Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 08:27:38 GMT

Thank you Bjorn,

It seems the case, I'll check with the productions team to see how we can improve the process.

Regards

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 11:44:56 GMT

Yes, if the pads connecting to the external decoupling capacitors and/or supply/ground pads are not properly soldered then that could cause issues when writing to flash. This especially important for DEC5 (pad N24 ) ,which is the 1.3 V regulator supply decoupling for the Flash memory.

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 15:50:02 GMT

I forget to capture all the logs. The verification failed

"Verifying programming.
ERROR: Write verify failed."

programming without --verify works with no errors but the firmware loaded from the chip with --readcode doesn't match the original one.

I have some working boards that I'm able to load the firmware with no issues but found out that some pins don't output anything so sent them back to production for a fix and it was soldering problem !

do you think that the programming problem can be coming from a bad soldering ?

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 12:20:14 GMT

Great! Is the screenshot showing all the nrfjprog terminal output, i.e. is verifying programming the last line that is printed? To me it looks like the code was written to the device? Have you tried reading back the flash content and comparing it to the original hex file?

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:38:30 GMT

Attached is the logs with the newer version and the screenshot of the console.

With this version It worked with the blinky example hex file but not with my project hex file.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../1067.log.log

Thank you

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 08:41:37 GMT

Hi Chaabane,

I'll take a look at the logic traces, meanwhile, the latest version of nrfjprog is v9.7.3. Could you try to download this version, link, and then retry the commands with the --log option? The latest version provides more verbose log output than the older one.

Also, please post the console output from nrfjprog as well as the .log file

Bjørn

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 07:27:54 GMT

Please, Find attached the requested logs

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../working-board.logicdata

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../Notworking-board.logicdata

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../4064.log.log

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:45:54 GMT

Are you using a Saleae to capture the traces? If so, could you provide the traces as .logicdata files and not .csv? It makes it a bit easier to analyze.

Could you also try the nrfjprog commands again, but this time append the --log option. The nrfjprog log output will then be placed in a log.log file in the directory where you called nrfjprog from. Please attach the logs to this case.

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:15:27 GMT

nrfjprog version 9.7.1 and Jlink 6.34b

I compared both SWD traces. the clock is stable at 880-1000 KHz.

In the case of the bugged board values read from the debug port and the access port (after read request ) are not always the same as the returned values in the working board. the trace on CLK and IO looks normal for the write cycles before these reads. Below is the records for SWD trace for both boards if it might help

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf52840_5F00_SWD_5F00_Working_5F00_Board.csv

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf52840_5F00_SWD_5F00_Bugged_5F00_Board.csv

Thank you

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 08:47:45 GMT

Which version of nrfjprog did you use? Which version of JLink do you have installed?

If you have 6 identical boards, but you're only able to flash two of them, then I could sound like a hardware issue. Could you capture a logic trace of the SWDIO and SWDCLK pins for one of the "good" devices that you're able to flash and one of the devices you are not able to flash and then compare the traces?

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 08:22:24 GMT

Thank you Bjorn,

I used the P20 ( VGT,SWD IO, SWD CLK, RESET and GND DETECT).

I tried the commands you mentionned but got the same results !

I was able to download the firmware on some boards (2 of 6) so I asked the production team to check them but they couldn't find anything wrong with the soldering or the components. It's confusing how we can erase, write to a single page of the flash and not able to write the hole firmware ! Any idea where this behavior could be coming from ?

Thx,

Chaabane

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

bjorn-spockeli — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 12:08:50 GMT

Hi Chaabane,

How have you connected the programmer/nRF52xxx DK to your custom board?

Could you try to use nrfjprog from the nRF Command Line Tools to erase the nRF52840 chip, i.e.

nrfjprog --family nrf52 --eraseall

and then try flashing the chip with SES again. If you still see the issue after performing a full erase, then try using the --recover command. You can also try to use nrfjprog to flash the compiled hex file using

nrfjprog -f nrf52 --program <name of hex file>.hex --sectorerase --verify --reset

Best regards

Bjørn

RE: Failed to download firmware in nRF52840 chip

Chaabane — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 07:51:10 GMT

Hi,

Just tried using the onboard jlink of the DK but got the same results