Does SEGGER JLink version affect BLE programming?

[Ladasky]

Yesterday, I asked a question (so far, no one has answered) about how an OS upgrade on my desktop computer might have broken my ability to flash and run BLE apps on the nRF52 Preview DK, PCA10036.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

I had questions about the version of SEGGER JLink I was using before (which I did not write down) versus the SEGGER JLink I currently have installed (version 6.0.6). Today I came across this post:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

...which implies that Nordic included SEGGER 5.10 in a Win32 command-line support package intended for PCA10036 development. I work in Linux, but I am still noting the difference in versions.

I know that JLink is not Nordic's software, but are there known differences between the various JLink versions? If there are problems, should this information be added to the Compatibility Matrix page (infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp

Thanks for any advice.

[Ladasky]

Well, I seem to have solved my problem, although I don't know exactly WHY I had to do what I did.

After many frustrating attempts, I discovered that if I invoke the erase command from JLink before flashing the board, Bluetooth applications are working again. RK, I was working on this all day, and I just saw your post come in as I was typing this. If running erase was what you meant to tell me to do when you wrote "type in the commands to clear flash", I seem to have stumbled on that myself.

As suggested by David: using mergehex to make a single file out of the SoftDevice and the application works -- but so does the more straightforward way of flashing each file separately.

I was also able to flash ble_app_heart over ble_app_template at memory location 0x1F000, and on rebooting, the board was running the heart rate app. Previously, I was unable to do this. See above.

What exactly is going on with JLink? What sections of memory are erased on executing a loadfile command? Why doesn't loadfile seem to erase something critical to the operation of the SoftDevice? What does a full erase do that loadfile does not? If anyone understands, please feel free to chime in. Thanks!

[RK]

The sections of memory erased when doing a loadfile are exactly the bytes required to load the new file and nothing more and nothing less. A full erase does a full erase (most people don't use the erase command but write the registers directly however Segger's erase command runs the correct thing for each board type they support so using that works as well).

I don't know what's going on because it continues to make zero sense.