Full-stack OTA | CoCan Mirror

Three concepts

OTA, protocol OTA, and licensed OTA are three different things.

Why does "can OTA add protocols?" never get settled? Because three questions get rolled into one: can it update at all, can it update the protocol chip, and is it allowed to update a private protocol. Take them one at a time and it's clear.

Plain OTA — anyone can do it now: a compatibility fix, a new feature, a protocol toggle. But a toggle is just a switch. That protocol was already in the chip; the maker shipped it turned off, and OTA turns it on. That's enabling, not adding.

Protocol OTA is different. It updates the protocol chip itself, so a device already sold genuinely grows a new protocol — adds AVS, moves UFCS to 2.0. That takes architecture, not a switch.

Licensed OTA is different again, and it has nothing to do with technical ability — it's about permission. A private protocol like Xiaomi's hyper-charge can't be pushed into a product without the owner's license, even when the capability is there. So CoCan can add AVS a year after launch, but won't push a Xiaomi protocol on its own — that's licensing, not capability.

Traditional stops at features. We reach the FPGA.

Same OTA. A very different depth of change.

A traditional charger can update only the main controller's basic functions. Its fast-charge protocols and protocol chip are fixed, and it has no FPGA at all. CANDYSIGN full-stack OTA covers the whole chain: app firmware, fast-charge protocols, each port's protocol-chip firmware, and reconfigurable FPGA hardware logic.

What actually changes

From the wallpaper down to the FPGA, every layer can change.

Some chargers say they "support OTA", but only the top layer moves: the interface, wallpaper, a few small features, and toggles for protocols they already support.

CANDYSIGN full-stack OTA reaches every module. The main controller's app firmware updates as a signed package, with rollback. Fast-charge protocols get added. And each USB-C port's protocol-chip firmware is rewritten through its own bootloader. That is how chargers already sold went from PD 3.1 to PD 3.2 and gained AVS and UFCS 2.0.

The deepest layer is the FPGA. CANDYSIGN is the only charger brand to put an FPGA in a charger. It is reconfigurable hardware: how ports split power, arbitrate, and recognize devices all runs on it, set by an encrypted, refreshable bitstream. Even what the hardware does can be rewritten in a single OTA.

Five separate questions

"Supports OTA" can mean very different things.

Full-stack OTA · CANDYSIGN SDC Traditional fixed-protocol charger

Can it do OTA at all? Yes · features, compatibility, protocol toggles Yes · features, compatibility, protocol toggles

Can it OTA the protocol chip and add protocols? Yes · new protocols to devices already sold No · protocols are locked at the factory; toggles may be available, but new protocols cannot be added

Does it hold private-protocol licenses? Yes · e.g. Xiaomi hyper-charge Some brands do

Can it OTA a private protocol to a device already sold? Technically yes · once licensed No · can't update the protocol chip

Has it added protocols to old devices? Yes · PD 3.2, AVS, UFCS 2.0 shipped No public case yet

Software-defined charging

Software is the soul of the hardware.

It is easy to assume protocols are fixed in hardware: open two chargers and see the same chip, so how could their protocol support differ? That makes "protocol OTA is just a switch" sound plausible. It is an old idea.

CANDYSIGN's SDC - software-defined charging - changes the premise. Hardware is the container, protocol firmware is software, and OTA is the delivery path. Only a brand that writes its own protocol firmware and can OTA it can make hardware that did not support a protocol genuinely support it.

Same chip, different firmware and system - different charger. SDN redefined the network, SDR redefined radio, and SDC redefines the charger: software is the soul of hardware.

Beyond full-stack OTA, there's OTW — even an entry-level charger that can't get online, and normally can't be updated at all, can still upgrade its protocols. So much for being frozen the day it ships.

That is how CoCan keeps moving forward for the long term and delivers lasting value to its owners.

Proof, not promises

Old devices really did grow new protocols.

It already happened. Full-stack OTA took devices that were sold and in use from PD 3.1 to PD 3.2 — a standard that didn't exist when they shipped. More importantly, Mirror also added AVS through OTA and upgraded UFCS to 2.0. No other mainstream brand has publicly done the same. That's what SDC means: the day you buy it isn't its ceiling.

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Not every OTA can give a charger a new brain.