Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

bjorn-spockeli — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:42:02 GMT

Ah, now I understand what you mean. Yes, that should also be possible.

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

Felipe Ribas — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:38:41 GMT

But isn't possible to use normal radio TX/RX (or even a dedicated attribute on the GATT table) to send raw packets so that the BLE with radio doesnt even know that this is an update? Just receive raw bytes from the radio and use the UART module to forward them. So the bootloader remains untouched

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

bjorn-spockeli — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:31:08 GMT

Yes, that is what I meant by forwarding the packets received over the air to the serial interface, i.e. UART. You still need to modify the OTA BLE bootloader to send the data inside the BLE packets over the UART to the second nRF52.

The only production ready serial bootloader we have is based on SDK v11.0.0 and it expects to receive the data in a specific format, i.e. you need to add a header etc, see this Infocenter page. However, we're adding an experimental Secure Serial Bootloader in the production release of SDK v13.0.0.

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

Felipe Ribas — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:18:23 GMT

I see. But do I really need the bootloader to forward the packets to the serial interface? I was thinking if maybe I can just receive the update package as a normal raw package of bytes and then forward normally via UART to the other BLE chip as normal serial data and then the second BLE (without radio) would understand this package as update package and use it to update itself. So both would have normal bootloaders (one via radio and the other one via serial interface). Works? Let me know if the idea is clear or still a bit confusing

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

bjorn-spockeli — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:02:14 GMT

Yes, that should be possible to implement, however, you will have to modify the existing BLE bootloader to forward the received packets to the serial interface instead of updating itself. The serial bootloader should not need any modifications.

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

Felipe Ribas — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 13:20:36 GMT

Understood. Yes, their firmwares are originally different. So the idea would be to transmit the update to the one with radio ON and this would forward via serial interface to the other one so it can update itself. So it's possible? I just have to boot different bootloaders and it should work?

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:19:59 GMT

Yes, I think that should be possible, you will have to flash the BLE bootloader to the one that has the radio turned on and the serial bootloader to the one on the other nRF52 that has the radio turned off. Are both nRF52832s going to run the same firmware or is the one with the Radio of going to run another firmware? Not that it really matters, since in both cases you will have to forward the firmware received over the air to the serial interface.

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

Felipe Ribas — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 11:08:27 GMT

Sorry, I didn't specify properly. I'm using a pair of nRF52832 talking to each other via LIN bus. As the nRF doesn't support LIN natively there is also a UART-LIN between the nRFs. One of them has the radio off and it's only receiving infos from the other one. Will I be able to implement some OTA update via this serial connection? The softdevice I'm using is the s132

RE: Firmware update (DFU) on NRF52

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 08:17:16 GMT

First of all, which SDK and SoftDevice versions are you using? Second, which BLE chip is going to have its radio turned off, the nRF52 or the other one? It could sound like you want to update the nRF52 over UART.