J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Garth@ESS — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 16:57:57 GMT

Just in case it might help, I also had this issue, and eventually found that it was because the host processor (which communicated with the nRF52832 over UART) was holding the reset line low. Blanking the host processor solved the problem. Just another idea if people are troubleshooting this issue.

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 14:19:07 GMT

Voltages looks fine now. 3mV difference should not have any effect.

If your board is stuck in a assert-loop (RESET-loop) early in the firmware, could have issues recovering the board. You could try to make a script that loops over the shell-call "nrfjprog -e" or "nrfjprog --recover" to try to recover it, or try on different computers (windows based) to see if that helps.

Best regards,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 13:11:46 GMT

Thanks for your support... It's not an easy one.

For me it is connected, the wiring is not the problem, the board was working before. GND are connected together, same for CDD.

In my opinion it's either a sotfware infinite loop that is blocking the communication or a component who broke, but you are the expert here.

I've checked the current :

On my DK, from GND to VDD I got 2.81V
On my working CB from GND to VDD going to the nRF52832 : 2.81V
On my broken CB from GND to VDD going to the nRF52832 : 2.78V

Could this difference of 3mV can cause the problem ?

Thanks for your help

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 13:20:13 GMT

Judging from your results, the neither the VDD or the GND is connected between the CB and the DK. If GND was connected together, you should see ~0V when measuring GND on both boards. Check for loose connections!

You need to connect atleast DK_GND and CB_GND together, and preferably the DK_VDD and CB_VDD (remember to take out the battery if you connect the two VDDs together!)

Best regards,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 08:57:47 GMT

Hi Håkon,

First I removed the battery soldered on my Custom Board (aka CB). Here are some measurements I've made with my amp meter on the broken CB :

DK VDD_NRF --> CB '+' = 0.280V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)
DK GND --> CB '+' = 1.1V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)
DK VDD_NRF --> CB GND = 0.797V (steady)
CB '+' --> CB GND = 1.1V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)

And here are the same measurement on my working CB which I can program normally using JLINK :

DK VDD_NRF --> CB '+' = 0.280V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)
DK GND --> CB '+' = 0.5V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)
DK VDD_NRF --> CB GND = 0.806V (steady)
CB '+' --> CB GND = 0.5V (unsteady, keeps dropping few mV every second)

I don' really understand.

Is it because on the working board 0.806V - 0.280V ~= 0.5V while on the broken board 0.797V - 0.280V /= 1.1V ?

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 12:27:35 GMT

If it works on the other board, powered at 2.1V, then you are barely hitting the required voltage for a registered logic '1' (0.7*VDD).

It's no problem to measure current when the USB is connected, it is just that you will get more noise on your measurement if you're measuring in the micro-amp area.

You must have the same VDD level on the custom board as the DK, as there is no level shifters or similar in between your board and the DK. Connect "VDD_NRF" from the DK to the '+' of your battery terminal (remove battery first) and the same applies for the GND connection.

If you follow the schematic in this thread, you effectively power your custom board from the DK to ensure that VDD_CustomBoard == VDD_NRF.

Best regards,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 10:44:32 GMT

To program the external board I always plug the USB, but to measure current I thought your link mentioned that we should release the USB.

But whatever, even if I plug the USB and remove the CR2032 from the DK, I got 2.1V even on a working board. But shunting SB11 or SB12 doesn't change this value.

I don't really understand how to be sure my board as the same voltage than the one DK uses.

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 10:12:46 GMT

Hi,

2V on a coincell means that it's dead (0 % capacity). If you look at this image, there's not much juice left once you reach 2V on a CR2032.

In order to program externally via the DK, always power your external board from the DK. This is because there are level triggered logic that is used to detect which device the SEGGER should program, and it is _very_ important that your board has the same voltage as the DK uses.

Cheers,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 09:30:40 GMT

No I really mean 2.06V with a coin cell battery.

Where would you put the multimeter on the custom board ? If I put the multimeter between VDD_NRF on the DK and the GND of the custom board I got ~0.7V for both boards (broken and working ones)

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 09:04:05 GMT

2.06V? I assume you mean 2.86V?

Since one of your boards are working, the issue might be on the "bad board", it could be a loose connection or a soldering. I would recommend connecting a multimeter in series with VDD_NRF going from the DK to the custom board to see if there is any current going into the custom board.

Best regards,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 07:52:32 GMT

Hi Håkon,

I measured the current for both working and broken custom board, same result : 2.06V

VDD and VTG are well connected since I'm already able to program other boards.

About nrfjprog :

> nrfjprog -v
nrfjprog version: 9.7.2
JLinkARM.dll version: 6.22a

Hope this help you help me :)

Thanks

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 07:36:42 GMT

Hi,

I am sorry for the late reply.

Just as a reference, you can find how to measure current in the DK user-guide:

Measuring current

Note: if this board has been used for current measurements before, it is likely that the SB9 is already been cut. In this case, you need to short header P22.

Since you measure 2.8V on VDD_NRF, this should be fine on your kit.

Did you connect the pins "VDD" and "VTG"? This is required for external programming, if not; the SEGGER device will try to program the nRF on the development kit.

Pins "VTG" and "GND_DETECT" are actually ADC-input pins, and should not be confused with GND and VDD, as these pins will not provide power to your external board.

Also, could you make sure that you have the latest nrfjprog? latest one is v9.7.2: nRF5x-Command-Line-Tools-OSX

Best regards,

Håkon

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 15:39:53 GMT

Hi Håkon,

Did you had the time to check my previous reply ? I'm still not able to find a solution by myself :/

Thanks for your support

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

StephaneJ — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:18:33 GMT

Hi Håkon,

Yes I tried it, here are the log :

> nrfjprog --recover -f nrf52

Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
ERROR: Recover failed. Please make sure that the correct device family is given
ERROR: and try again.

About the current consumption I'm not sure how I should measure it, I'm more a software person. But as far as I checked, there was no difference on the board compared to a functional one.

For a broken and working board results are the same, plugged to the nRF52DK, I have 2.79V coming out of the regulator and the VDD, VDD_2 and VDD_3 of the nRF52 are 2.79V.

I checked the VDD coming out of the nRF52DK : 2.82V.

RE: J-Link Programming external nRF52 : Failed to connect to target, no Idcode detected

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:38:14 GMT

Hi,

Since it detects 3.3V, it looks like you have the wiring setup correctly.

Have you tried using nrfjprog to recover the device, like this: "nrfjprog --recover -f nrf52"?

The current consumed by your custom board can also be a good indicator if there's something wrong. Have you checked this?

Cheers,

Håkon