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PINGEQUA edited this page May 5, 2026 · 1 revision

Firmware Guide — Bruce Firmware for RF PACK S3

Buy RF PACK S3 — $28.99 USD | Back to Wiki Home | Bruce Firmware Flasher

Required Firmware

The RF PACK S3 requires Bruce firmware v1.14 or later on the M5Stack StickS3.

Firmware Version CC1101 Support nRF24 Support Notes
v1.14+ ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Recommended — use this
v1.13 ❌ No ❌ No Missing SPI + power patches
v1.12 ❌ No ❌ No Missing SPI + power patches
< v1.12 ❌ No ❌ No Unsupported

Why v1.14+?

Bruce v1.12 and v1.13 are missing two critical patches required for the RF PACK S3:

  1. SPI patch — The CC1101 communicates over SPI. Without this patch, the firmware cannot correctly initialize the CC1101 chipset, resulting in CC1101 NOT FOUND.
  2. Power patch — The RF board's power management (ME6211 LDO) requires correct initialization sequencing. Without this, the module may fail to power up reliably.

Bruce v1.14 introduced both patches, making it the minimum supported version.

How to Flash Bruce v1.14+

Using the Web Flasher (Recommended)

  1. Open bruce.computer/flasher in Chrome or Edge.
  2. Connect M5Stack StickS3 via USB-C.
  3. Select M5Stack StickS3 as the target device.
  4. Choose the latest stable version (v1.14 or newer).
  5. Click Flash and follow prompts.
  6. Reboot after flashing.

The web flasher uses the Web Serial API, which requires Chrome or Edge. Firefox and Safari are not supported.

Manual Flashing (Advanced)

If you need to flash manually using esptool:

esptool.py --chip esp32s3 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x0 bruce-sticks3-v1.14.bin

Replace /dev/ttyUSB0 with your actual serial port and v1.14.bin with the correct filename.

Bruce Firmware Resources

Resource Link
Web Flasher bruce.computer/flasher
Bruce GitHub github.com/pr3y/Bruce
Bruce Wiki github.com/pr3y/Bruce/wiki
Bruce Releases github.com/pr3y/Bruce/releases

After Flashing

  1. Attach the RF PACK S3 to the StickS3.
  2. Configure CC1101: Menu → RF → CONFIG → RF MODULE → CC1101 (legacy)
  3. For nRF24: activate from the Bruce menu — no configuration needed.

See Setup Guide for the full walkthrough.

For educational and authorized research purposes only.

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