Firmware Access

The Sandia Hand firmware is being developed by the Open Source Robotics Foundation, and is completely open-source from top to bottom. The firmware is compiled using GCC-ARM and can be debugged using GDB, providing one has the appropriate cables: due to space constraints in the finger links, we were unable to provide standard JTAG headers and instead (tragically) had to use tiny 0.4mm dual-row connectors. However, all microcontrollers and the hand frame FPGA can receive software updates through a mildly complex chain of bootloaders.

The bootloading infrastructure and application firmware are completely open-source and available here. Although it should be impossible to bork the bootloaders without trying fairly hard, please contact us first (details at top) before using the bootloader scripts, so we can resolve any questions ahead of time.