nRF24LE Info Page

[Gary]

I have many nRF24LE1E chips that have a corrupted Info Page. I use the Dataman-48Pro2 programmer. I have read and saved the Info Page from a working chip but have not been able to restore the Info Page on a non-working chip. Can you recommend a method or a programming device that is capable of writing to the Info Page? I have received confirmation from Dataman that their programmer can only read the Info Page but not write to it. The corrupted Info Page has occurred while our developers have inadvertently written to the Info Page area. We would like to be able to restore these corrupted chips.

Thank you,

Gary 

[ovrebekk]

Hi Gary

If you have a working development environment for the nRF24LE1, based on the nRFgo Starter kit, then it is possible to restore the info page to a default state. 

I wrote a document describing this procedure many years ago, and you will find it attached:
corrupted infopage.doc

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Gary]

Thank you for the reply. I did read the Info Page before starting to work on programming the chip. I would like to restore the Info Page to the values that I saved rather than default values. Does the nRFgo allow that? I am using a Dataman-48Pro2 programmer and it does not write to the Info Page. The Dataman can only read the Info Page which I did and I saved it to a file. I am trying to restore the Info Page to the values that I saved. I can purchase a nRFgo if that will solve the problem. Can the nRFgo Starter Kit restore the Info Page from a file that contains the saved Info Page?

[ovrebekk]

Hi Gary

I have to dig a bit internally to figure this out, it is not very fresh in anyone's memory ;)

If it's only a handful of chips that are affected couldn't you just use the default settings?

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Gary]

Hello Torbjørn,

I have to use the exact same values. The chip is used in a medical device and any change would require a massive amount of FDA paper work. Instead, I just discard any chip that gets corrupted. However, lately, our software group has been corrupting a lot of chips and I was hoping to be able to restore the chips. If that's not possible, I guess I will keep discarding them. It seems odd that our software group can corrupt the Info Page. That seems to indicate that it's easy to write to that area which means it should be possible to restore the Info Page. I'm collecting all the bad chips in one box. I have read that some people use an Arduino with software to write to the Info Page. I'll try that sometime. If you do find any solution, please let me know.

Thank you,

Gary

[ovrebekk]

Hi Gary

I discussed this with the software developers, and he agreed to make a patch for nRFgo Studio that would allow you to write the info page using the standard development tools. 

This would require that you have an nRFgo Starter kit to do the update, but if this is fine with you I can compile the necessary files and share it with you. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Gary]

That would be great, thank you. I'll purchase the programmer. I see Digikey sells the nRFgo Starter Kit #NRF6700 for $399. Is that the correct one? (Digikey p/n: 1490-1011-ND)

Thank you,

Gary

[ovrebekk]

Hi Gary

That is the correct one, yes. 

I have made the alpha version of nRFgo Studio available here. 

With this one you should be able to write the info page as requested. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Gary]

Thank you. Our document department had a question. If there is a future software update for the nRFgo Studio will the Info Page change be in it or will we have to request a patch for the new version?

[ovrebekk]

Hi Gary

It is unlikely there will be more updates to nRFgo Studio, but if there is one the developer would expect this feature to be included. 

We can't guarantee it 100% though, so if an updated version comes out without it I suggest you get in touch with us again. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Gary]

Hello, on the nRFgo Starter Kit I'm trying to build an ISP cable to program the nRF51822 which uses a single wire DIO line. The ISP pinout in the manual only shows a separate MOSI & MISO. Can the nRFgo Starter Kit program a nRF51822 with a single DIO line? If so, what is the pinout on the ISP port for the nRF51822?

Sincerely,

Gary

[Gary]

I installed the software for the nRFgo nRF6700 started kit. But it looks like the software is for the nRF8001 & nRF8002. I don't see anything about the nRF6700. Did I install the wrong software? If so, can you give me a link to the correct software?

Thank you,

Gary

[ovrebekk]

Hi 

You can't use the nRFgo Starter kit to program any of the nRF5x family of devices. 

With the move from the nRF24L series to the nRF5x series we moved from an SPI based programming interface to a 2-wire SWD interface, and the nRFgo Starter kit doesn't support this interface. 

I would suggest you buy an nRF51DK to do development on the nRF51 series. The DK comes with a debug out port that allow you to program external boards (you need to buy the 10-pin J-Link connector separately). 

The nRF6700 is referred to as a Motherboard in nRFgo Studio. If you have your board connected it should show up under Motherboards in the Device Manager window on the left side. 

Best regards
Torbjørn