At Adafruit, we really like the UF2 bootloader for installing software like CircuitPython on microcontrollers. UF2 allows you to drag-and-drop UF2 files and has a nice LED/NeoPixel indicator. No special DFU/firmware-updater software is required and you can use any computer to program a UF2-bootloader device. Once installed, you can access the UF2 bootloader by clicking the reset button twice in a row.

But what do you do with a fresh chip, or if the UF2 bootloader on your device has become corrupted? This guide will walk you through the steps of installing the UF2 bootloader using the ROM bootloader built into all RT10xx chips using software called sdphost or sdphost.exe on your PC, Mac, or Raspberry Pi.

You only have to perform this step once for fresh-from-the factory chips, or if somehow your bootloader got corrupted. The 'USB in ROM' bootloader, thankfully, cannot be damaged, so you will never need a JLink/OpenOCD hardware dongle to perform this task
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This guide was first published on Mar 27, 2021. It was last updated on Mar 27, 2021.

This page (Install the UF2 Bootloader) was last updated on Mar 15, 2023.

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