Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

trivikram — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:14:21 GMT

Hi Vidar,

I identified issues in the custom board definition I was using. I edited the required files in the board definition and it seems to work as expected. Thanks!!

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

Vidar Berg — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 07:28:32 GMT

Hi,

I would recommend that you try to debug the application to confirm that it is running an that there are no runtime errors reported. First step may be to enable debug logging. You can use RTT for logging if you don't have a UART interface exposed on your custom board (RTT uses the SWD debug interface to retreive log messages from the target device).

Kconfig settings to enable logger module with RTT as the logger backend:

CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_UART=n
CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_RTT=y
CONFIG_USE_SEGGER_RTT=y
# Redirect printk/printf to RTT
CONFIG_RTT_CONSOLE=y

RTT logs can be viewed with the Segger RTTViewer application.

You can also start a debug session in the VS code extension to confirm that the program reaches main() and also read the GPIO configuration registers to verify that the pins have been correctly been configured as outputs.

Best regards,

Vidar

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

trivikram — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 20:35:48 GMT

Hey Vidar,
I am trying a blinky example which works as expected on a nRF52DK.

I added the flags you suggested. The memory config looks exactly as you suggested.

When I remove "CONFIG_SECURE_BOOT=y" the build goes through and it flashes successfully, but I still don't see any GPIO toggles on my board.

The following is the overlay file for my custom board, which I use to define the pins which I wanna toggle. I expect to see a change in pins 14, 15 and 16. When I build the same code for the DK, as the led pin definitions are different, I see a toggle in led0, led1 and led2. With this overlay, I do not see any toggles in my custom board. How should I go ahead?

/ {
    aliases {
        led0 = &led0;
        led1 = &led1;
        led2 = &led2;
        // pin0 = &pin0;
    };


    soc{
        gpio0: gpio@50000000 {
            compatible = "nordic,nrf-gpio";
            reg = <0x50000000 0x300>;
            gpio-controller;
            #gpio-cells = <2>;
            status = "okay";
        };
    };

    // Optional: Define the LED node using GPIO pin 17
    leds {
        compatible = "gpio-leds";
        led0: led_0 {
            gpios = <&gpio0 14 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;
        };
        led1: led_1 {
            gpios = <&gpio0 15 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;
        };
        led2: led_2 {
            gpios = <&gpio0 16 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;
        };
        // led3: led_3 {
        //     gpios = <&gpio0 17 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;
        // };
    };

    zephyr,user{
        pin0-gpios = <&gpio0 17 0>;
    };
};

&gpiote {
    status = "okay";
};

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

Vidar Berg — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 18:21:18 GMT

Thanks. The fact that you are able to run the recover operation is a good indication that the chip is correctly powered and the SWD lines are correctly connected. My initial suspicion was that there might be an issue with the linker configuration since the xxAB package only has 256K of flash and 32K of RAM. However, address 0x0 is within the valid address range, so it seems like it might be something else.

Here are some things you may want to check:

- Check if your design includes the optional DCDC inductors. If not, it's important that you don't enable the internal DCDC regulator (i.e., CONFIG_BOARD_ENABLE_DCDC must not be selected). Without the inductors, the DCDC regulator will not be able to provide a stable supply internally on the chip, which usually leads to difficulties with programming the chip through the debug interface. However, I would have expected a different error message if this were the case.

- Check if the RAM and FLASH memory sections in the generated zephyr.map file under 'Output files' in the VS code extension has the correct address ranges. It should look like this if you are building an application without a bootloader:

Name | Origin | Length | Attributes

FLASH 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000040000 xr

RAM 0x0000000020000000 0x000000000008000 xw

IDT_LIST 0x00000000fffff7ff 0x0000000000000800 xw

*default* 0x0000000000000000 0xffffffffffffffff

- If the optional 32KHz is not mounted on your board, set CONFIG_CLOCK_CONTROL_NRF_K32SRC_RC to '=y' in your boards *_defconfig file to always use the internal RC oscillator. Having the wrong clock source selected will not cause issues with flashing, but it will prevent your programs from reaching main() since the startup code will get stuck waiting for the crystal to ramp up.

I would also recommend trying a more basic sample first without CONFIG_SECURE_BOOT enabled. For instance, "hello_world" or "blinky.

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

trivikram — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 16:26:31 GMT

Both the Vdd on the DK and the voltage on my custom board are 3.0V. The below is the result from the `nrfjprog --recover` command. It takes about 5-7 seconds to run.

nrfjprog --recover
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
Erasing user code and UICR flash areas.

You mentioned that it failing to write at 0x0 is strange, could there be an issue in the way I am writing my code, or in the custom board definition somehow?

RE: Cannot flash onto a nRF52832 QFAB custom board via a nRF52-DK

Vidar Berg — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 11:47:30 GMT

Hello,

It's strange that it is failing to write to address 0x0 as this is an valid address. Please try running 'nrfjprog --recover' from the command line to see if this results in any errors. This should help us narrow down the problem. Additionally, please check that the VDD voltage on the DK matches the voltage on your custom board. The OB J-Link on the DK does not have a built-in level shifter, so it's important that the IO voltages match.

Best regards,

Vidar