Flash a nrf52840dk sniffer board

[Ying]

I programmed a nrf52840dk board (PCA10056 3.0.0 2022.7 1050288497) as a sniffer. It works well.

Now I want to flash it to zephyr samples/basic/blinky by "west flash".
west flash
-- west flash: rebuilding
ninja: no work to do.
-- west flash: using runner nrfjprog
-- runners.nrfjprog: reset after flashing requested
FATAL ERROR: Unable to find a board; is the board connected?

ls -hal /dev/serial/by-id

usb-ZEPHYR_nRF_Sniffer_for_Bluetooth_LE_49F8F9D7E8AE3B9E-if00 -> ../../ttyACM0

I tried to hold RESET button and cycled the power but it still ran into sniffer.

Thanks!

[Kenneth]

Hi,

I highly recommend to get an nRF52840-DK instead, then you get proper programming and debugging environment with access to all pins. The nRF52840 USB dongle don't have that possibility, and is (at least in my experience) more useful for demo purposes, such as to test a finish product, or sniffer, or work with the BLE app in the nRF Connect SDK for desktop. 

Edit: Sorry, I can see now you are using the nRF52840-DK already. I thought you were using the dongle.

Kenneth

[Ying]

Hi Kenneth,

Thank you very much for your time on this issue.

The board is a nRF52840-DK board as I mentioned PCA10056). Thanks!

[Kenneth]

Hi,

Sorry, for some reason I though you were using the nRF52840 USB dongle, since that is the one I use most as BLE sniffer.

Can you show me how you have connected the nRF52840-DK, and also how you managed to program the sniffer firmware?

If you run for instance "nrfjprog --version" in command line, what does it output? If you haven't already, make sure to follow: https://academy.nordicsemi.com/courses/nrf-connect-sdk-fundamentals/lessons/lesson-1-nrf-connect-sdk-introduction/ (in specific Exercise 1 that show what you should install)

Kenneth

[Ying]

USB cable is connected to the "nRF USB" port next to the "IF BOOT/RESET" button.

After plug in the board, dmesg shows:

[ +6.918874] usb 3-2: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ +0.253505] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1915, idProduct=522a, bcdDevice= 2.04
[ +0.000009] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ +0.000001] usb 3-2: Product: nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE
[ +0.000001] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: ZEPHYR
[ +0.000001] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 49F8F9D7E8AE3B9E
[ +0.003185] cdc_acm 3-2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

ls -hal /dev/serial/by-id
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Nov 25 14:29 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 80 Nov 25 14:29 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Nov 25 14:29 usb-ZEPHYR_nRF_Sniffer_for_Bluetooth_LE_49F8F9D7E8AE3B9E-if00 -> ../../ttyACM0

nrfjprog --version
nrfjprog version: 10.24.2 external
JLinkARM.dll version: 7.94e

source ~/zephyrproject/.venv/bin/activate
cd ~/zephyrproject/zephyr
west build -p -b nrf52840dk/nrf52840 samples/basic/blinky
...
[3/135] Generating include/generated/zephyr/version.h
-- Zephyr version: 4.0.0-rc3 (/home/yc/zephyrproject/zephyr), build: v4.0.0-rc3-227-g9ffc4b1df8a7
[135/135] Linking C executable zephyr/zephyr.elf
Memory region Used Size Region Size %age Used
FLASH: 18732 B 1 MB 1.79%
RAM: 5696 B 256 KB 2.17%
IDT_LIST: 0 GB 32 KB 0.00%
Generating files from /home/yc/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/zephyr.elf for board: nrf52840dk

west flash
-- west flash: rebuilding
ninja: no work to do.
-- west flash: using runner nrfjprog
-- runners.nrfjprog: reset after flashing requested
FATAL ERROR: Unable to find a board; is the board connected?

Then I tried to hold the IF BOOT/RESET button and unplug/plug the USB cable to reboot. The board has no change.

I'm wondering how I can flash the board back to MCUBoot mode or other program so that I can use west flash.

Thanks!

[Kenneth]

Just to make sure I don't understand, the nRF52840-DK have two USB ports, one used for programming and debugging (e.g. used by nrfjprog), and one USB port used for the application that might be running on the nRF52840.

Kenneth