nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

ask6483 — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:23:01 GMT

So today the issue is gone, all programming attempts are successful, even when using USB hub. It doens't make any sense, I think that we can close this as this as this problem may only affect my system.

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

Hieu — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:58:41 GMT

Hi ask6483,

Could you please enable verbose logging in the "About" tab of the app, and send us the full log from the failures?

Hieu

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

PjGlasso — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:36:19 GMT

Hi there,

So I have all three devices, both DK's and the dongle, "I can't program nRF52840 dongle using Programmer Tool on Linux."

I'm on windows 11, if I select the Dongle with the programmer it opens it in boot loader mode, If I open the BLE program and select it It prompts me to allow it to re-program it, YEs/Enter returns it to normal as the dongle, Note the name of the device changes so AFAIK it supports, (open boot loader , MCUBoot loader mode to use the programmer (if it's on the dongle)

also It makes a difference if it is a real USB 3.0 or plain 2.0

HTH

GL :-) PJ :v:

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

ask6483 — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:28:44 GMT

I got some new findings about this issue: programming always fails when dongle is connected to USB hub.

Tested with two of them one USB 2.0 and the other 3.0, on both there is alwyas the same issue. Strange part is that I'm using those hubs daily with two JLinks, one STLink even Saleae Logic analyzer without any issues.

BUT connecting the dongle directly to the host PC USB port is not solving this issue in 100%, flashing still fails from time to time, fail rate is like 1:5 - 1 error every 5 tries.

Looks like USB issue but why upload never fails, also tested 2 dongles and there is the same problem with them?

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

Hieu — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 11:07:57 GMT

Considering your logs showing progress with the upload, it seems you have remembered to press the button and put the device into bootloader mode, so I will rule out this most common issue.

I will relay your logs to our Programmer app developers and seek input from them.

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

ask6483 — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:54:11 GMT

No it stays in bootloader

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

PaKa — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:52:45 GMT

Does the device run or not? The normal sequence is that the programmer exits the DFU as as soon as the programming is completed and this unfortunately triggers an error message on the PC side.

RE: nRF Desktop Programmer Tool always fails to flash nRF52840 dongle

ask6483 — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:21:04 GMT

I have created firmware package to try nrfutil directly via commad line:
nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg deploy/central_pca10059_1.8.1-8.zip -p /dev/ttyACM0

It also fails but with two different results, first error message:

[########################------------] 68% 00:00:15
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 301, in send_firmware
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 475, in __stream_data
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 451, in validate_crc
nordicsemi.dfu.dfu_transport_serial.ValidationException: Failed CRC validation.
Expected: 1882036456 Received: 3434675894.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 1555, in <module>
File "click/core.py", line 1137, in __call__
File "click/core.py", line 1062, in main
File "click/core.py", line 1668, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 1668, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 1404, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 763, in invoke
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 1032, in usb_serial
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 988, in do_serial
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu.py", line 127, in dfu_send_images
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu.py", line 100, in _dfu_send_image
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 304, in send_firmware
pc_ble_driver_py.exceptions.NordicSemiException: Failed to send firmware
[154067] Failed to execute script '__main__' due to unhandled exception!

and second try error:

[########################------------] 68% 00:00:15
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 1555, in <module>
File "click/core.py", line 1137, in __call__
File "click/core.py", line 1062, in main
File "click/core.py", line 1668, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 1668, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 1404, in invoke
File "click/core.py", line 763, in invoke
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 1032, in usb_serial
File "nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 988, in do_serial
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu.py", line 127, in dfu_send_images
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu.py", line 100, in _dfu_send_image
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 301, in send_firmware
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 474, in __stream_data
File "nordicsemi/dfu/dfu_transport_serial.py", line 412, in __calculate_checksum
pc_ble_driver_py.exceptions.NordicSemiException: Did not receive checksum response from DFU target. If MSD is enabled on the target device, try to disable it ref. wiki.segger.com/index.php
[154370] Failed to execute script '__main__' due to unhandled exception!