The Problem

I wanted to update my laser cutter. Therefore i choose to use the newest version of GRBL (version 1.1f) into the controller. Since I did not want to recompile the whole thing from scratch, I decided to download the lates version and just flash it into a new Arduino nano clone.

The big question was: How to do it ?

The Solution

The simplest solution was to download the hex file to my desktop and to utilize avrdude (which is also used from within the arduino ide to upload compiled code to the controller).

$ ./bin/avrdude -C./etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -Uflash:w:/home/gue/Desktop/grbl_v1.1f.20170801.hex:i -carduino -b 57600 -P /dev/ttyUSB0

avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Jan 17 2017 at 06:01:25
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "./etc/avrdude.conf"
         User configuration file is "/home/gue/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

         Using Port                    : /dev/ttyUSB0
         Using Programmer              : arduino
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 57600
         AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PC2
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : Arduino
         Description     : Arduino
         Hardware Version: 2
         Firmware Version: 1.16
         Vtarget         : 0.0 V
         Varef           : 0.0 V
         Oscillator      : Off
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.01s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p)
avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as 0
avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as 0
avrdude: NOTE: "flash" memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
         To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
avrdude: erasing chip
avrdude: reading input file "/home/gue/Desktop/grbl_v1.1f.20170801.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (30492 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 15.22s

avrdude: 30492 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against /home/gue/Desktop/grbl_v1.1f.20170801.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file /home/gue/Desktop/grbl_v1.1f.20170801.hex:
avrdude: input file /home/gue/Desktop/grbl_v1.1f.20170801.hex contains 30492 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 12.84s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 30492 bytes of flash verified

avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as 0
avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as 0
avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:00, H:00, L:00)

avrdude done.  Thank you.

To verify the result i fired up putty and i was welcomed with the version string

$ putty -serial /dev/ttyUSB0 -sercfg 115200,8,n,1,N

Thats it !