“Let’s start with a video. It will tell you most of what I’m going to write about today.
First of all, I have completed the USB bootloader for the solar charger. This part of the project will enable the non-technical end user to easily and reliably update the firmware in the field.
Unlike a USB HID (Human Interface Device) bootloader that requires some application to run on the host computer, this USB MSD (Mass Storage Device) bootloader requires absolutely nothing in terms of host software. It’s entirely independent of the OS used. Windows, Linux, Mac, it all doesn’t matter. As long as they can deal with a USB drive, they’re good to go. Just copy the new software (in the form of an .hex file) to the Solar Charger drive and follow the instructions on the display.
It might even be that this bootloader is the world’s first of its kind for the PIC18 platform. To be sure, this kind of bootloader has been around for years for more powerful 32-bit microcontrollers like ARM Cortex and the like. But in my online research I have been unable to find any other such project for the PIC18 family (or any other 8-bit microcontroller). So I had no choice than to write my own. If you know of any other implementation, please let me know.”