Patent ID: 9652222
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A prototyping apparatus comprising: a housing; a connector on the housing for accepting a component; a microcontroller within the housing for interacting with the component to facilitate prototyping of a system that uses the component, the microcontroller having program memory; a user interface on an exterior surface of the housing for interaction between a user and the apparatus; a connection to a source of upgrade software; programming circuitry within the housing for causing the microcontroller to enter an upgrade mode, responsive to a command received through the user interface, to load the upgrade software; a processor in communication with the microcontroller and the user interface; and a device driver running on the processor for actuating the programming circuitry responsive to the command received through the user interface; wherein: the processor executes user software, the user software including: commands to read and interpret the upgrade software, commands to assemble a binary image from the upgrade software, and commands to communicate with the device driver to actuate the programming circuitry to load the binary image into the program memory of the microcontroller.