Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Dale R — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:30:11 GMT

Great, thank you for confirming that it was not a problem on our end. We will proceed with the DK approach for now...

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Kenneth — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:27:17 GMT

I can see the same here and have reported it now. Due to summer holiday's etc it may take some time to fix. Please order yourself an nRF5340-DK so you can use for programming and debugging.

Kenneth

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Dale R — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 16:27:59 GMT

... sorry, I should have mentioned that we just downloaded and used the latest nrfutil v7.5.0.

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Dale R — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 16:20:16 GMT

Thank you for the reply! We installed and tried nrfutil, both with the ZIP file mentioned above, and also with the app_signed.hex from a Zephyr Blinky binary that we built with VS Code. They each had a different problem.

With the pre-compiled ZIP file, the console first shows "Erase Image" for about 20 seconds, then it overwrites that, and shows the error shown below. This seems to "feel" similar to what happened when using the Programmer GUI with the ZIP file.

nrfutil device program --firmware 2023-06-09-precompiled-application-firmware\Peripheral_LBS\pe
ripheral_lbs\peripheral_lbs_2.4.0_thingy53_nrf5340.zip  --traits mcuBoot
[00:00:20] ###### 100% [5/6 AB1EBC906921406F] Failed, [mcuBoot] Error when programming through MCUBoot: Unable to progra
Error: One or more program tasks failed

With the Blinky HEX file, it seems to program and show "Upload image" to "about" 80%, then overwrites that, and shows an error:

nrfutil device program --firmware app_signed.hex  --traits mcuBoot
[00:00:24] ###### 100% [5/6 AB1EBC906921406F] Failed, [mcuBoot] Error when programming through MCUBoot: Unable to progra
Error: One or more program tasks failed

The reason I say "about" 80% is that that number is slightly different on each run. The second time I tried it was 76%, another time it was 79%, and another it was 89%, so it seems like more of a timing thing than a specific point in the binary upload.

Of course, this is my first time using nrfutil, so I may just be making some mistake on the command line, or maybe the project that created the Blinky app_signed.hex was not set up correctly.

Thank you!

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Kenneth — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 14:28:27 GMT

Do you see the same if using nrfutil from command line?
One tool to rule them all: nRF Util becomes a unified command line utility

RE: Trouble programming Thingy 53 via USB Bootloader method

Kenneth — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 12:35:03 GMT

Hello,

I don't have access to a thingy at the moment, but I will try to replicate this later.

For development I strongly recommend to get a nRF5340-DK for proper development environment (e.g. programming and debugging). Using the nRF5340-DK you can also program and debug the thingy 53:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/ug_thingy53/UG/thingy53/hw_description/program_debug_if.html

Kenneth