JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 17:26:42 GMT

Dear RK Problem solved. Connected VTG pin to 3.3V on my target and now ALL works !

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 17:00:27 GMT

Dear RK I have another problem now. I have connected my board with the Eval Board and have powered my board with 3.3V. It programs ok. But I really think, that it programs the 52 chip which is on the eval board: !! How can I be sure, that it programs my 52 chip on my board. Do I have to make a 3.3V cable to attach to Pin 1 on the Debug Out connector, wich is the Ext VTG pin. ??? Many thanks for a fast answer

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 14:09:47 GMT

Dear RK
Did not get your full name, so pse accept my appologies. ! Your input was the one, bringing us a big step further. I will in this case not mount the 32MHz quartz. We will start to debug tomorrow morning. Many thanks again.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RK — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 08:09:38 GMT

Hmm - it was I who first suggested to you the wires were too long, not Kristin, but never mind.

If you're not using the Softdevice or the radio in any way, you don't need a 32MHz crystal, the chip works just fine without it, just uses the internal RC and is perfectly happy. This is how the chip starts up every time from reset, with the internal RC, the HF crystal is only started when it's requested specifically.

So the lack of a 32MHz crystal is not your problem. Unless you have some code which attempts to start the HF clock and then waits for it, in which case that is your problem because it will wait forever, but lacking anything like that, you don't need the crystal, the chip will use the RC and there is absolutely no setup required to get it to do that.

.. and .. now you have a working debugger .. load the code, start it, hit break and find out where you are.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 07:42:25 GMT

Dear Kirstin The input for the length of the programming cable was very valid ! I have shortened them. See photo on my post. Now programming works perfect on all boards I have. Next problem is as follows: When I start the board with all voltages connected, it does not execute the code. I think it is a setup issue with the internal clock. We do NOT have a 32MHz crystal on board. I made 1 board with a 32MHz crystal and there I can bring the code up most times. Can you tell us, how we set up the 52 to work fine with the internal clock.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:29:14 GMT

From the pictures:

The nRF52-DK: There should only be cables going out from "debug out", see this thread.
Your custom board has to be powered externally, it can not be powered through the debug pins (the pins going out from "debug out"). When the chip is powered, you can use a multimeter to double check the voltage.
The programming cables are very long, please try to shorten them.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RK — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:19:48 GMT

have you tried shorter wires? That's a pretty non-standard debug hookup. There's a reason that debug cables are usually short ribbon cables with ground every other conductor; when running at 4MHz extra capacitance or crosstalk between them is going to degrade the signal quite badly. If you can at least get the wires short, parallel and not bundled up together in one place you might eliminate some issues.

Basically the JLINK is able to read the registers, but it seems to be having trouble writing them, if the debug signal itself is right on the edge of good enough, that's quite possibly what you'd see.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:59:00 GMT

Dear Kirstin

I have added 3 photos of the problem. 2 show my hardware connected to the evalboard. the other is the error which I get when I use the F8 key to download and program the chip

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:36:59 GMT

Dear Kirstin Can you tell me, where I can find this info of the voltage with Jlink ?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RK — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:35:46 GMT

It wasn't Kristin who asked that question, it was me.

And I asked because you yourself wrote this

"Mr. Papp recommandet that we connect the external 3.2 V to our board, which we did. Whit this input we could program it the first time."

That seemed to say that with 3.2V external applied you were able to program it. What did you mean when you wrote that sentence?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:33:37 GMT

Dear Kirstin It is not true that with the external power it works. Actually it does not either with external 3.3v power or with the 3.3V coming from the programming connector. I will check and let you know asap.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RK — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:17:38 GMT

So if you use external power you can program the board every time, but if you use DK power, you have issues? If so that seems to be where you ought to be looking.

Also JLink will report the voltage it sees, what voltage is it reporting?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:01:02 GMT

Thanks! The target driver setup looks normal. Could you also take a picture of the setup with the nRF52-DK connected to your board when you try to program it?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:56:49 GMT

We can program the nRF52-DK. But we never tried this trough the nRF51-DK. I will add the setup.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:48:42 GMT

Okay, I see. Could you upload a picture showing your setup?

Also, does it work for you to program the nRF51-DK through the nRF52-DK (like programming your custom board)?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 09:18:56 GMT

Hmm didnt solve our problem. Yesterday we had several times success to program the chip. But after power off the chip was erased again. Today we hadnt success to program the chip...

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 08:57:01 GMT

Could you try to remove the zener diode connected to the programming header? The purpose of the VDD/VCC pin connected to the programmer header on the PCB is to make the programmer detect the level of VDD on that board. The zener diode will block that.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

RK — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 15:47:25 GMT

To be fair that wasn't really your question, it was a minor extra question at the end. And the answer is no, you do not need any crystals at all in order to program the device, the internal RC oscillator will start and the MCU will run. I know this partly because I have a board I built 2 days ago where the HF crystal is not working .. but the chip is entirely programmable.

Try using JLink Commander directly, try dropping the frequency, you may have a bad connection which can't take 4MHz transfer or whatever you're using.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 14:23:53 GMT

Dear Kristin

I understand your comment, but my problem is much deeper. The only real difference to the evalboard is the following. Our layout is made for a internal LDO setup. Is there maybe the problem, that the Keil does not see the Chip. If I try to power on 10 times, I might get to be able to program it once. When I switch off power, and switch on again, it does not find the program i have programmed some seconds ago. Any ideas ? I estimate, it is a hardware issue. Can you answer me the following question: We do NOT use the BLE here on this project. Just uC application. Also no fast signals. Do we need the 32MHZ crystal to be able to program the CPU ???????????????????? Nobody has answered this so far . I will add the schematics and board layout again in the post. Ivan

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:53:04 GMT

Reset the chip after programming: If you program the chips from Keil, go to Project -> Options for target -> Debug -> Settings -> Flash download: check/enable the "reset and run" option.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:12:55 GMT

Do we need a special power on reset? We do get sometimes the processor get up running and then we also can reprogram it. Most times it does not come up.

Mr. Papp recommandet that we connect the external 3.2 V to our board, which we did. Whit this input we could program it the first time.

Can we do something like a power on reset hardware to start our program correctly?

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 10:56:44 GMT

The power comes from the DK. VDC = 3.26V

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 09:18:15 GMT

Yes, you can program the chip with either the nRF51-DK or the nRF52-DK.

How do you power the chip on your external board? Which voltage do you use? The nRF51/52 requires 3.0 V as voltage for the custom board when programming.

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

Inspectron — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 09:07:55 GMT

Only with the nRF52-DK or also with the nRF51DK? Because i try it now with the nRF51DK

RE: JLink Info: Could not power-up debug power domain.

FormerMember — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 09:04:22 GMT

Yes, you can use the nRF52-DK to program the chip on your custom board. Did you remember to power the chip on your external board?