Hi folks,
I am just in the process of getting my feet wet with the nrf connect sdk and zigbee development is my ultimate goal.
I am using an ItsyBitsy nrf52840 https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.5.0/page/zephyr/boards/arm/adafruit_itsybitsy_nrf52840/doc/index.html
With latest Adafruit bootloader (UF2)
installed nrf toolchain Version is 2.9.0 via VS code extension
I am able to run the official blinky example and play around with some GPIOs.
However, the only way the board will successfully run the compiled code is to use the `zephyr/west.yml` manifest.
If I am building with `nrf/west.yml` the complied uf2 file will not run on the board.
Eventually this brings up more issues when I am trying to run the zigbee samples. As those samples are nrf specific and they will not even build with the `zephyr/west.yml`.
It seams as the ItsyBitsy nrf52840 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4481 is not widely used so getting help on this issue is not as easy for me right now.
It would be ok for me to use another bootloader then the uf2 loader. At the moment the board is not recognized by the vs code extension and only drag and drop the uf2 file works.
Thanks so much for all comments and help.
BR
Update: 9. March 2025
Allright I learned a bit about the board and recognized that it has the pins available to flash directly via SWD interface.
From my understanding SWD would also be the way to flash the nrf52840 SoC directly on any custom board later in the process. Can someone confirm that?
Since I had an old stlinkv2 laying around I decided to give it a try.
After blindly flashing the ".hex" file of course the board was bricked... but I was able the recover it immediately with the stlink by flashing the adafruit uf2 boot loader again.
This was the openocd command used:
openocd -f openocd-0.12.0/tcl/interface/stlink.cfg -f openocd-0.12.0/tcl/target/nrf52.cfg -c init -c "reset init" -c halt -c "nrf5 mass_erase" -c "program my.hex verify" -c "reset run" -c exit
I guess the ".hex" file is missing the boot loader and I overwrote it by using the stlink.
So the next question would be how to create a program file including the boot loader and my custom program code?
I read in the forum that the boot loader should be included with the build file. I guess that would mean I have to create a custom board based on the itsybitsy board but with changes to the kconfig to use a boot loader other than the uf2 loader.
But I wonder how to set this up.
I guess all this is fundamental later to handle custom boards as well.
