Use nRF52 DK or nRF52 USB Dongle without nRFConnect

[Markus Mueller]

Hi,

is it possible to use the nRF52 dev kit and/or the nRF52 Dongle (nRF52840 Dongle) wiith the dongle firmware without nRFConnect?

Background:

We want to use a nRF52 dev kit or the nRF52 dongle with our test environment.

The functionality of the dongle firmware (firmware flashed with nRFConnect) is what we need in our test environment, to scan, connect, pair/bond, read, write, ...

After a quick research I neither found the dongle project, nor the api description to use this firmware via the serial com port.

Thanks for any help and best regards,

Markus

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

What you are looking for is probably the pc-ble-driver found here.

[Mttrinh]

Unfortunately, the source code of the connectivity firmware is not available.

[Markus Mueller]

Short Update:

Found the source code in the SDK (15):

<SDK_Folder>\examples\connectivity

This is also the used source code of the .hex on the pc-ble-driver repo (git) merged with the soft device.

[Frank]

Hi Markus Mueller

I'm wondering did you succeed?

I flashed the hex file "ble_connectivity_s140_usb_hci_pca10059" via nRFConnect applic, and the sub applic Programming (Experimental), but the nRF52840 dongle is no longer usable as it is no longer recognized nor the red LED on the dongle is blinking.

I'm also not able to install the USB driver as Windows fails to install them?

Any ideas? It seems the dongle's bootloader is ruined. Pressing the reset button on the dongle does NOT help either. Nor restarting Windows 10 or putting it in a different USB port. 

Thanks,

Frank

UPDATE:

I tried to restore with Zadig as explained in devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../144952, re-installing the libusb-win32,

I'm getting this now again visible in Windows Device Manager...

But the nRFConnect applic still complains, and nothing further can be done... 

However maybe with nRFgoStudio I can restore the boatloader.... 

Is this possible without doing further damage... Bjørn Kvaale?

Thanks in advance,

UPDATE:

DFU trigger not there, so no red blinking, so not able to flash hex files...

ADDED log file when using nRFConnect and programming applics:

Fullscreen NordicError.txt Download

2018-10-17T15:52:10.500Z INFO Application data folder: C:\Users\FRV\AppData\Roaming\nrfconnect\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-programmer v1.0.0-experimental.5 official
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG App path: C:\Users\FRV\.nrfconnect-apps\node_modules\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG nRFConnect 2.5.0 is supported by the app (^2.5.0)
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: C:\Users\FRV\AppData\Local\Programs\nrfconnect\resources\app.asar
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG HomeDir: C:\Users\FRV
2018-10-17T15:52:10.581Z DEBUG TmpDir: C:\Users\FRV\AppData\Local\Temp
2018-10-17T15:52:10.587Z INFO Using nrfjprog library 9.7.1, pc-nrfjprog-js 1.2.0
2018-10-17T15:52:10.610Z ERROR Error while probing usb device at bus.address 1.30: LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND. Please check that a libusb-compatible kernel driver is bound to this device, see https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-core/blob/master/doc/win32-usb-troubleshoot.md
2018-10-17T15:52:10.610Z VERBOSE Could not fetch serial number for serial port at COM3
2018-10-17T15:52:15.827Z ERROR Unsupported device. The detected device is neither JLink device nor Nordic USB device.
2018-10-17T15:53:01.452Z INFO Parsing .hex file:  C:\Users\FRV\NORDIC\pc-ble-driver-master\sdk\s150\examples\connectivity\ble_connectivity\hex\ble_connectivity_s140_usb_hci_pca10059.hex
2018-10-17T15:53:01.480Z INFO File was last modified at  3/22/2018, 3:24:22 PM
2018-10-17T15:53:01.667Z INFO Data block: 0x00000000-0x00000A18 (0x00000A18  bytes long)
2018-10-17T15:53:01.667Z INFO Data block: 0x00001000-0x000253C8 (0x000243C8  bytes long)
2018-10-17T15:53:01.667Z INFO Data block: 0x00026000-0x00037140 (0x00011140  bytes long)
2018-10-17T15:53:01.671Z INFO SoftDevice detected, id 0xA9 (S140 v6.0.0)

Br,

Frank

[Markus Mueller]

Hi Frank,

we currently only tested it with the nRF52 DK, not with the Dongle.

For that we used the pre-build .hex from here. But you can also build the firmware for you self. The needed steps are described here . They are just build the connectivity firmware of the SDK and merge it with the SoftDevice to one .hex.

For testing, we don't want to use the nRFConnect app (itself/standalone), but want the same functionality of the nRFConnect within our testframework.
This could be done with the pc-ble-driver from here .

So I have acctually no experience with the Connectivity firmware on the Dongle, sorry

BR

Markus

[Frank]

Hi  Markus,

Thanks for your explanation and time.

Previously I also did this exercise with the nRF52 DK/the PCA10040(nRF52832) and indeed I love the PC BLE driver concept.  I set up a UART HCI connection between an iMX6UL evk board running the BLE PC driver acting as Application board and the Nordic DK running the connectivity applic acting as Connectivity board.

Now I want to do the same exercise with the nRF52840 dongle instead of the Nordic DK, I flashed the dongle with the connectivity hex that is available in the SDK. Unfortunately the dongle is no longer accessible for flashing firmware.  I could more or less repair with Zadig the driver on Windows but the DFU trigger is no longer active, so it makes it impossible to flash firmware on the dongle with nRF tools.

I'm experiencing more or less what is here described:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/openthread-users/9TFIATWWrxw

Possible solutions as described here didn't work:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-core/blob/master/doc/serial-timeout-troubleshoot.md

UPDATED:

Also interesting:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/nrf-device-setup

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-core/blob/master/build/drivers/nrfconnect-driver-installer.exe

Best regards,

Frank

[Frank]

USUPDATE:

After playing around with Zadig I got my connectivity back on Windows 10. 

Not sure what went wrong before... 

However the dongle only starts the blinking RED LED when pressing connect in the nRFConnect Programming applic. When inserting the dongle and pressing the RESET button the RED LED does NOT start to blink.

But I'm still not there with my POC with the PC BLE driver and the connectivity applic running on the nRF52840 USB dongle.

 

Best regards,

Frank