Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:42:25 GMT

Hi,

That is a good point. For some reason I thoght it had the same limitation as J-Link Lite. Then there should be no problem using the J-Link Edu out of the box as long as you connect VTref to VDD out (or configure VTREF of the probe to 1.8V).

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:14:24 GMT

What I don't understand is that according to the J-Link EDU datasheet https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/j-link-edu/ :

Target interface voltage (V_IF)	1.2V ... 5V

So it should work with the default 1.8V. And I verified it, because i saw the RST Pin on the J-Link EDU at 1.8V (Always HIGH until a RST is needed then it is pulled down, right ?). In this case, why the PRO is needed ?

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:01:34 GMT

I see. If you are not able to get the J-Link PRO working, and alternative could be to power the dongle with 3V as explained under External regulated source, and use the J-Link EDU you have which is working.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:58:12 GMT

Hi Einar,

Sorry for the delay.

I just realized that I got timeout error "could not connect to target" with J-Link PRO and not with the J-Link EDU (I tried to flash other chip which worked previously and got timeout error with PRO model)

So I may have an issue with t he J-Link PRO on my computer but that's weird, i need to investigate.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 10:44:33 GMT

Hi,

The reset pin is available on the P1 pad (and the SW1 button). You do not need a reset pin in order to program or debug, though.

Can you double check and show which pins you are using on the dongle as well and double check that you are using the correct ones (I would suggest soldering on a pin header on P1)?

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:17:49 GMT

Hi Einar,

Yes it uses 1.8V. I see it on the pin output of the J-Trace PRO. Decreasing SWD frequency to 1 kHz does nothing.

For reference, these pins are connected on the J-Trace :

VTref on VDD OUT

SWDIO on SWDIO

SWCLK on SWCLCK

GND on GND

From times to times i try to connect the RESET pin on the reset pin located in the P1 Pad below (this is the only reset pin, right ?) but it changes nothing.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 08:00:19 GMT

Hi,

Thank you. I upload the file here for reference: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../31364.log.log (you can also upload fiels by drag-and-drop or by selecting Insert -> Image/video/file.

The log shows that the debugger is not able to communicate with the nRF for some reason. Have you verified that it use 1.8V signals? Also, can you verify the connections? If there are still problems, you could try to lower the SWD frequency by using the clockspeed option with nrfjprog (for instance --clockspeed 500 to use 500 kHz) and see if that makes a difference.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:43:02 GMT

Ohhh OK I didn't understand that log file was generated on the filesystem ! Here's the extract : https://privatebin.net/?5c84dbf07f5adf3c#ACVzqRK8AVJ2FNvwAh5Wt9jB4e4ZDBXBJGSzFsGyS2z1

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 12:28:23 GMT

Hi,

That makes sense. Can you upload the generated log file? As you did not specify a path after --log you should find a file named "log.log" in the folder where you called nrfjprog from.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:36:02 GMT

The debug probe i'm using is the jLink pro right now :

You are right VDD OUT is 1.8V, so REG0 is at its default value so i guess IUCR has been erased.

The output of "nrfjprog --recover -f NRF52 --log" is :

It searchs for 10 seconds (hence the 10 000ms timeout) and then timeout.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 08:54:11 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="TE_Leo"]Is there any specfic configuration to enable on the probe ? Or is it plug and play. [/quote]

You can configure VDD manually, but if you connect VDD (which I suspect is 1.8V on your dongle at this point) to the J-Link, it should automatically juse that voltage for SWD. For this you can use the VDD OUT connection on the dongle (see the hardware drawing).

Can you run nrfjprog with debug logging (--log) and upload the log here? I suspect there are still problems communicating with the nRF via SWD as you get -21, but perhaps the log will tell us more.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:47:09 GMT

Ok after using the jlink pro, the result are the same, i've got timeout error. Is there any specfic configuration to enable on the probe ? Or is it plug and play.
Error msg is the same on nrf COnnect programmer "TIME_OUT"

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:37:51 GMT

Hi,

The dongle is always powered by 5V (USB VBUS), but internally the output of the high voltage regulator REG0 is used. And after a full chip erase this will be 1.8 V. And the J-Link EDU only support 3.3V (though 3V will work fine). 1.8 V will not though. So you either need to power the dongle externally while recovering (power it with 3V) or use another debugger.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:37:23 GMT

You right the VDD OUT is 1.8V so i guess the IUCR has been erased.

Iborrowed a Jlink PRO from a colleague, and the output of the same command i posted above is as follow :

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:19:12 GMT

I'm powering up the Dongle through an external alimentation with 5V on VBUS.
I'm using Jlink EDU https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/j-link-edu/ and i connected its VTREF to the dongle VDD_OUT

Is the problem related to this debug probe ? Like mentionned inside the tutorial you linked, the probe does not adapt its SWD voltage level ?

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 12:56:36 GMT

Hi,

Which type of debugger are you using? If you are using something like the nRF DKs as debugger those are fixed to 3V, and that can be problematic if you have done a full erase of a donge, as that will also erase the high voltage regulator configuration in the UICR, making it use 1.8V as VDD, making the SWD signal voltage also 1.8 V. If that is the case, please refer to the Recover after an accidental UICR erase section in the nRF52840 Dongle Programming Tutorial.

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

TE_Leo — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 08:24:26 GMT

Thanks for your answer.

I used nrfjprog and here's the output of the command "nrfjprog --recover -f NRF52" :

With or without the reset line connected. By the way, to re-flash the reset line is not needed, right ?

RE: Manual reflash of nRF 52840 Dongle - Failed to power up DAP

Turbo J — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:43:12 GMT

Connect the RESET line too and let nrfjprog "recover" the device.