AppSwitcher

App Switcher

MAXREFDES178# has a special application switcher bootloader. App-Switcher can load MAX32666, MAX78000-Video and MAX78000-Audio demo firmware using a micro SD card.

Warning: The MAXREFDES178# App-Switcher is available from version v1.1.67 and later. Please update MAX32666, MAX78000-Video and MAX78000-Audio firmware with the FaceID demo with version v1.1.67 (or later) by following the steps in the “Load Demo Firmware Using MINGW on Windows” section.

NOTE: App-Switcher is embedded in the demo firmware. It is not necessary to load App-Switcher binaries separately.

App-Switcher uses msbl files to load MAX32666, MAX78000-Video and MAX78000-Audio firmware from a micro SD card. msbl files can be found in build directory when the build is completed. Alternatively, you can download the latest .msbl files from GitHub Release or GitHub Actions.

Preparing an SD Card

• Format the micro SD card with FAT32 file system. Make sure to back up your SD Card content before formatting!

• Download the latest maxrefdes178_firmware.zip release from:

  • https://github.com/MaximIntegratedAI/refdes/releases for stable releases.
  • https://github.com/MaximIntegratedAI/refdes/actions/workflows/maxrefdes178.yml for GitHub Action builds.

• Extract zip content to the micro SD card root directory.

App-Switcher SD Card folder structure requirements:

• All demo directories must be in the root directory of the SD card.
• All demo directories must contain these files: maxrefdes178_max32666_demo.msbl maxrefdes178_max78000_video_demo.msbl maxrefdes178_max78000_audio_demo.msbl

Running App-Switcher

• Turn off the device by pressing the power button.
• Insert the micro SD card.
• While pressing Button X, press power button to turn on the device.
• The device will start in App-Switcher mode.
• If there isn't a valid demo on MAX32666 flash, App-Switcher will start automatically.

Loading a Demo From an SD Card

• Pressing Button X changes the selected demo. The selected demo will be highlighted in Green.

  

• Button Y starts the firmware update procedure for the selected demo.

• First, App-Switcher loads MAX78000-Audio firmware.

• Then, App-Switcher loads MAX78000-Video firmware.

• And last, App-Switcher loads MAX32666 firmware.

• If all three firmware updates are successful, the device will restart with the selected demo.

• If the micro SD card is not inserted, App-Switcher halts and waits for a restart. Press the power button for 12 seconds to turn off the App-Switcher.

• If the demo folder content is invalid (incorrect or missing msbl files), App-Switcher returns to the main menu.

NEXT : Recovery Procedure