Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Ivan Popov — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:49:14 GMT

Thanks for all of these resources! I'll definitely make some time to check them.
We are waiting for some more confirmations but it appear that finding a proper operator that supports at least one of the two protocols here will be problematic. I guess that freezes the usage of Thingy:91 for us for the moment. :/ Very sad.

On the device level I watched the logs in the LTE Link Monitor - the missing network was confirmed there; and the RSSI Viewer only shows an empty diagram.

The person who bought the device was actually convinced that we will be able to use it through WiFi but we've seen that this is not an option. The same goes for the other two Thing:53 units which we'll have to access through a Blutooth Mesh or with a Zigbee Gateway.

I guess at this point I'll just close the ticket.

Thank you for your support, Øyvind!

Best regards,

Ivan

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Øyvind — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 12:19:46 GMT

[quote user="Ivan Popov"] elsewhere in the forum that it is possible to use another SIM provider with nrfCloud[/quote]

nRF Cloud is only used to activate and manage the iBasis SIM provided with your DK or Thingy:91. There is no special SIM provider needed to use nRF Cloud.

[quote user="Ivan Popov"]Further on we are checking the possibilities to write our own software to receive and manage the data from the sensors. I guess your presentation here is good starting point?[/quote]

Yes, you can start with that, but please note that the video is fairly outdated in regards to our latest version of the SDK. You can follow that webinar, but there are changes introduced to later versions.

You could have a look at our partner Golioth.io, they have upcoming trainings
https://blog.golioth.io/free-zephyr-training-hosted-by-golioth-june-7th-2023/

Jared Wolff a.k.a. Circuit Dojo also has some good videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/circuitdojo

These cover a lot of ground, and provide a lot of good insight in the Zephyr OS.

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Ivan Popov — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 08:29:40 GMT

Hi Øyvind,

We are just searching through our possible options for a local LTE-M provider (the NB-IoT connectivity doesn't seem to be suitable for our case of sending frequent vibration data from the IMU) because I've seen elsewhere in the forum that it is possible to use another SIM provider with nrfCloud.

Further on we are checking the possibilities to write our own software to receive and manage the data from the sensors. I guess your presentation here is good starting point?

There's so much ground to cover but it's quite exciting and interesting.

Cheers!

Ivan

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Øyvind — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 08:18:27 GMT

[quote user="Ivan Popov"]Ahh! Now that's more like it. Three simple steps of uploading the three correct files in the correct order. Now it's blinking again.[/quote]

That is very good to hear! 🙂

[quote user="Ivan Popov"] I have a blinking (yellow-green) Thingy and it blinks forever. The eSIM is registered and marked active in the system[/quote]

From the User Interface module of the Asset Tracker v2 application, we can see that yellow LED means it is searching for LTE. This could verify your assumption of not being in iBasis coverage. Note that it can take some time (up to 15 minutes) before being able to connect.

From the 40412 error description we see that there are 5 scenarios which can report this error code.

You entered the device id and/or ownership code (PIN or HWID) incorrectly.
Before attempting association, you did not wait for the LEDs to indicate the device was provisioned.
Corrupt modem firmware.
Corrupt, wrongly flashed, or illegitimate device certificates.
Poor LTE connection

Do you have access to another SIM, i.e. local SIM which has LTE-M/NB-IoT enabled to verify connection/iBasis issues?

Kind regards,
Øyvind

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Ivan Popov — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:39:12 GMT

Ahh! Now that's more like it. Three simple steps of uploading the three correct files in the correct order. Now it's blinking again.

I guess the CONTENTS.txt file is not clear enough for beginners like me and the concept of bridge first, firmware next, and asset tracker application in the end somehow is a core knowledge that I missed.

But now I'm again at the point where the problem started - I have a blinking (yellow-green) Thingy and it blinks forever. The eSIM is registered and marked active in the system. Now after waiting much more than three minutes for the light to become white what comes to my mind is:

- I'm not in the iBASIS coverage ...despite the fact that according to their site Bulgaria is in the Zone 1 of their coverage ...

- Or I missed some other step ...

If at this point I go to the nrfCloud and try to register the Thingy as an LTE device it rightfully responds with the 40412 error, even with correct values for Device ID and PIN.

Any ideas here?

Regards,

Ivan

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Øyvind — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:45:11 GMT

Ivan, I think I see the problem.

[quote user="Ivan Popov"]The first step (updating the nRF52840 SoC firmware) went fine:[/quote]

Here it seems that you have programmed the wrong file. The nRF52840 is what provides the USB connection, but it needs the Connectivity Bridge (img_fota_dfu_hex\thingy91_nrf52_connectivity_bridge_2023-03-02_8f26142b.hex).

Can you please reprogram the nRF52840 with that image, and then program the nRF9160 with the Asset Tracker v2?

Thanks!

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Ivan Popov — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 08:15:12 GMT

Hello Øyvind,

Thanks for the informative reply!

I wen to the Getting Sarted guide in the documentation, as you suggested, and started the process all over.

The first step (updating the nRF52840 SoC firmware) went fine:

After that, on the second step (updating the firmware for the nRF9160 SiP) thing started to diverge from the documentation instructions:

At first the device doesn't appear at all in the "Select Device" menu:

And then even despite the fact I try to write the firmware ZIP file, I can select it but the Programmer gives me the following warning and the Write button is not responsive:

Any ideas?

Regards,

Ivan

RE: Thingy:91 stopped being responsive during activation

Øyvind — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:05:32 GMT

Hello Ivan,

When updating the modem FW over MCUBoot/USB, this will erase the whole flash including the application. This is why your device is no longer flashing, and you will need to reprogram the application as well.

You should follow the Getting started with Thingy:91, which is more up to date than the video you are referring to.

After updating the modem FW you should program the Asset Tracker v2 application, which is found in our pre-compiled FW package (under the downloads tab on the Thingy:91 product page). Make sure to program the img_fota_dfu_hex/thingy91_asset_tracker_v2_2023-06-01_0677b099.hex if using MCUBoot. See more information in the Getting started guide.

After doing so, you should be able to add the device to nRF Cloud as this application will provision your device. You can use the LTE Link Monitor to view the output from the application.

Let me know how that works.

Kind regards,
Øyvind