2024-11-24 - remote flashing embedded device

recently, when working on YALS pet-project, i had a need to flash the board via attached programmer… but in such a way that would not back-feed 12V to my PC, in case i mess sth up in wiring / design. the answer was simple – just use SBC with WiFi, that can be considered disposable, in case of a hard-failure.

my weapon of choice was raspberry pi zero W, as it's:

• small
• cheap
• WiFi-enabled
• can natively support SWD for RP2040 flashing

i must say – it worked like a charm! :) at the end of the day i managed to not release any magic smoke from either of the boards. yet stil knowing that i have a proper, physical isolation between my PC and test circuitry kept my mind calm and allowed me to focus on the real deal.