QRP Labs ProgRock2 User manual
ProgRock2
ProgRock2: Triple GPS-disciplined
programmable clock
Contents
Contents.......................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1. Introducon.................................................................................................................................................................1
2. Design..........................................................................................................................................................................2
3 Connecons..................................................................................................................................................................5
4 Installaon ideas..........................................................................................................................................................8
5 Connecng terminal emulator....................................................................................................................................10
6. Firmware update procedure......................................................................................................................................16
. Resources.................................................................................................................................................................. 19
8. Document Revision History.......................................................................................................................................19
1. Introduction
ProgRock2 is the successor the popular ProgRock kit. It features improved performance, smaller
size, and is ready-assembled using all-S D components. Configuration is via a micro-USB port
which can also be used to update the firmware.
•Tiny size PCB, a little smaller than an HC6 crystal: 0.725 x 0.675 inches (18.4 x 17.1mm)
•Factory assembled, ready-to-use (no assembly required)
•3 independent 3.3V p-p squarewave outputs (2 if you use GPS discipline)
•You can feed the outputs through LPF kits to get sinewave outputs
•8 selectable “banks” of frequencies, chosen by 3 input control signals
•Frequency range approx 2kHz to 200 Hz from onboard Si5351A or S5351
•Extended frequency range up to approx. 300 Hz if you don’t mind violating the Si5351A
datasheet specifications
•Quadrature output mode (Clk0 and Clk1 on same frequency but configurable 0, 90, 180 or
270-degree phase offset)
•GPS frequency discipline using 1pps from a GPS receiver
•Power supply voltage 3.5 to 12V DC
•Frequencies and configuration stored in non-volatile memory for next power-up
•QRP Labs Firmware Update (QFU) bootloader
PL AS R AD TH NTIR MANUAL US INSTRUCTIONS V RY
CAR FULLY B FOR APPLYING POW R TO TH BOARD!
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 1
2. Design
The ProgRock2 schematic is shown below.
This is a very simple circuit consisting of:
•ST 32 Cortex 0 CPU controller
•Si5351A/ S5351 triple clock generator
•25 Hz 0.25ppm TCXO reference (Temperature Controlled Crystal Oscillator)
•IC5219 3.3V voltage regulator
•icro-USB connector
•Pads for other connections
All these are S D components, pre-assembled at the PCB factory, onto the tiny ProgRock PCB.
The Si5351A synthesizer chip is now used in many other QRP Labs products such as the QCX
CW transceiver series and QDX digital transceiver. This is a Digital Phase Locked Loop (PLL or
DPLL) synthesizer which provides three separate frequency outputs, each having a frequency
range spanning 3.5kHz to 200 Hz. The frequency stability is governed by the a crystal reference.
Due to unavailability of the Si5351A, the
equivalent S5351 may be used. For test
details on the performance of Si5351A vs
S5351 demonstrating the suitability of the
S5351 (in fact, slight superiority in many
regards), please see
http://qrp-labs.com/synth/ms5351m.html
The block diagram (right) is taken from the
SiLabs Si5351A datasheet. Briefly, the 27 Hz
reference oscillator is multiplied up to an internal
Voltage Controlled Oscillator in the range 600-900 Hz (the PLL), then divided down to produce
the final output frequency. The multiplication up and the division down are both fractional and so
the frequency resolution is extremely finely controlled. The chip has two PLLs and three output
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 2
divider units. The chip must be configured using its serial I2C interface. R1 and R2 are 1K pullup
resistors required for the I2C bus.
For high frequency stability, a 0.25ppm TCXO is used (the same TCXO as used in QCX-series
CW transceivers and QDX digital transceivers).
The Si5351A does not preserve its configuration registers through a power cycle. To provide
persistent storage of parameters, the microcontroller needs to retain the configuration parameters
in non-volatile storage. ST 32-series microcontrollers do not have onboard EEPRO and to save
parts count and board area, no additional I2C EEPRO chip has been used in ProgRock2.
Instead, the top 1KByte sector of the Flash memory of the ST 32 is used as a non-volatile
storage area for the configuration parameters.
PCB Trace diagram:
PCB Trace diagram with groundplanes:
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 3
PCB component layout, top side:
PCB component layout, bottom side:
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 4
3 Connections
This table shows the pinout of the ProgRock2 module:
Bottom Top Top Bottom
13. USB - 1. USB + 12. V+ 24. CLK 2
14. SCL 2. SWDIO 11.BANK 2 23. CLK 1
15. SDA 3. GND 10.BANK 1 22. RXD
16. 1 PPS 4. SWCLK 9. GND 21. TXD
17. +3V3 5. BANK 2 8. BANK 0 20. GND
18. GND 6. V+ 7. CLK 0 19. GND
You will note that there is a row of 6 pads along each long edge of the PCB, on top and bottom
sides, making a total of 24 possible connections. Some, such as GND, are on multiple pads. For
convenience these are labeled 1 to 24. In the diagram above, the pads on the top side are shown
closest to the PCB pads, and the bottom side pads are the outer table column.
The layout was carefully designed to allow as much future flexibility as possible.
The signals are as follows:
Signal Pins Description
GND 3, 9, 18, 19, 20 Ground.
V+ 6, 12 Positive supply voltage.
+3V3 17 3.3V output from onboard voltage regulator.
USB-, USB+ 13, 1 USB port (also connected to micro-USB connector); note,
also sometimes called USB_D , USB_DP respectively.
SWDIO, SWCLK 2, 4 Chip programming pins: Factory use only.
SCL, SDA 14, 15 I2C serial bus (internal use only, currently).
RXD, TXD 22, 21 USART port (unused currently).
BANK 0 8 Bank select input 0 (3.3V max).
BANK 1 10 Bank select input 1 (3.3V max).
BANK 2 5, 11 Bank select input 2 (3.3V max).
CLK 0 7 Si5351A Clock 0 output.
CLK 1 23 Si5351A Clock 1 output.
CLK 2 24 Si5351A Clock 2 output (not available when using GPS
discipline).
1 PPS 16 1 PPS input, connect to 1pps output of GPS for GPS
discipline. Note that the signal requires 3.3V. If using a 5V
GPS output, use a 3.9K series resistor (value not critical;
3.9K was used during testing).
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 5
Supply voltage:
ProgRock2 current consumption is approximately 30-35 mA. It does vary a little depending on
Si5351A output loading, the configured outputs and their frequency.
The IC5219 datasheet specifications for voltage and power dissipation need to be observed.
According to the IC5219 datasheet the input voltage range, for a 3.3 V 50 mA output is +3.5 to
+12 V.
At a +12 V supply and 30 mA current consumption the power dissipation in the voltage regulator
will be 261 mW. According to the IC5219
datasheet this level of power dissipation is
acceptable. Therefore even a +12V supply may be
used. However, 261 mW is quite a lot of power
dissipation (and hence heating) so you may wish to
bear that in mind and use a lower supply voltage if
possible.
The minimum acceptable supply voltage is
determined by the dropout voltage graph in the
IC5219 datasheet which for 30mA load is approx
100mV. I’d suggest allowing a little safety margin
and supply ProgRock2 with at least 3.5V.
Care should be taken when powering ProgRock2
directly from the USB cable (see below), and using a power supply connected to +V at the same
time. The USB cable +5V will power ProgRock2 via an onboard diode, resulting in about 4.4V
supply to ProgRock2. If you have connected an additional external supply voltage to ProgRock2,
and that is less than 4.4V, then your external supply will fight with the USB voltage, potentially
drawing excessive current through the onboard diode.
3.3V output
The regulated 3.3V output from the onboard voltage regulator is provided on one of the pads. If
you use this, please be sure to observe all IC5219 datasheet specifications regarding loading
etc.
Bank selection
Bank selection inputs BANK 0, BANK 1 and BANK 2 may be used to select one of 8 banks of
three frequencies programmed into the module. They have internally activated pull-up resistors.
To activate a BANK input, it should be grounded.
For example, if you want to select bank 5: ground the BANK 0 and BANK 2 inputs (4 + 1 = 5).
If the BANK pins are left unconnected, bank 0 is active by default.
Note that these processor I/O pins should not be connected to a voltage higher than 3.3V.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 6
Clock outputs
CLK 0, CLK 1 and CLK 2 are the three clock outputs from the Si5351A synthesizer. They are
unbuffered, direct connections to the Si5351A chip. As such, they should be connected with care,
so as not to damage the Si5351A chip.
The outputs are 3.3 V peak-to-peak squarewaves, with a declared output impedance in the
Si5351A datasheet of 50-ohms. What this appears to mean in practice is that if you connect a 50-
ohm load, the output will be reduced by 50%, to 1.65 Vpp.
For best phase noise performance, as well as least crosstalk between Si5351A outputs, it is
recommended to use loads of at least 1 K-ohm.
USB connection
ProgRock2 has a micro-USB connector for connecting to a host PC terminal emulator, for
configuration of the ProgRock frequencies.
+5V power may also be supplied by the micro-USB connector. There is a diode feeding the +5V
connection of the USB cable to the +V supply voltage of the ProgRock2. So if you connect only a
USB cable, ProgRock2 will be supplied from that. If you are supplying an external voltage below
4.4V damage can occur, please see section above regarding power supply.
The USB connections are also available as pads on the edge connectors.
1pps
If a positive-going 1pps signal from a GPS module such as the QRP Labs QLG2 (http://qrp-
labs.com/qlg2) is connected here, the ProgRock2 frequencies will be GPS disciplined to a high
accuracy. However CLK 2 is used by this process so becomes unavailable for your independent
configuration. CLK 2 is configured to 9,999,999.5 Hz for the purposes of the GPS discipline
procedures. GPS discipline mode is only cleared after cycling the power (when no GPS 1pps
signal is connected).
This input pin requires a signal of not more than 3.3V. If you are using the 5V output of a
QLG2, then a 3.9K series resistor is recommended (value not critical, 3.9K was what was used
during testing and development). Alternatively the QLG2 can be configured by jumper wires to
provide 2.8V output logic, this would be suitable for direct connection to the ProgRock2 input.
Unused connections
SWDIO, SWCLK are In-Circuit-Programming connections used only by the factory during initial
download of the bootloader into the ProgRock2 module. They have no further use.
SCL, SDA are the I2C bus (used for processor communication with the Si5351A) and have no
further use currently. They are provided on the edge connector for possible future expansion
possibilities.
TXD, RXD are a USART transmit/receive signal pair but are unused. The pads are provided for
possible future expansion.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 7
4 Installation ideas
There are many ways to install a ProgRock2 module in your project. The most obvious is just to
solder wires to the PCB itself. But here are some more ideas!
2x6-pin header strip
A suitable pair of 2x6-pin header strips is
available as an option when purchasing
ProgRock2. The PCB slides between the two
rows of pins (the short ends), which can then be
soldered to the pad surface. This could be done
on both long edges of the PCB for the full 24 pins
of the connection, if female header connectors
and cables were used.
Or – just connect a single 2x6-pin header along
one edge, and have the ProgRock2 module stand
up vertical on your project board, soldered in or
plugging into a 2x6 female header socket.
The pinout was quite carefully designed such that
power supply lines, Bank select inputs and Clock outputs are all available on the edge shown.
Pair of 2x6-pin right-angled header strips
Another way is a pair of right-angled header
strips as shown in the photograph. This way your
module has 24 pins and can be plugged into
either female pin header connectors on your
board or soldered in directly, with the module flat
in the same plane as your board.
These right-angled headers are available as an
option when you purchase your ProgRock2
module.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 8
Old-school edge connectors
The 0.1-inch pitch pads fit in an old-school PCB edge connector socket. This is what we did at
QRP Labs HQ to build the test and bootloader flashing jig.
Install in an HC6 crystal case
The pin layout was carefully designed so that at the left end, furthest from the micro-USB
connector, has pads for Gnd, +V and the CLK 0 output. +V and CLK 0 can be soldered
conveniently to the HC6 crystal holder pins, and a wire for Ground connected to the metal HC6
case.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 9
5 Connecting terminal emulator
Drivers
No additional drivers are required for operation with most Linux distributions, Apple ac or S
Windows 10 or Windows 11.
For older versions of S Windows, it may be necessary to install a driver for the serial port
because this driver is not on your computer already by default. This driver is available from the ST
Semiconductor website at https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stsw-stm32102.html and is
applicable to 98SE, 2000, XP, Vista®, 7, and 8.x Operating Systems. There is a description for
installation on Windows 7/8 on the QRP Labs QLG2 page http://qrp-labs.com/qlg2 so if in doubt,
please check this.
Linux special note
On Linux systems, a particular problem can occur. When the ProgRock2 (Serial) connection is
detected, the PC thinks that a modem has been connected and starts trying to send it Hayes AT-
commands dating back to 1981, implemented on Hayes’ 300-baud modem. Yes! 40 years ago…
The Operating System attempting to send AT commands to your ProgRock2 will certainly mess
everything up. Not least because when ProgRock2 receives a carriage return character, it will
enter Terminal Applications mode; this will send all sorts of characters back to the PC (as
ProgRock2 thinks it is now talking to a terminal emulator) and it will disable CAT command
processing, so your PC digi modes software will not be able to talk to ProgRock2. Disaster.
To fix this you need to issue the following commands to disable odem anager:
sudo systemctl stop ModemManager
sudo systemctl disable ModemManager
sudo systemctl mask ModemManager
This will permanently stop odem anager. If for some reason, you actually DO need
odem anager operational, for some other reason… well there IS a way to stop it just for
ProgRock2… but Google will be your elmer on this!
Additional information from Greg Majewski:
There is another Linux service, BRITTY, that does the same. BRITTY is a Braille service for
access by sight impaired people. I have encountered the problem with the 90 and Ubuntu on a
laptop (Ubuntu full version), Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspberry OS and the Orange PI 800. Here are
commands that remove BRITTY:
sudo systemctl stop brltty-udev.service
sudo systemctl mask brltty-udev.service
note output: Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/brltty-udev.service
→ /dev/null.
sudo systemctl stop brltty.service
sudo systemctl disable brltty.service
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 10
These commands are similar as used for Modem Manager service.
Terminal emulator
I use Linux (XUbuntu 18.04) and I’m using the PuTTY terminal emulator. There are numerous
other terminal applications which will work fine. You may have your own favourite. They are all
capable of correct operation with ProgRock2.
I start PuTTY using command line “sudo putty” then connect to ProgRock2 on /dev/ttyAC 0. It is
necessary to know which serial port is being used by ProgRock2. There is also a guide to
identifying the serial port at http://qrp-labs.com/qlg2 (scroll down the page).
Note that only one PC application at a time can connect to Virtual COM Serial ports.
Set the size of the terminal window to 80 columns and 24 rows.
When you click “Connect”, a blank screen should be displayed. Now press the ENTER key, to
enter the ProgRock2 configuration utility.
Configuration utility
The single screen configuration utility for ProgRock is very minimal, due to the resource
constraints of the microcontroller. It looks like this:
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 11
The notable screen elements are identified in this annotated version:
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 12
diting
Use the n or CR key to move to the next cell
Use the p key to move to the previous cell
Use backspace and the number keys to edit a cell
Editing may seem rather counter-intuitive because the cursor (arrow) keys do not function. The
reason for this is that the ProgRock2 microcontroller has limited Flash memory so a very slimline
editing tool was required, that does not take up too much code space.
The currently selected memory bank is indicated by the asterix next to the bank column – in the
above example, Bank 0 is selected.
Frequencies set to zero cause the corresponding Si5351A output to simply be switched off.
When editing is complete, press the ‘s’ key to save the configuration to non-volatile memory (Flash
memory).
Phase offset modes
CLK 1 may be configured to operate on the same frequency as CLK 0 but have a defined
(accurate) phase shift. This is useful for example, for directly driving quadrature sampling detector
type mixers. To enable this mode, set the CLK 1 frequency to one of 90, 180, 270 or 360.
•90: CLK 1 is on the same frequency as CLK 0 with a 90-degree phase shift
•180: CLK 1 is on the same frequency as CLK 0 with a 180-degree phase shift (CLK 1 is the
inverse of CLK 0 – useful for driving Push-Pull circuits such as amplifiers)
•270: CLK 1 is on the same frequency as CLK 0 with a 270-degree phase shift – useful for
selecting the opposite sideband to the 90-degree setting
•360: CLK 1 and CLK 0 are identical in phase and frequency
Limitations:
There are certain limitations on frequency in the various modes, as follows:
1. The lowest frequency attainable is a little under 3.5 kHz
2. The highest frequency is 228 Hz
3. If one output is more than 150 Hz, no other outputs may be configured
4. If GPS discipline is applied, CLK 2 is set to 9,999,999.5 Hz regardless of any configuration
settings
5. When using CLK 1 in 90-degree or 270-degree mode, the output frequency precision may
be slightly lower than normal
6. When using CLK 1 in 90-degree or 270-degree mode, the minimum frequency for CLK 0
and CLK 1 is a little under 3 Hz.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 13
GPS Discipline
GPS discipline of the frequency occurs when a positive-going 1pps signal from a GPS such as the
QRP Labs QLG2 http://qrp-labs.com/qlg2 is connected to the ProgRock2 module. In this mode,
CLK 2 is set to 9,999,999.5 Hz regardless of the CLK 2 configuration setting, and this frequency is
measured using the 1pps leading edge as a frequency counter gate.
GPS discipline is controlled by the parameters on the configuration screen, as follows:
•Adjustment: this is the error of the reference output, expressed in units of 1 / 3650’ths of a
Hz at 9,999,999.5 Hz. This value is loaded at power-up. However when GPS discipline is
applied, the value is internally updated. It is not saved to memory; when you press ‘s’ to
save the configuration, the current live GPS discipline value is copied into the memory
(startup) parameter.
•GPS threshold: When in 90-degree and 270-degree phase offset modes, this setting
controls by how many 3650’ths of a Hz at 9,999,999.5 Hz the internally calculated
adjustment parameter must change, since the last time output oscillator clocks are updated,
until the next time output oscillator clocks are updated. When not in phase offset modes,
there is always a very slight adjustment to the output frequencies, at every single 1 second
interval.
•Cal #1: this is the minimum step, expressed in units of 1 / 3650’ths of a Hz at 9,999,999.5
Hz, applied at each GPS discipline measurement interval (1 second). You could use a
smaller value, for example, if you have well enclosed ProgRock2 such that any temperature
variations will be slow. Or in some cases, you might wish to increase the value, to cope
faster with sudden extreme temperature variations. The size of the actual step at each
interval is variable; when GPS discipline is initialized, the step is large (2,000) in order to
achieve rapid convergence (calibration); thereafter it is gradually reduced until it hits the
minimum step size. If the GPS discipline algorithm notes rapid drift of the oscillator
frequency, it starts to increase the dynamic step size in order to rapidly correct for the drift.
•Cal #2: this controls an additional control loop which acts to keep the cumulative error on
the 9,999,999.5 Hz signal to precisely zero. In other words the average long-term frequency
tends to 9,999,999.5 Hz exactly. The parameter is the additional step size correction, which
is applied on top of Cal #1, at each 1 second measurement interval where the cumulative
error exceeds 0.5 Hz in total since GPS discipline was enabled. Cal #2 can be set to zero if
you do not wish to use this secondary control loop feature.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 14
GPS debug display
It is possible to enable a view of the live GPS discipline parameters for debug purposes by
pressing the ‘g’ key once.
Then the screen appears as below.
To explain these five debug parameters in turn:
1. The first parameter (1 here) is the cumulative frequency measurement error since GPS
discipline began. Remember that frequency measurement in a 1 second interval has a 1 Hz
resolution. So when you see “1” here it does not mean that the frequency is 1 Hz wrong.
But if you see a number larger than 1, this means that some accumulated frequency error
has occurred; if the Cal #2 parameter is non-zero it will gradually act to remove any
accumulated error, reducing it to 0.
2. Frequency measurement in the last 1 second interval. When GPS discipline has homed in
on the correct adjustment amount, this measurement will alternate between 9,999,999 and
10,000,000 with an average therefore of exactly 9,999,999.5 Hz.
3. 27407 is just the current value of the internal 16-bit counter used for the frequency
measurement. It will reduce by 1 every 2 seconds (0.5 Hz per second, to reflect the 0.5Hz
offset from 10.000000 Hz).
4. Fourthly, 466 / 3650 (in this case) is the current adjustment amount, and the constant 3650
to remind you that the adjustment amount is expressed in 3650’th of a Hz at 9,999,999.5
Hz.
5. The last parameter (7 in this case) is the current step size, the amount the adjustment is
adjusted, after every 1 second measurement period. The minimum value is the value
expressed in Cal #1.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 15
GPS debug Log
Pressing ‘g’ key one more time, produces a scrolling log of the GPS discipline debug parameters.
With most terminal emulators (including PuTTY) you can enable a log file. So if you want to chart
what happens to the GPS discipline under various conditions, this a useful tool.
When the GPS debug display is active or the GPS log is active, normal editing of the configuration
parameters is disabled.
So pressing ‘g’ key cycles between:
•Ordinary parameter editing operation
•GPS debug display (parameter editing is disabled)
•GPS debug log (parameter editing is disabled)
6. Firmware update procedure
One of the absolute best features of ProgRock2 is that firmware updates can be done easily, by
anyone, with no special hardware, software, tools or experience. This feature is called “QFU”
(QRP Labs Firmware Update) and provides the following features:
•asy – anyone can do the firmware update
•No additional hardware required: only a standard USB A-B cable (or micro-USB cable if
you have installed a micro-USB connector)
•No additional software required: just the standard file manager application that is already
available on any PC
•No drivers: no special drivers need to be installed, the existing drivers on any modern
operating system are used
•Works on any PC Operating System: and in the same way: Windows, Linux, ac
•Secure: firmware files are published on the QRP Labs website and are encrypted using
256-bit AES encryption technology
USB Flash memory stick emulation:
In the firmware update mode, the ProgRock2 module pretends to be a USB Flash memory stick,
having a 4 Byte capacity and implementing a FAT16 file system. This virtual “Flash stick”
contains a single file, the firmware program file in the ProgRock2 microcontroller. You may read
the file from the ProgRock2, or write a new one, just by dragging files in your file manager
application.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 16
ntering bootloader (firmware update) mode:
To enter bootloader mode, simply press ‘f’ on the terminal configuration screen. When you press f,
the terminal screen will close automatically, and a pop-up window should appear on your PC. On
my system (Linux XUbuntu 18.04) it looks like this:
Click the OK button.
The File anager window will then open, and on my system looks like this:
The ProgRock2 appears as a removable USB Flash device named “PR2”, and the folder shows a
single file which is the firmware version file, 1_00.PR2 in this example.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 17
The file name must not be longer than 8 characters, and cannot contain punctuation or spaces;
the file extension must be no more than 3 characters (hence “PR2”). This is because the file
system emulation is FAT16 and these are the specifications of the FAT16 format.
You may check the properties of the file and will note that it is a 23.5K file. ProgRock2 firmware
images are always a 23.5K file. The creation date and modification date etc. have not been set,
because it was important to minimize the size and complexity of the ProgRock2 QFU bootloader,
in order to maximize the space available to the application firmware.
You may copy the existing firmware file to another directory of your computer. Crucially, to do the
firmware update, all you need to do is copy the new firmware file to this “Flash disk”. Download the
new firmware file from the QRP Labs website, unzip it, and simply drag it into the folder where the
existing firmware file version is shown. Or copy and paste it, however you wish.
As soon as you copy the new file to the ProgRock2 “flash drive”, the ProgRock2 QFU bootloader
erases the current program from its memory and installs the new one.
The ProgRock2 firmware is 256-bit AES encrypted and this means:
•The encrypted ProgRock2 firmware file will only work on a QRP Labs ProgRock2 board, it
cannot be installed on any other board, even one containing the same processor.
•No other firmware file will work on the QRP Labs ProgRock2 board except an official QRP
Labs encrypted ProgRock2 firmware file.
The procedure will vary slightly for different Operating systems but in all cases is just a simple
matter of copying the new firmware file to the emulated ProgRock2 USB Flash drive.
The above firmware update procedure works on ANY modern OS because the QFU
bootloader emulates a USB Flash memory stick with the USB Mass Storage Device (MSD)
class, for which drivers are already present.
The QFU bootloader implements a USB device stack ( ass Storage Device class), emulated
FAT16 file system, Flash erase/write, and 256-AES encryption. It occupies the first 10K of Flash
memory leaving 21K for the application itself and 1K for the non-volatile storage of the
configuration parameters.
Important notes about the ProgRock2 firmware implementation
1. The only way to enter firmware update mode, is to press ‘f’ on the terminal screen
2. The only way to get out of firmware update mode, is to update the firmware by copying in a
new firmware file. Even power cycling doesn’t get you out of firmware update mode. If you
enter firmware update mode by mistake, you can just to a “Copy and paste” of the current
firmware in the directory. This will overwrite the firmware with itself, which is pointless
except that it does get you out of the firmware update mode.
3. When you execute a firmware update, the stored configuration parameters are set back to
their defaults; so effectively a firmware update is also a factory reset.
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 18
7. Resources
For updates and tips relating to this kit please visit the QRP Labs QDX kit page http://qrp-
labs.com/ progrock2
For any questions regarding the assembly and operation of this kit please join the QRP
Labs group, see http:// groups.io/g/qrplabs for details
8. Document Revision History
1.00 16-Feb-2023 First draft version version 1.00
1.00a 16-Feb-2023 Added some examples of installing ProgRock2
1.00b 17-Feb-2023 Added notes about GPS mode and 1pps signal being 3.3V
ProgRock2 manual 1.00b 19
Table of contents
