Doing an FOTA via ble using a Nordic Development kit

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

I have a Nordic Development Kit (NDK) that is connected to a Raspberry Pi via USB.The NDK uses Nordic UART Service Central (NUS_C) to connect to a nearby Nordic Device (Test Unit) and Send Data. The Test Unit has NUS Peripheral and DFU service. Using NRF connect for Andriod, I have successfully done a FOTA over ble on the Test Unit .

My question is: is there any service I can add to the NDK that will allow me to do the FOTA using the NDK itself?

the NDK is NRF52832 module (PCA10040)
the Test Unit is also a NRF52832.

Note : I Know that I can use a Nordic USB Dongle and NRF Connect for PC for the Task, But I want to add the FOTA Feature on The NDK.
The NDK is successfully able to Connect and Transmit Data using NUS. The connection Filters are set to Mac-address.

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi,

Do you use the nRF5 SDK or the nRF Connect SDK?
Which version?

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

I am using NRF5 SDK version 15.2.0

Regards,
Eucaristo Mendes

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

You want to send the firmware update from one DK (DFU client) to another DK (DFU server), right?

If so:

No, we do not have an DFU client in the nRF5 SDK.

If you want to implement your own, see https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fsdk_nrf5_v17.1.0%2Flib_dfu_transport_ble.html&cp=9_1_3_5_2_2_3&anchor=lib_dfu_transport_msc

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

We are currently using a seperate PCA10059 Dongle with ble_connectivity.hex that can do an FOTA on our Test Unit. Is it possible to get the Source code of the file so that we can integrate the FOTA service on our NDK.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

You want to send the firmware update from one DK (DFU client) to another DK (DFU server), right?

Can you answer this?

Eucaristo said:

We are currently using a seperate PCA10059 Dongle with ble_connectivity.hex

ble_connectivity.hex is just a front-end for Bluetooth Low Energy, and does not have any built-in FOTA functionality.
The FOTA is handeled in pc-ble-driver, which is written in python.
So the easiest way to do what I think you want would be to implement your own solution, as described

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

If you want to implement your own, see https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fsdk_nrf5_v17.1.0%2Flib_dfu_transport_ble.html&cp=9_1_3_5_2_2_3&anchor=lib_dfu_transport_msc

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

Apologies for the Confusion.

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

You want to send the firmware update from one DK (DFU client) to another DK (DFU server), right?

No. The Firmware to be sent  is stored in Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is connected to the NDK via SPI (or USB). The Raspberry Pi will control all operations of the NDK, including the Initiating the FOTA process(which is currently on a separate DK Dongle) .

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

ble_connectivity.hex is just a front-end for Bluetooth Low Energy, and does not have any built-in FOTA functionality.
The FOTA is handeled in pc-ble-driver, which is written in python.

We want to add the front-end for Bluetooth Low Energy functionality in the NDK, which the Raspberry pi can initiate.

Whatever the pc-ble-driver plus the ble_connectivity.hex  does we want that connectivity hex part to be integrated on our NDK side. Please Suggest how to proceed with this integration.

Regards,
Eucaristo Mendes

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Eucaristo said:

Whatever the pc-ble-driver plus the ble_connectivity.hex  does we want that connectivity hex part to be integrated on our NDK side. Please Suggest how to proceed with this integration.

For this you would need to manually implement sending FOTA images in the nRF5 SDK, as explained below.
Then you must decide how you want to transfer the file from the Raspberry Pi to the dongle.

This will be a lot of work.
As long as you do not have memory limitations on the raspberry pi, I suggest that you use the raspberry pi to host pc-ble-driver, and then just run ble_connectivity.hex on the dongle. As far as I can see, this will do the exact same thing as what you are trying to do.
See Connection 3B+ ARMv8 and NRF 52840 Dongle  for how to use the pc-ble-driver with a raspberry pi.

Regards;
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

As long as you do not have memory limitations on the raspberry pi, I suggest that you use the raspberry pi to host pc-ble-driver, and then just run ble_connectivity.hex on the dongle.

I am already running my custom firmware that i use to connect and communicate to the Test Device. So wouldn't I have to flash the NDK every time i want a FOTA and then flash my own firmware?

I have multiple Devices that i will be using as test Device so it would be impractical for me to flash the NDK every time.

Regards,
Eucaristo Mendes

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Aha, you need connectivity.hex to run on the dongle along with your other custom dongle code?

The connectivity.hex is automatically built using pc-ble-driver.

See how it connectivity.hex built from https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-ble-driver/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Eucaristo]

Hi,

Sigurd Hellesvik said:

No, we do not have an DFU client in the nRF5 SDK.

Does nRF connect SDK(NCS) have a DFU client?

If the NCS does have a DFU client, if we were to port our NDK firmware to the NCS and integrate DFU client functionality into it, would it be possible to perform  (FOTA) updates on a Test Unit that is based on the nRF5 SDK?

Regards,
Eucaristo Mendes

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Eucaristo said:

Does nRF connect SDK(NCS) have a DFU client?

Yes. It is called an SMP Client.

We are working on an official client at https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/pull/56934/, but as far as I know, it does not have a finished sample yet.

In the meantime, I got two unofficial samples for SMP Clients at https://github.com/hellesvik-nordic/samples_for_nrf_connect_sdk/tree/v2.2.0/bootloader_samples/client_smp

Eucaristo said:

would it be possible to perform  (FOTA) updates on a Test Unit that is based on the nRF5 SDK?

The NCS FOTA procedure is not compatible with the nRF5 SDK FOTA procedure.
So you can not use an SMP Client for nRF5 Fota.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik