Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

Hung Bui — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 11:41:33 GMT

Hi again,

Well, distance measurement is not a simple application. A simple BLE application, for example peripheral_lbs only takes 139kB of flash.

The DM application requires the BLE stack and the distance measurement library.

As I mentioned in the previous reply, please try to optimize using what inside prj_minimal.conf in peripheral_lbs. But I doubt you would be able to bring it down under 200kB to fit into nRF52832 + FOTA DFU.

Or you can use nRF52832 but instead of doing FOTA DFU you can do Serial recovery which doesn't require dual bank.

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

syed_ — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 09:52:43 GMT

Hi,

This is a simple distance measurement application provided in the SDK for which i am trying to do an OTA. Do i need to have an external flash for this? Does that mean that nordic examples given also need an external flash. I am totally lost here... A simple application taking more than 256kb flash memory is really not acceptable. can u please check? If not we might need to consider some other solution in the future as we cannot do a simple OTA on sample applications given by nordic after having bought a micro controller of 512KB. This is highly unacceptable. can u please check again?

Regards

Syed

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

Hung Bui — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 09:29:27 GMT

Hi Syed,
I have no solution here. The flash is overflow by 51kB.

The last recommendation applied:
You may need to look into the option to use external flash to receive the image, or use chip with larger flash size or optimize the application to get it fit into the dual bank set-up.

Have you considered switching to NRF52840 ?

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

syed_ — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 09:19:36 GMT

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf_5F00_dm_5F00_dfu.zip

i tried at my end but i am getting below memory overflow error:

[276/276] Linking C executable zephyr\zephyr.elf
Memory region Used Size Region Size %age Used
FLASH: 33908 B 48 KB 68.99%
RAM: 23744 B 64 KB 36.23%
IDT_LIST: 0 GB 2 KB 0.00%
[503/524] Linking C executable zephyr\zephyr_pre0.elf.
FAILED: zephyr/zephyr_pre0.elf zephyr/zephyr_pre0.map
cmd.exe /C "cd. && D:\syed\nrf_connect_sdk\toolchains\v2.3.0\opt\zephyr-sdk\arm-zephyr-eabi\bin\arm-zephyr-eabi-gcc.exe -gdwarf-4 @CMakeFiles\zephyr_pre0.rsp -o zephyr\zephyr_pre0.elf && cmd.exe /C "cd /D D:\syed\proximity_tracker\notification-device\firmware\nrf_dm_dfu\build\zephyr && D:\syed\nrf_connect_sdk\toolchains\v2.3.0\opt\bin\cmake.exe -E echo ""
d:/syed/nrf_connect_sdk/toolchains/v2.3.0/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.1.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.exe: zephyr\zephyr_pre0.elf section `text' will not fit in region `FLASH'.
d:/syed/nrf_connect_sdk/toolchains/v2.3.0/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.1.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.exe: region `FLASH' overflowed by 51664 bytes.
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status.

Can you please look into this at your end.

thank you, Hung Bui,

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

Hung Bui — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 11:14:33 GMT

Hi Syed,

The no path is actually the BLE controller and part of Zephyr, unfortunately you can't just remove them.

What you can do is to try minimize the application flash size by disable any feature that you don't use. I would suggest to look at the minimum configuration prj_minimal.conf in peripheral_lbs to see how to do it.
In my test here the flash size changed from 182kB when build peripheral_lbs with prj.conf down to 139kB when building with prj_minimal.conf.

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

syed_ — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 10:16:59 GMT

Have a look on the above to differentiate memory reports the major space is captured by no path

only the application size of one is 5kb and the other is 652 bytes

is the on path necessary, if yes, please help me out reducing the size of no path, if no help me out removing it.

THANK YOU

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

Hung Bui — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:11:06 GMT

Hi Syed,
I'm afraid that single bank update is not possible with the current OTA DFU solution with NCS. The problem here is that the application is needed to receive image via BLE. So it's not possible to delete the application to get space for the new image.

You may need to look into the option to use external flash to receive the image, or use chip with larger flash size or optimize the application to get it fit into the dual bank set-up.

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

syed_ — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:52:25 GMT

As i am using nrf52832 i am facing memory limitation, as my firmware is covering up to

Memory region Used Size Region Size %age Used
FLASH: 302424 B 512 KB 57.68%
RAM: 60284 B 64 KB 91.99%
IDT_LIST: 0 GB 2 KB 0.00%

if Iam trying to integrate DFU in the present code I am facing memory overflow i.e.,

d:/nrf_connect_sdk/toolchains/v2.3.0/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.1.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.exe: zephyr\zephyr_pre0.elf section `text' will not fit in region `FLASH'
d://nrf_connect_sdk/toolchains/v2.3.0/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.1.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.exe: region `FLASH' overflowed by 86148 bytes.

I know the MCUboot uses 2 slots, one for execution FW and the other for OTA.

Is there any possibility to use the single slot update. Update the new FW from the bootloader by overwriting the execution FW?

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

Hung Bui — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:20:38 GMT

Hi Syed,
Could you elaborate a bit more on this:

[quote user=""] Is it possible to download firmware during the bootloader process i.e., To enable BLE communication on the bootloader[/quote]

I am not 100% sure I understand what you meant.

Could you please clarify which bootloader you are looking at ?
Please be aware that MCUBoot doesn't handle BLE communication. You would need to receive the image in the application.
The only option for DFU update using only the MCUBoot is serial recovery mode which uses UART.

RE: Updating firmware in bootloader process through ble in nrf52

syed_ — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 10:31:07 GMT

Any updates regarding the above issue...