[question] What do I need to watch out when flashing?

[ViktorTrojan]

I was wondering if someone could give me insights on what I should be watching out when flashing. I have a RK84 RGB ISO Return Keyboard and dumped both the isp and bootloader. I would like to try and flash smk onto it but worry something could go wrong. Does smk also change the bootloader? and if it doesnt and I still mess up is it then possible to enter bootloader and flash back the original firmware with this tool? or do I need to physically open the device and short the reset pins or something like that?

[carlossless]

@ViktorTrojan

This tool won't overwrite the bootloader. Due to the way these ISP bootloaders work, if flashing main firmware fails midway, the keyboard will continue to operate in bootloader-only mode, until a new firmware is successfully written to the device.

That said...

If you successfully flash "broken" firmware that doesn't have a working subroutine to get you back into ISP mode, you won't be able to overwrite it over USB again.

If you get to that state you will only be able to restore your original firmware with a dedicated programmer tool like the sinolink and the prowriter software.

Also, I don't recommend using SMK at this point unless you're interested in experimentation & development and understand that it might brick your device.

[ViktorTrojan]

@ViktorTrojan

This tool won't overwrite the bootloader. Due to the way these ISP bootloaders work, if flashing main firmware fails midway, the keyboard will continue to operate in bootloader-only mode, until a new firmware is successfully written to the device.

That said...

If you successfully flash "broken" firmware that doesn't have a working subroutine to get you back into ISP mode, you won't be able to overwrite it over USB again.

If you get to that state you will only be able to restore your original firmware with a dedicated programmer tool like the sinolink and the prowriter software.

Also, I don't recommend using SMK at this point unless you're interested in experimentation & development and understand that it might brick your device.

is it possible to do it with some arduino? would like to know more about this topic but cant find much online

[carlossless]

is it possible to do it with some arduino? would like to know more about this topic but cant find much online

Yes, projects like https://github.com/gashtaan/sinowealth-8051-dumper & https://github.com/gashtaan/sinowealth-8051-bl-updater are basically that but need a little more work to allow you to write full dumps to the devices (among possibly other things).