Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

RE: Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

shubhangir — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 19:31:04 GMT

Hi Terje,

Sorry for the delayed response. I tried (3) on Ubuntu, consistently saw

Failed to upgrade target. Error is: Failed to establish connection.

Probably my board was in a state where it could not answer, as yo mentioned. I did try restarting the board a few times etc., but couldn't get rid of the error (only on Ubuntu).

In any case, I will close this issue now, as I'm able to get it going on Windows. Thanks very much for your help and advice!

Best regards,

Shubhangi

RE: Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

tesc — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 08:47:24 GMT

Hi,

I am happy to hear that you had some success!

The trials in 3., did you do that on Ubuntu or on Windows only? I managed to get the same behavior as you initially reported (only difference in the log was "[----] 0%" missing), after partially performing steps 5-6, trying, performing step 7, trying again, performing steps 8-9, then try again. After that I had to both perform steps 5-9 and after that physically turn the board off and on again, but then it worked. So it looks to me that it is possible to force the board into a state where it does not answer (repeated "PC -> target: 0502aabbccdd" messages from nrfutil), by partially programming it then attempting a DFU session.

nRF5 SDK for Mesh supports both gcc/cmake and Segger Embedded Studio on all platforms. Which one to choose mostly depends on taste (SES gives you an IDE, while with gcc/cmake you edit cmake files directly but are free to use any editor of choice.) If you plan on combining Bluetooth Mesh with BLE then SES is the safer option, as SES is supported both by nRF5 SDK for Mesh and nRF5 SDK.

Regards,
Terje

RE: Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

shubhangir — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 18:28:26 GMT

Hi Terje,

I'm finally able to perform a DFU over mesh on 2 nodes. Couple of observations:

1. On using Ubuntu on my PC, I always see the error "Failed to upgrade target. Error is: Failed to establish connection".

Not sure of the reason.. It could be that the nrfutil looks for "COM" ports, only available on Windows? That is a random guess.

On using Windows, I was able to get past this error.

2. Now moving onto Windows:

I ported over all my build files (including the device page generated) from my Ubuntu PC to Windows PC. Then I ran

nrfutil --verbose dfu serial -pkg C:\Users\shubhang\Downloads\nrf5_SDK_for_Mesh_v2.0.1_src\examples\dfu\all_executables_for_dfu_ported_from_ub\dfu_test4.zip -p COM5 -b 115200 -fc --mesh

And this failed with (log as below)

...
Opened com-port
Starting DFU upgrade of type 4, SoftDevice size: 0, bootloader size: 0, application size: 123996
Sending DFU start packet, afterwards we wait for the flash on target to be initialized before continuing.
PC -> target: 0502aabbccdd
target -> PC: 0582aabbccdd
Got echo response
Sending DFU init packet
PC -> target: 1378fdff040f9e18084759000000010005000000
target -> PC: 16a6045900000001000500000059000000010001000000
target -> PC: 03847800
PC -> target: 1378fdff040f9e18084759000000010005000000
target -> PC: 03847800

Failed to upgrade target. Error is: Crashed on start packet

Possible causes:
- bootloader, SoftDevice or application on target does not match the requirements in the DFU package.
- baud rate or flow control is not the same as in the target bootloader.
- target is not in DFU mode. If using the SDK examples, press Button 4 and RESET and release both to enter DFU mode.
Closing serial port...

So it appeared that there was some issue with my build. Although not sure what this could be.

3. Finally, I repeated the process using the precompiled dfu application and precompiled blinky hex files in my DFU package. This DFU update succeeded, and now I'm able to see both of my boards blinking!

4. On Windows, what is the recommended toolchain to use, to build my applications? I have gccarm (cmake/ninja) and Segger Embedded Studio installed on Ubuntu. It would be good if you could give me a tip as to which one works well in Windows.

Thank you very much!

Shubhangi

RE: Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

tesc — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 16:30:54 GMT

Hi,

You need to download all the firmware (steps 5 through 9) also for the board that you use for performing the DFU from.

The use case is that you have a number of nodes, and then you connect to one of those nodes over serial in order to upgrade the full network (including the node that you connect to.)

Regards,
Terje

RE: Issue doing DFU over BLE mesh: Setup, 1 target board: nrf52840 dev kit+s140+Mesh 2.0.1+NRF SDK 15.0.0

shubhangir — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 20:51:24 GMT

A quick update, I flashed the software onto the host board (the one connected via serial port /dev/ttyACM1 onto my Ubuntu PC) as well, still see the error.