DFU over CDC ACM very slow

[Thibaud]

Hello

I am doing a bluetooth dongle and I added MCUBOOT with CDC ACM to be able to update my app. 

I find that the update takes a lot : 5+ min to update a 200kB application.

This is questionning me because I have an other bluetooth product with a nRF52840 too and I can do an update within 30s max by ble.

It would seem logic that USB dfu is faster than BLE.

Regards

Thibaud

[Priyanka]

Hi,

I understand your concerns. Could you maybe try, as mentioned in this ticket by a colleague of mine, to try with nrfutil?

Regards,

Priyanka

[Thibaud]

Hi 

I will try it but if nrfutil is better than mcumgr why is it not mentionned anywhere in the docs.nordicsemi.com website ?

In the link you sent me there is a link to an other ticket where the solution was to change a function in the "serial_xport.go  found in go\pkg\mod\mynewt.apache.org\[email protected]\nmxact\nmserial\" do you have any idea wher I can find this file ?

Regards

Thibaud

[Priyanka]

Here is the nRFUtil documentation:https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/nrfutil/page/README.html 

Also, The file path mentioned ("go\pkg\mod\mynewt.apache.org\[email protected]\nmxact\nmserial") shows that it's likely a part of a Go module, related to mcumgr. So you might need to modify a Go source file - and this is part of the mcumgr tool's codebase. So I guess Zephyr support could be the experts here.

-Priyanka

[Thibaud]

Hi

I am trying to use nrfutil but when I do device list I don't have mcuboot in the traits of my product. Even if it is in MCUBOOT.

1st time my product is in app :& 2nd time it is in bootloader (MCUBOOT of course) : 

This is what happen when I try to flash : 

Regards

Thibaud

[Thibaud]

Hi,

I also tried to use USB DFU sample but here what the dfu-util command linedoes : 

 

Is there any reliable way to update an application through USB ?

Regards

Thibaud

[Thibaud]

Hello 

I've found this ticket :  nrfutil device and mcuboot serial recovery mode  and after updating the VID & PID as indicate I have the mcuBoot trait.

I am able to program the new firmware when my product is in bootloader.

My update takes around 30s is there any kconfig option to make it even faster ?

 

Regards

Thibaud

[Thibaud]

Hi

What do I have to do so my application can support command ./nrfutil device x-boot-mode-get --traits mcuBoot

Please not that my application support the retention boot mode. I am able to reset in mcuBoot through a function in my app but I need an external event to trtigger my function. Being able to do it via nrfutil would be a monumental improvement for my application.

Regards

Thibaud

[Priyanka]

Hi,

Since you are working with an nRF Dongle, I don't think the x-boot-mode-get command can be used. See the device command changelog. This is an experimental command, and it doesn't work with the dongle (used with nRF54H series).

-Priyanka

[Thibaud]

Hello

I am not using Nordic dongle but my own made from a nRF52840. 

If you say this command can only be used with nRF54H series so yes i can't us it. But I am not able to use other commande like reset. Only device list et program are working.

Regards

THibaud

[Priyanka]

Hi,

Thibaud said:

My update takes around 30s is there any kconfig option to make it even faster ?

For Serial Recovery, try to increase the MTU and UART baudrate. The MTU is configured in the client on the PC. If you are not able to do this with "nrfutil device", you can do it with AuTerm (The one used here in the devacademy course on DFU).

If you go through the course linked, you can find further details for the same.

The baudrate must be configured for both the PC client and for the nRF. Also, you can take a look at the various SMP commands.

-Priyanka