Error flashing custom board w/ nRF52832 (unable to read)

[towes]

I'm trying to flash a custom board (schematics in this ticket - Schematic/Layout review request) using a Jlink EDU mini and keep running into an error message saying it's failing to read or erase memory. I've seen suggestions on other posts that running nrfjprog --recover can remove the read protection mechanism, but when I ran that (with --log, which I've attached) it also failed.

 

4274.log.log

I've had the flash process succeed sometimes, but the board doesn't act any differently to before (can't control the GPIO) so I'm assuming that's another issue.

Any ideas for what could be causing this?

Thanks

[Simonr]

Hi again

I was away last week, but in the meantime I've gotten some suggestions from the developers on this: 

Can you try using the VS Code extension UI to build and flash using sysbuild on your end? 

Please confirm whether building with sysbuild and flashing the entire image works or not on your side here.

Best regards,

Simon

[towes]

Hi, 

It doesn't appear to make any difference whether I select sysbuild or not.

I get the same error either way.

[Simonr]

The error here points to the device being in readback protection mode, and you should first do a nrfjprog --recover or --eraseall command before trying to flash the device again here.

Best regards,

Simon

[towes]

--recover or --eraseall hasn't seemed to change anything when I run them before trying to flash (I'm not convinced either of them can run correctly with whatever issue is happening). This is the same error message I've recieved any time I try to program all but one of my boards from the point I assembled them.

[Simonr]

Hi

The error log here suggests there still is readback protection causing this, but suggests to add on --log to the nrfjprog --program command, so please try that and upload the generated .log file here so we can take a look at that.

Best regards,

Simon

[towes]

Sorry for the slow reply again. I (finally) bought an oscilloscope to look at the supply rails and saw there's a large amount of ripple when powering the board of USB with no battery connected (I remember you suggested it might be this type of issue ages ago, good call!). As soon as I connect the battery every board programs fine, so I think this thread is solved now. Thanks again for your help with this over the last few months