Lobaro Config Tool
The Lobaro Config Tool (a.k.a. Lobaro Maintenance Tool) can be used to configure and diagnose Lobaro devices locally using a PC and our special USB configuration adapter. It's available as free download for all common operating systems.
Download
See: https://github.com/lobaro/flash-tool-release/releases
- Windows:
...windows_x86_64.zip - Linux:
...linux_x86_64.zip - macOS (ARM):
...mac_arm64.zip - macOS (INTEL):
...mac_x86_64.zip
System Requirements
The tools runs as local webserver and the user frontend is accessed using a standard browser.
Operating systems
The tools is available for the following operating systems:
- macOS
- Windows 7/10/11
- Linux
Default UART config
The default uart configuration is:
- 115200 Baud
- 8 data bits
- Even parity
- 1 stop bot
This UART configuration is used by all Lobaro devices on the "Config" port.
Installation
Windows
After downloading unzip and simply start the "lobaro-tool.exe" with double click.
Windows might show up a security warning and ask you to proceed anyway. This behavior is normal.
macOS / Linux
After downloading and unzip the "lobaro-tool" file, e.g. to a directory "lobaro" in your home path. Then make the tool file executable:
cd ~/lobaro
chmod +x lobaro-tool
./lobaro-tool
Connection setup
Connect your Lobaro Device using the Lobaro Config Adapter to the USB-port of your computer.
When your device is successfully attached to your computer, you can build a connection with the Lobaro Maintenance Tool.
Under Hardware Connection select auto and click Connect, as seen in the screenshot above. If you know to which port the device is connected to your computer (either COM or ttyUSB), you can alternatively select it explicitly instead of using auto.
Device configuration
When you are connected to a Lobaro Device, you can use the Tab named CONFIGURATION to read and change the configuration parameters of the Device. You can read out the current configuration from the device by pressing the Reload Config button (reading takes a few seconds).
Every time you use one of the buttons Reload Config. Write to Device, or Restore Default, the connected device will be rebooted! Also keep in mind that the operations triggered by pressing the buttons include communication with the device over a serial bus and they will take a few seconds.
To avoid errors, please do not press those buttons repeatedly!
When the configuration is read, you can alter the parameters by clicking on the pencil icon on the right. Values that you changed will printed in bold font. When you have adjusted all values you want to change, you must press Write to Device to actually change anything in the device internal memory! Writing the values will also reboot the device.
The Button Restore Default will reset all config parameters of the connected Device to their internal default values. The device will reboot, and the listed values of the configuration in the Lobaro Maintenance Tool well be updated.
When you are working with multiple devices, make sure that your always press Reload Config after attaching a new device before you start updating values. If you fail to do so, you might accidentally transfer values from the previously attached device to the newly connected. This is especially a problem when working with LoRaWAN sensors, as you will copy the DevEUI from one device to the other! This can be reverted by using the Restore Default functionality.
You can watch the rebooting of the Device and check the altered configuration parameters by locking in the LOGS Tab.
Device uart logging
All of our Devices provide extensive logging information over the CONFIG port. When you are connected to a Device in the Lobaro Maintenance Tool, you can read the log messages in the LOGS Tab. This feature is helpful if you try to find out the cause of problems you experience. You can also find out a lot of information about your Device, for example you can find the parameters used to connect your LoRaWAN Devices to your Network Server (DevEUI, AppKey, etc.).
All messages are displayed in the big text area, each line is prefixed by the time it is received (using the clock of your computer). You can use Clear Log to start again with an empty text area. The cleared messages will still be available through the log files that the tool creates.
When starting, our devices print out their current configuration parameter values. Most Devices also have a power on test, that checks if attached sensors can be read successfully. Any Problems that the Device detects will be printed to the log.
Restarting
The LOGS Tab also contains a button Run (reset). This button triggers a reboot of the attached device. This can be useful when you start working with your device or if you try to fix issues with connected sensors.
Log-Files
The logs are also written to files on your computer. Every time you start the Lobaro Maintenance Tool, a new log file is created. When you press the button Show Log Files in the upper right location of the tool, a file browser is opened at the location where log files are kept.
- Windows:
%homepath%\.lobaro\logs - Linux / Mac:
~/.lobaro/logs - File Name:
<DATE>-uart-log.txt
Sending to the device
Below the text area is an input field Send via UART. Text entered here (and confirmed with Enter) will be sent to the connected Device via UART. Some of our Devices use this feature, for example the LoRaWAN Modbus Bridge for its interactive Dialog Mode.
Log parsing
If you need to parse the log messages of one of our Devices with your own tools, you can connect to it without the Maintenance Tool by using any serial UART reader. You can find the UART parameters above. Take care on the additional control lines (DTR, RTS) to have the right state to keep the device run the firmware.
Device firmware update
Our devices are shipped ready to use with firmware installed on them, so normally you do not need to install firmware yourself. However, over time we sometimes add new features to our devices or fix bugs that come up over time. If you want to use those improvements for devices all ready shipped to you, you can update the firmware yourself.
This page describes how you install firmware on devices that you have physical access to. This can be done for most of our devices, those using LoRaWAN and those using NB-IoT/LTE-M.
Our NB-IoT/LTE-M devices also support installing firmware over the air, without physical access. Check the platform documentation for details.
Current firmware identification
The currently installed firmware can be identified in the device log using the lobaro tool:
Alternatively in the Lobaro IoT Platform:
Getting the firmware update
You will need the new firmware you want to install to your device as a file on your computer.
You can get the latest firmware files from this documentation on the firmware subpage for your specific Lobaro product.
The files are
in a format called Hex and are therefore also called Hex-File. The filename always starts with app- and contains the
version number as well as a short description of its function and the hardware it is used for. So, for example,
app-nrf9160-wmbus-TZ2-0.3.1-mcuboot-slot0.hex contains the app-nrf9160-wmbus firmware in
version 0.3.1.
Usually you should only install updates of the same firmware that is currently installed on your Lobaro device.
Installing new firmware
Make sure your Device is successfully attached to your computer and the Maintenance Tool is connected, as described above. In the Tab FIRMWARE you can select the Firmware file you want to install using the button Select Hex File. This will open a file selection dialog, where you can select the hex-file with the Firmware you want to install to your Device. To start installing you need to press Flash Hex File. The upload will take several seconds; progress will be displayed by the blue progress bar. It turns green on successful completion. You can verify the installation succeeded and your Device is now running the correct version by checking the LOGS Tab.
You should also take a look at the Configuration Parameters. When an update adds new features, there might be new Configuration Parameters to set, or some existing Parameters might work differently. Check the Firmware's Changelog to see what changed between versions and what you have to look out for, for your individual Firmware update.