Running into issues when adding FOTA support

[Liz]

I have a custom board that uses nrf52832 and I would like to add FOTA support using Bluetooth.

When I build the code using the nrf Connect inside VS code, it creates a DFU pack (.zip)

I am trying to use the DFU pack to flash my device using the phone app nRF Toolbox or nRF DFU (I am trying both)

When I try to add the generated DFU into nRF Toolbox, I get the error: "Can not create Firmware"

When I do the same thing using nRF DFU, I get the error: "Invalid manifest.json file"

These are the CONFIGs I added to my proj.conf:

CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLES_DEFAULTS=y
CONFIG_BT=y
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL=y
CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU=y
CONFIG_FPROTECT=y

This is the manifest.json that is inside the dfu.zip

{
    "format-version": 0,
    "time": 1743534471,
    "files": [
        {
            "load_address": 49664,
            "version_MCUBOOT": "0.0.0+0",
            "type": "application",
            "board": "ct_nrf52832",
            "soc": "nRF52832_QFAA",
            "size": 143320,
            "file": "app_update.bin",
            "modtime": 1743534471
        }
    ],
    "name": "appCT",
    "firmware": {
        "zephyr": {
            "revision": "ca64680be0ce6caf4c1aa66bef63d9484cecb39f-dirty"
        },
        "nrf": {
            "revision": "1fae141fc6713dd331b797fc96c90dc84552242d"
        }
    }
}

Am I missing something?

Thank you for your help!

[Liz]

Hello! I tried the Nordic Academy example using the nrf52dk and it worked. I tried to replicate the steps for my custom board and unfortunately it still does not work.

I have been using the nRF Connected Device Manager app.

Here are the states I get:

REQUESTING MCUMGR PARAMETERS

REQUESTING BOOTLOADER INFO

VALIDATING

Sending the request timed out.

[Amanda Hsieh]

What application are you running on the custom board?

Could you test with the Nordic Academy example on your custom board?

If you have an empty while loop without any k_sleep() or similar it will consume all available CPU resources, blocking any lower priority threads. Check out this post. 

[Liz]

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for your help.

I was able to solve my issue and now I can flash using nRF Connected Device Manager.

Here are the major changes I made when it started working:

Changed from BT_LE_ADV_OPT_USE_IDENTITY to BT_LE_ADV_OPT_CONNECTABLE

Decreased my advertising interval from 10s to 500ms

Increased my while(1) loop k_sleep time from 1ms to 100ms

Thank again,

Liz

[Amanda Hsieh]

Happy to hear you solved the issue.