nrfjprog --program fails when FDS and LESC are used

[jmac2025]

I've pulled FDS and LESC into my development project. I've noticed now, when I do --reset --sectorerase --program "#H" --family NRF52 --verify, occasionally I see program fail. And example of the application and the devices flash upon failure:

Has this been noted  before? Is there a reason why this would happen with the inclusion of LESC?

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Are you using the custom board or an nRF52840DK?

when I do --reset --sectorerase --program "#H" --family NRF52 --verify, occasionally I see program fail.

What nrfjprog version are you using? Could you update to the latest version https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools/Download#infotabs?

If that cannot help, could you provide the log by your command with "--log"?

Could you try to use the nRF Programmer app to flash? Do you also get failed? If so, please also provide the log. 

Are you using the nRF5 SDK? Could you try to erase all  (nrfjprog --eraseall or nrfjprog --recover) before programming?

Regards,
Amanda H.

[jmac2025]

• I am using a custom board 
• I am using the latest nrfjprog 
• I am using the nRF5 SDK
• eraseall and recover do work, it only fails with sectorerase. This did not occur before
• below is an attached log file
• 7181.log.log

[Amanda Hsieh]

The issue is not related to FDS and LESC. It's more like APPROTECT caused the issue, as my colleague explained in that post, because our APPROTECT is enabled by default. See https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/IN/resource/in_141_v1.1.pdf.

I think that workaround doesn't work for your case because the DK gets reset to lock the device before --sectorerase, so you need to: 
recover -> program -> verify -> reset. 

You can check the status by: 

nrfjprog --memrd 0x10001208

If it returns by "0x10001208: 0000005A", it means unlock, then  --sectorerase can work. See the details in this Working with the nRF52 Series' improved APPROTECT  

[jmac2025]

Hi. The issue only recently has come up on older devices that do not have APPROTECT enabled by default. --sectorerase is erasing correctly based on reading flash (see image above) and that the error says --verify read "0xFF" instead of data

[Amanda Hsieh]

Are you using a custom board or nRF52840 DK? Could you also test on nRF52840DK or another board? 

Could you try the nrfutil and the follwoing command?

nrfutil device program --firmware nrf52840_app.HEX --options chip_erase_mode=ERASE_RANGES_TOUCHED_BY_FIRMWARE,verify=VERIFY_READ,reset=RESET_SYSTEM --log-level trace

If that also fails, I think we can rule out issues in nrfjprog, at least. If you try with nrfutil device, it should be at a more recent version than 2.7.16, since it's using nrfjprog under the hood before that. The latest version is 2.14.2 (nrfutil device --version).

[jmac2025]

This works! For reference, this worked 100/100 times without issue, nrfjprog worked ~50/100 times with the same fw and device

[Amanda Hsieh]

Sounds good. The nRF Command line tool is replaced by the nrfutil. The nrfjprog is wrapped by the nrfutil device and maintained. Please use the nrfutil device for programming.