Device Firmware Update (DFU) Android 13/Samsung/nRF51822

[Awi]

Hi,

We're having some issues with Device Firmware Update from Android phones to nRF51822.

We just tested our app with DFU on our Samsung Galaxy Note with Android 13 and tried to update the firmware on the nRF51822.

However, the FOTA/DFU still crashes and gives a “GATT ERROR”. Also the device itself then gets “stuck” for ~1 minute before it r`estarted.

This issue seems to happen on Samsung devices in particular. On other non-samsung devices that we have tried, DFU works as it should without any errors.
We can also see that the same issue seems to happen when performing a DFU using nFR’s connect app on Samsung devices.

What we have found is that there might be an issue in the library (the library for Android to use when performing a DFU) provided by Nordic Semiconductor that causes this problem on Samsung devices. The library is not very well maintained and the author rarely gives any replies on the open issues. However, other users of the library seem to report similar problems (Eg. https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-DFU-Library/issues/376)

Anyone has any suggestions/ideas/solutions?

Thanks,

Avinash

[Hieu]

Hello Avinash,

What we have found is that there might be an issue in the library (the library for Android to use when performing a DFU) provided by Nordic Semiconductor that causes this problem on Samsung devices.

This is not necessarily a problem with the Android-DFU-Library. The library makes use of OS BLE APIs. While the APIs are the same, under the hood, they are implemented differently between different manufacturers and devices. There are cases here on DevZone where the root cause lies with phone manufacturers in the past.

That is not to say this is the case here. I simply mean it is too early to say that the problem is with the library. This is more likely when the library works with other devices, but not with a particular Samsung phone.

Could you please try with more Android devices? Please also record a sniffer trace for both a working and a failing case.

If you are unfamiliar with what sniffer traces are, please refer to Lesson 6 of our Fundamentals of Bluetooth Low Energy online course.

Hieu