1. Use the download link found at http://hex2bin.sourceforge.net/
   
2. After downloading you should end up with a file called [b]Hex2bin-2.5.tar.bz2[/b]
   
3. Using a .zip manager like 7.zip, extract it to get the Hex2bin-2.5 file
   
4. Download the Pinecil version of the official IronOS 2.16 software from https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS/releases
   
5. In the IronOS 2.16 file, you should find Pinecil_EN.hex or the equivalent for the language you wish to use.
   
6. Right-click and go Open with -> Choose another app -> Find another app on this PC -> navigate to the Hex2bin-2.5 file that you extracted -> bin -> releases -> Hex2bin
   
7. Now you should have a Pinecil_EN.bin version of the IronOS 2.16 software
   
8. Download the official Pine64 Pinecil software updater from https://github.com/pine64/pinecil-firmware-updater/releases
   
9. Run the program called pinecil_firmware_updater
   
10. Hold down the negative button on the Pinecil and plug it into your computer
    
11. Select custom firmware and navigate to the Pinecil_EN.bin file
    
12. Run the updater
    

(01-12-2022, 06:31 AM)Ryderbike1 Wrote: So after struggling for a few hours through lots of attempts at updating my brand new Pinecil to IronOS 2.16 I thought id share my own experiences here and how I eventually figured it out. 

The first problem I ran into is that as of IronOS 2.16 the precompiled Pinecil version comes in .hex and .dfu formats. And of course, the official Pine64 updater does not support .hex or .dfu files, it's set up for .bin files only.

From here there are a few options. The first is that you can use the recommended dfu-util to flash the OS as well as do some other fancy features like a custom boot logo, but this requires Linux, and making a thumb drive to boot off of is something I'm frankly not qualified to explain. I hardly understand it myself and half the Linux OS seems to require a master's degree in wizardry to understand.

The second option was to convert the hexadecimal file to a binary file. There are many different methods out there to convert .hex to .bin and you should always do your own research before downloading random software. But for simplicity's sake, these instructions will assume you used the same program I did called Hex2Bin

1. Use the download link found at http://hex2bin.sourceforge.net/
   
2. After downloading you should end up with a file called [b]Hex2bin-2.5.tar.bz2[/b]
   
3. Using a .zip manager like 7.zip, extract it to get the Hex2bin-2.5 file
   
4. Download the Pinecil version of the official IronOS 2.16 software from https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS/releases
   
5. In the IronOS 2.16 file, you should find Pinecil_EN.hex or the equivalent for the language you wish to use.
   
6. Right-click and go Open with -> Choose another app -> Find another app on this PC -> navigate to the Hex2bin-2.5 file that you extracted -> bin -> releases -> Hex2bin
   
7. Now you should have a Pinecil_EN.bin version of the IronOS 2.16 software
   
8. Download the official Pine64 Pinecil software updater from https://github.com/pine64/pinecil-firmware-updater/releases
   
9. Run the program called pinecil_firmware_updater
   
10. Hold down the negative button on the Pinecil and plug it into your computer
    
11. Select custom firmware and navigate to the Pinecil_EN.bin file
    
12. Run the updater
    

So there's how I did it. It's not elegant or simple but it worked. Hope this helps someone else or at the very least pointed them in the right direction.