OTA programming

New firmware for deployed devices, over the air

OTA programming is finally here. It uploads new firmware to IoT devices “Over the Air”, or to be more precise through the internet, and solves a lot of problems when it comes to keeping device firmware up to date.

  • Renew SSL certificates.
  • Patch bugs.
  • Simply upgrade IoT products after they are deployed.

That is why this functionality has been very much pursued by IoT developers in the last years. At Thinger.io we wanted to contribute in our particular style: an extremely easy to use OTA tool, based on the best development tools, Visual Studio Code and PlatformIO for the Arduino framework, and of course on our IoT server, which manages the connection between the IDE and the devices.

Diagram: VS Code with the PlatformIO and Thinger.io extensions sends a BIN file to the Thinger.io platform in the cloud, which sends it in chunks to the remote device
Thinger.io Over The Air (OTA) infrastructure: the IDE builds the binary, the platform delivers it to the remote device.

How it works

A few configuration steps and a couple of code lines

You will find it very intuitive, really within anyone's reach.

Configure

A few configuration steps, explained in detail in the OTA documentation.

Add the code

Just a couple of code lines in the firmware.

Upload

Select the device and launch the process of compiling and sending the new firmware.
Animation of the VS Code terminal for an ESP8266 PlatformIO project: the firmware builds with the thinger.io library, the build ends in SUCCESS, and a Thinger.io notification shows the firmware uploading
From VS Code: the firmware builds for an ESP8266 and the Thinger.io extension uploads it over the air.

OTA for all

The boards in your desk drawer

The first release of our OTA technology covers the most common devices in IoT prototyping and development, devices any of us might have in a desk drawer.

Supported in the first release

Espressif
ESP32ESP8266
Arduino
Nano 33 IoTMKR WiFi 1010Nano RP2040 ConnectMKR NB 1500
Toolchain
Visual Studio Code, PlatformIO for the Arduino framework
Coming next
Linux / Raspberry PiLoRaWANSigfoxNB-IoT

In the near future we will add support for more devices, even in other frameworks like Linux / Raspberry Pi, or low-power devices like LoRaWAN, Sigfox or NB-IoT.

Even more so after realizing that the VS Code extension already had more than 500 installations in only one month.

6 boards
supported in the first release of OTA
500+
installations of the VS Code extension
in only one month

One more thing

A Remote Console for your devices

The OTA programming tool is not the only new feature: we are also releasing a Remote Console, a unique Thinger.io feature for remote access to your devices.

It creates web terminals to interact with the device as with a serial interface, and provides features to create interactive terminals on any Arduino-compatible device.

Animation of the web terminal of an ESP32: the help command lists clear, reboot, exit, help, free, millis, model, cores, log, echo and hello, and the device answers free, millis, model and cores
IoT remote terminal: commands typed in the browser, answered by an ESP32.

The console can be easily extended with new commands, which makes it especially useful to:

  • Run remote diagnosis.
  • Show logs on devices.
  • Manage device configuration.
  • Add any other functionality.

We will soon release another feature that improves the remote console with access to the file system stored on the devices, an interesting tool to keep improving the management of deployed devices.

OTA updates today, to one device or a batch: fleet management.

Get started

Ready to start building your IoT product with Thinger.io?

Talk to our sales team

Personalized information about the Thinger.io Platform for your project.

Request a demoOTA updates in fleet management