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nRF Connect 1.0.0 on OSX and RedBearLabs BLE Nano Kit

Hello,

I've been trying to use nRF Connect 1.0.0 on OSX 10.11.6 with a nRF51822-powered board (this one, to be precise). Whilst nRF Connect finds the serial port and the board, I get an error message saying "This adapter with mbed CMSIS firmware is currently not supported on OS X. Please visit www.nordicsemi.com/nRFConnectOSXfix for further instructions."[*].

According to that link there's an issue with JLink and OSX, but I never had JLink installed to begin with. Installing the latest version for OSX from Segger did not fix the issue. Nevertheless, the linked fixed Segger firmware fails to get flashed on the board, and the DAPLink firmware mentioned here gets flashed but does not let the board boot.

Is there anything else I can try to get this to work? Thank you!

[*] For the record, here's what gets printed out by nRF Connect:

2016-08-06T13:29:06.029Z INFO Application data folder: /Users/agatti/Library/Application Support/nrfconnect
2016-08-06T13:29:06.764Z INFO Ready. Select serial port to connect to adapter.
2016-08-06T13:29:16.065Z INFO Could not load nrfjprog DLL, firmware detection and programming will not be available.
2016-08-06T13:29:16.067Z INFO Opening adapter connected to /dev/tty.usbmodem1412
2016-08-06T13:29:16.076Z WARN This adapter with mbed CMSIS firmware is currently not supported on OS X. Please visit www.nordicsemi.com/nRFConnectOSXfix for further instructions.
2016-08-06T13:29:16.093Z INFO Successfully opened /dev/tty.usbmodem1412. Baud rate: 115200. Flow control: none. Parity: none.

2016-08-06T13:29:16.093Z DEBUG State change: STATE_START -> STATE_RESET

2016-08-06T13:29:16.094Z DEBUG        1 ->  []
               type:          RESERVED_5 reliable: no seq#:0 ack#:0 payload_length:0 data_integrity:0 err_code:0
2016-08-06T13:29:16.095Z INFO Reset performed on adapter /dev/tty.usbmodem1412
2016-08-06T13:29:16.393Z DEBUG State change: STATE_RESET -> STATE_UNINITIALIZED

2016-08-06T13:29:16.393Z DEBUG        2 ->  [01 7e ]
               type: LINK_CONTROL_PACKET reliable: no seq#:0 ack#:0 payload_length:2 data_integrity:0 err_code:0
               [SYNC]
2016-08-06T13:29:16.645Z DEBUG        3 ->  [01 7e ]
               type: LINK_CONTROL_PACKET reliable: no seq#:0 ack#:0 payload_length:2 data_integrity:0 err_code:0
               [SYNC]
2016-08-06T13:29:16.900Z DEBUG        4 ->  [01 7e ]
               type: LINK_CONTROL_PACKET reliable: no seq#:0 ack#:0 payload_length:2 data_integrity:0 err_code:0
               [SYNC]
2016-08-06T13:29:17.154Z DEBUG        5 ->  [01 7e ]
               type: LINK_CONTROL_PACKET reliable: no seq#:0 ack#:0 payload_length:2 data_integrity:0 err_code:0
               [SYNC]
2016-08-06T13:29:17.406Z DEBUG State change: STATE_UNINITIALIZED -> STATE_FAILED

2016-08-06T13:29:18.096Z ERROR Error occurred opening serial port. (NRF_ERROR_TIMEOUT)
2016-08-06T13:29:18.352Z DEBUG Error: Error occurred opening serial port. (NRF_ERROR_TIMEOUT)
    at Adapter.<anonymous> (/Users/agatti/Downloads/nRF Connect-darwin-x64/nRF Connect.app/Contents/Resources/app/js/actions/adapterActions.js:151:34)
    at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
    at Adapter.emit (events.js:169:7)
    at Adapter._emitError (/Users/agatti/Downloads/nRF Connect-darwin-x64/nRF Connect.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/pc-ble-driver-js/api/adapter.js:176:14)
    at Adapter._checkAndPropagateError (/Users/agatti/Downloads/nRF Connect-darwin-x64/nRF Connect.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/pc-ble-driver-js/api/adapter.js:166:18)
    at _adapter.open.err (/Users/agatti/Downloads/nRF Connect-darwin-x64/nRF Connect.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/pc-ble-driver-js/api/adapter.js:266:22)
  • Hi,

    Are you using the board with an Mbed CMSIS bootloader? In that case it is not supported within nRF Connect.

    Best regards,

    Øyvind

  • Automatic firmware is not available with the board you have, so you will have to program the connectivity firmware manually (hex file is located inside app bundle in folder Contents\Resources\app\hex). Programming the firmware should allow you to get past the NRF_ERROR_TIMEOUT error. Beware that the USB problem will still create problems when long packets are used, e.g. when doing pairing.