custom nRF5340 board no bluetooth signal

[danny0007]

Hi Community,

I designed a similar board asThingy53, espacially the antenna parts are almost the same, except the RF switch, we replace it with another one (BGS12WN6E6327XTSA1), then we found there is some issue to make the switch work properly, so I just removed the RF switch and short the RF output to the short range antenna, which means, now only one anntenna is connected to the RF, even so, I cannot see any RF signal on the mobile phone. 

but the output from UART seems no problem:

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK v3.5.99-ncs1 ***
[00:00:00.303,100] <inf> Custom_board: Starting Custom_board...

[00:00:00.309,020] <inf> fs_nvs: 8 Sectors of 4096 bytes
[00:00:00.309,020] <inf> fs_nvs: alloc wra: 0, fd0
[00:00:00.309,051] <inf> fs_nvs: data wra: 0, 1c
[00:00:00.334,167] <inf> bt_hci_core: HW Platform: Nordic Semiconductor (0x0002)
[00:00:00.334,197] <inf> bt_hci_core: HW Variant: nRF53x (0x0003)
[00:00:00.334,228] <inf> bt_hci_core: Firmware: Standard Bluetooth controller (0x00) Version 54.58864 Build 1214809870
[00:00:00.336,456] <inf> bt_hci_core: No ID address. App must call settings_load()
[00:00:00.338,897] <inf> bt_hci_core: Identity: E6:BD:87:6D:09:49 (random)
[00:00:00.338,928] <inf> bt_hci_core: HCI: version 5.4 (0x0d) revision 0x218f, manufacturer 0x0059
[00:00:00.338,928] <inf> bt_hci_core: LMP: version 5.4 (0x0d) subver 0x218f
[00:00:00.342,742] <inf> Custom_board: Bluetooth initialized

[00:00:00.348,327] <inf> Custom_board: Advertising successfully started

the same code, if I compiled it for the nRF5340DK, the bluetooth signal can be observed. 

So I just curious if I did something wrong in my board files or something else? 

I have been strugled in this issue for a long time, please help me with it, thanks a lot!

Best regards

Danny

[danny0007]

Hi  Bendik Heiskel 

yes, after upgrading the nrfutil, no errors show up again.

"The left side of the GUI is used for flashing the test FW to the DUT and configuring the internal load capacitors for nRF5340 and the nRF54L15."

I'm curous how this programming is done? command via UART or DFU via dongle? 

How shall I programm these firmware for DUT into my custom board? nRF connect? 

Regards

Danny

[Bendik Heiskel]

The programming is done using a debugger, it is just a wrapper for nrfutil. It does not do any serial of OTA DFU. When a debugger is connected, it's serial number will be shown in the debugger drop down menu. When pressing the "Flash" button the application will check which device is connected to the debugger and flash the correct test FW to it. The "Get debuggers" button can be used to updated the list of connected debuggers if a debugger is connected after starting the application.

 

To program you custom board you will either need a standalone debugger, or use the debug out connector on the nRF5340DK.

[danny0007]

Hi Bendik Heiskel 

good to know.

that means I need the nRF5340DK to flash my custom board.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By the way, I just found out the issue and make the RF on my baord working.

After double check the datasheet of nRF5340, I found that I forgot to short DECR and DECRF together.

After soldering them togehter, now it's finally working!

I will definitely go back to check this test tools again.

Best Regards

Danny

[Bendik Heiskel]

Hi Danny,

Great to hear that you found the issue.

For future designs I recommend you have us review it before producing the boards, this way any issues can be caught earlier in the process, just create a private ticket where you share your design files and one of our HW engineers will give feedback on it.

 

Best regards,

Bendik