OTA/DFU of Custom nRF9160, nRF5340, nRF52833 hardware

RE: OTA/DFU of Custom nRF9160, nRF5340, nRF52833 hardware

mn616 — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:59:39 GMT

Agreed. We would like to transition the nRF52833 development to the Nordic Connect SDK. That will likely be down the road since the nRF5 SDK was used to test and qualify that piece of our product.

Many thanks for the feedback.

RE: OTA/DFU of Custom nRF9160, nRF5340, nRF52833 hardware

Kenneth — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 07:25:17 GMT

I think this looks good. As you write, the challenge is the update of the nRF52833 here since it's using the nRF5 SDK, maybe you can consider updating the nRF52833 to NCS also at some point, and then you can update the nRF52833 through UART (instead of BLE). Unfortunately we don't have any DFU controller application for the legacy nRF5 SDK, but it is documented here if you want to take a look at how its' done for BLE for nRF5 SDK:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/sdk_nrf5_v17.1.0/lib_dfu_transport_ble.html?cp=9_1_3_5_2_2_3#lib_dfu_transport_msc

Kenneth

RE: OTA/DFU of Custom nRF9160, nRF5340, nRF52833 hardware

mn616 — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:20:26 GMT

Hi Kenneth, many thanks for the suggestions and feedback. Unfortunately, the board design has been finalized so the re-routing of the UART is not an option at this time. However, could I get your opinion on this configuration?

Updating nRF9160

AWS -> nRF9160 using FOTA

Updating nRF5340

AWS -> nRF9160 (using Download Client) -- UART --> nRF5340 (using SMP Server/MCU Mgr over UART)

Updating nRF52833

As I was mentioning, the nRF52833 is a legacy product and can be updated using Nordic's DFU mobile application. At this point in time, there is no urgency in getting the nRF9160 to update the device as we have the phone app as a backup plan. However, is there a DFU Controller application source code available for the nRF5340? As was mentioned, the nRF52833 firmware was developed using the nRF52 SDK (ie non-Zephyr). This is what I was thinking:

AWS -> nRF9160 (using Download Client) -- UART --> nRF5340 (using SMP Server/MCU Mgr over UART) -- BLE --> nRF52833 (using BLE DFU Controller on the nRF5340)

Many thanks!

RE: OTA/DFU of Custom nRF9160, nRF5340, nRF52833 hardware

Kenneth — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 13:34:11 GMT

Hello,

We don't have any ready made here, but you may find the last answer here useful:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/101208/doing-an-fota-via-ble-using-a-nordic-development-kit/434342

Personally I would look into the possibility to route the UART directly from the nRF9160->nRF52833 for DFU, maybe you have some spare gpio that you can use to inform which of the nRF5340 or nRF52833 should have recepetion of the UART. That said, it should be possible to just have the nRF5340 to forward all traffic between the two UARTs.

Kenneth