Get started with the Dev Board
The Wi-Fi Developer Board serves as a tool to debug the Flipper Zero firmware. To debug the firmware, the initial step involves compiling the firmware from its source code. This process enables the debugging functionality within the firmware and generates all the necessary files required for debugging purposes.
Update the firmware of your Developer Board before using it. For more information, visit Firmware update on Developer Board.
You’ll need Git installed on your computer to clone the firmware repository. If you don’t have Git, install it by doing the following:
%mac%MacOS
On MacOS, install the Xcode Command Line Tools package, which includes Git as one of the pre-installed command-line utilities, by running in the Terminal the following command:
%linux%Linux
On Linux, you can install Git using your package manager. For example, on Ubuntu, run in the Terminal the following command:
For other distributions, refer to your package manager documentation.
First, clone the firmware repository:
Then, run the Flipper Build Tool (FBT) to build the firmware:
The Developer Board can work in the Wired mode and two Wireless modes: Wi-Fi access point (AP) mode and Wi-Fi client (STA) mode. The Wired mode is the simplest to set up, but requires a USB Type-C cable. The Wireless modes are more complex to set up, but they allow you to debug your Flipper Zero wirelessly.
To connect the Developer Board in Wired mode, do the following:
Cold-plug the Developer Board by turning off your Flipper Zero and connecting the Developer Board, and then turning it back on.
On your computer, open the Terminal and run the following:
%mac%MacOS
%linux%Linux
Note the list of devices.
Connect the Developer Board to your computer via a USB-C cable.
Rerun the command. Two new devices have to appear: this is the Developer Board.
Open the Terminal in the flipperzero-firmware directory that you cloned earlier and run the following command:
This will upload the firmware you’ve just built to your Flipper Zero via the Developer Board. After that, you can start debugging the firmware using the GDB debugger. We recommend using VSCode with the recommended extensions, and we have pre-made configurations for it.
To debug in VSCode, do the following:
In VSCode, open the flipperzero-firmware directory.
You should see a notification about recommended extensions. Install them. If there were no notifications, open the Extensions tab, enter @recommended in the search bar, and install the workspace recommendations.
In the Terminal, run the ./fbt vscode_dist command. This will generate the VSCode configuration files needed for debugging.
In VSCode, open the Run and Debug tab and select Attach FW (blackmagic) from the dropdown menu.
If needed, flash your Flipper Zero with the ./fbt flash command, then click the Play button in the debug sidebar to start the debugging session.
Note that starting a debug session halts the execution of the firmware, so you’ll need to click the Continue button on the toolbar at the top of your VS Code window to continue execution.
To learn about debugging, visit the following pages: