Flashing standalone BW16 (RTL8720DN) via UART bridge instead of dev board

Hello everyone,

I have a question regarding flashing firmware using the native Ameba SDK (not Arduino) onto a standalone BW16 module (RTL8720DN) instead of the BW16 development board.

Most information I have found describes the workflow using the BW16 dev kit. However, in my case I am working with a standalone BW16 module on an embedded system, and I would like to flash firmware directly to it.

For development I am using the native Ameba SDK:
https://github.com/Ameba-AIoT/ameba-rtos-d

I have already successfully:

  • built non-Arduino firmware under Linux

  • flashed it under Windows to the BW16 dev kit using ImageTool

Now I would like to do the same with the standalone module.

My main question is:

Has anyone here successfully flashed firmware onto a standalone BW16 module using a UART bridge, instead of the development board?

For example, I was considering using an ESP32 as a UART bridge, but other approaches (e.g. USB-to-UART adapters) could also be used.

More specifically, I would like to understand:

  • how the flashing procedure differs from the dev board workflow

  • whether ImageTool / Ameba IoT Tool works the same way in this setup

  • how the BW16 and the UART bridge (e.g. ESP32) need to be connected in terms of hardware and boot configuration

If anyone has experience flashing firmware to a standalone BW16 module, I would really appreciate any advice or pointers.

Thanks in advance!