Recovering The Things Gateway after erasing full serial flash

[arjanvanb (Arjan)]

@textra

we did reset by holding the button while powering on the gateway.

@BoRRoZ

so you don’t have a bootloader on board

Are you sure? I erased the serial flash quite a few times and that certainly did not erase the bootloader^†. Also, from another topic:

@htdvisser

The firmware update does not overwrite the bootloader of the gateway. If things go terribly wrong you’ll be able to flash firmware from an SD card.

Of course, this does not mention pressing the Mode button while booting, but also does not mention the need for a PICkit in case of failure.

If holding down the mode button can indeed erase the bootloader then I feel the instructions should be removed from TTN Gateway - FAQ altogether.

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^† I even think it did not erase the factory firmware, according to my January 18th and January 25th posts, where I only got updated firmware on February 6th, so would not have had an SD card inserted to re-flash the firmware in January, I think.