Issue programming custom nRF5340 board with nRF7002 development kit

[shay_siah]

Hello,

I am attempting to program a custom nRF5340-based board using the nRF7002 development kit, but the device won’t be recognized by nrfjprog, and the programming operation fails.

I followed the kit’s user guide to connect the custom board: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fug_nrf7002_dk%2FUG%2Fnrf7002_DK%2Fext_programming_support_P20.html

The custom board is based on the reference circuit configuration 1 with the external 32.678 kHz Crystal installed: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fps_nrf5340%2Fchapters%2Fref_circuitry.html&cp=4_0_0_8_2

I also tried connecting VDD_HV on the custom board to VBAT (P20) and VTG (P20) on the kit, but still had the same issue. Is what I am attempting possible, or is this most likely to be an issue with the custom board?

Thank you,

Shayan

[Elfving]

Hello Shayan,

The nRF7002-DK also requires the external board to be 1.8V powered. Is that the case for your custom board as well? This would for instance make it hard to program the nRF5340DK using the nRF7002DK, since they have different power levels. It is typically either the voltage or the connections that are at fault.

You do not have any issues programming the main SoC on the nRF7002DK itself I assume?

Regards,

Elfving

[shay_siah]

Hello Elfving,

You are correct, there are no issues programming the main SoC on the nRF7002DK itself. The SoC on the external board is supplied by the VDDH pin, which can accept 2.5-5.5V. But I believe the GPIO pins operate at 1.8V because this is the voltage of VDD. To provide more context, the external board is using an nRF5340 SoC in high voltage mode with the nRF7002 Wi-Fi IC connected to it - the high level schematic is close to this one pulled from Nordic documentation:

 

So if VDDH on the external board is supplied with 3.6V from the VBAT pin on P20, would the NRF7002DK will be able to program the external board?

Thank you,

Shayan