs51
board = stc8h3k32s2
upload_protocol = custom
upload_port = /dev/ttyUSB0
upload_flags =
    -p
    $UPLOAD_PORT
    -s
    1152000
    -e
upload_command = ${platformio.packages_dir}/tool-stc8prog/stc8prog $UPLOAD_FLAGS -f $SOURCE

If you want to reset the MCU by pulling DTR line low, add -r 5 to upload_flags config
If you want to make this env default, set it to default_envs

[platformio]
default_envs = stc8h3k32s2-stc8prog

For more options, please read platformio section_env_upload

3. First time upload

You can trigger upload with hotkey Ctrl+Alt+U.

If there are any erros and you want to see more detailed logs, run it in the verbose way:

Click PlatformIO icon in the left navigation panel
Expand [your env name] in PROJECT TASKS
Expand Advanced
Click Verbose Upload, this will output the full log of all commands

Build From Source

Install DEV-tools

Linux

sudo apt install build-essential

macOS

xcode-select --install

Checkout the project

git clone https://github.com/IOsetting/stc8prog.git

Compile the project

cd stc8prog
make

Optional: install to system path

sudo make install

Gentoo linux

Package dev-embedded/stc8prog-9999 located in unoficial rasdark overlay. Resulting binary will be from last commit from https://github.com/IOsetting/stc8prog.git

Build From Source in Windows under Cygwin

Run Cygwin setup
Install 'gcc-core' and 'make' packages
Use command-line git to pull latest stc8prog source to desired folder
Run Cygwin terminal
Navigate to folder with stc8prog source (windows disks are mapped to /cygdrive; eg. to navigate to 'stc8prog' folder located on 'D' drive, use 'cd /cygdrive/d/stc8prog/')
Run make to build binary

By default, Cygwin's gcc binary requires cygwin1.dll to work correctly, just copy it from Cygwin installation dir bin folder

locnlocn/stc8prog