nRF52832 module is outputting 0.59V. Is the module broken?

[TomWS]

I am bringing up a breakout board for an nRF52832 module (MDBT42Q) and can not get a response from the module.  The breakout board has very little circuitry, mostly fanout of IO pins.  It does have a 1.0uF capacitor on the DEC4 pin and I'm trying to communicate with a J-Link SWD interface, but get no response.  When I measure the DEC4 pin, I see approximately 0.59V.  Using a scope the pin appears to be ramping between 840mV and 500mV at about 147Hz.   I do not have inductors between DCC & DEC4 pins installed on the board.

Is this module broken?  I have the reset pin tied high and approximately 3.15V VDD.

Tom

[notsane0]

What do you mean you "can't get a response from the module? You should only need power and ground and possibly reset high to program the module. Most come blank ... Have you attempted to program it?

I'm not sure why the voltage on DEC4 would be indicative of the module being broken.

[TomWS]

Eureka! Handsoldering did the trick.  I've got 1.3V at DEC4 AND I'm able to access the chip using J-Link and nRFGo Studio!  I managed to solder the 4 gnds, VDD, DEC4, XL1, XL2 (I do have an on-board 32.768KHz crystal), and the two SWD signals.

As you said, it wasn't trivial.  I needed a VERY fine tip on the soldering iron and dabbed T4 solder paste on the joints to prime them.   It turns out the module did have the S132 soft device installed on it but no application or bootloader as far as I could tell.

Thanks for your help and confirmation of my suspicions...

[TomWS]

Just as a follow up, I used the solder paste technique and was able to successfully solder all the pads on the MDBT42Q module and now have a fully functioning breakout board that is currently emulating the NRF52 DK board.  Great forum!