How to jump from Bootloader to Application (nrf51822)

[Chen Chen]

Currently, I am trying to develop nrf51822 (MDBT40) using Nordic SDK v12 (S130). The programmer I used is DAPLink from RedBear.

I am wondering how to make program to jump from bootloader to application code.

This is what I have don:

• Flash bootloader_secure example as my bootloader program:

  • Go to bootloader_secure/pca10028/armgcc/ and type "make clean; make";

  • Copy the generated .hex file in _build directory;

  • Merge the provided s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice.hex with .hex file using:

    ./mergehex -m s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice.hex nrf51422_xxac.hex -o bootloaderout.hex

  • Drag bootloaderout.hex file into virtual file system created by DAPLink for flashing bootloader;

• Flash Beacon Example as Application Firmware:

  • Similar to previous steps, get .hex file by making the program;

  • Merge the provided s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice.hex with .hex file using:

    ./mergehex -m s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice.hex nrf51422_xxac.hex -o appout.hex

  • Drag appout.hex file into virtual file system created by DAPLink for flashing application code;

From what I observed, my nrf51822 only execute the beacon app, with the secure DFU bootloader being ignore. However, from what I think, the nrf51822 should execute bootloader code, after which the application code will be executed. This can be explained by following statement in main.c from bootloader:

nrf_bootloader_app_start(MAIN_APPLICATION_START_ADDR); // the MAIN_APPLICATION_START_ADDR looks like the increment of SoftDevice

Can anyone suggest me where the mistake I may make. Thanks!

[bjorn-spockeli]

You need to generate a bootloader settings page, please see Appendix 1 in this blog post.

[Chen Chen]

hi Bjørn, thank you for your response. And sorry for reporting back slightly late.

It looks like the device is still stuck at bootloading mode , i..e the application code is not executed..

Here are the linker file I modified according to your suggestion.

For bootloader part, same as before:

MEMORY
{
     FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x3AC00, LENGTH = 0x5000
     RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20002C00, LENGTH = 0x5380
     NOINIT (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20007F80, LENGTH = 0x80
     BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS (rw) : ORIGIN = 0x0003FC00, LENGTH = 0x0400
     UICR_BOOTLOADER (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001014, LENGTH = 0x04
}

For application code part, I did some modification on flash and ram size.

MEMORY
{
    FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x1b000, LENGTH = 0x1FC00
    RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20002080, LENGTH = 0x5F00
}

In addition, when I generating bootloader setting file using nrfutil, here are outputs I saw from console.

Bootloader DFU Settings:
  * File:                 bootloader_setting.hex
  * Family:               nRF51
  * CRC:                  0x40A061E4
  * Settings Version:     0x00000001 (1)
  * App Version:          0x00000000 (0)
  * Bootloader Version:   0x00000000 (0)
  * Bank Layout:          0x00000000
  * Current Bank:         0x00000000
  * Application Size:     0x0000BA24 (47652 bytes)
  * Application CRC:      0x1AF13B5F
  * Bank0 Bank Code:      0x00000001

Do you have any thoughts on what the possible reason may be??

Thanks!