Low Voltage (1.8V) on nRF52840 cannot program chip

[TasosR]

I have the USB Dongle (PCA10059) which after a full erase, has been giving only 1.8Volts to the GPIOs and the VDD OUT pin.

I am using the Segger j-link EDU progammer/debugger and I have connected it as:

VTref - VDD OUT

GND-GND

SWDIO-SWDIO

SWCLK-SWCLK

also I have connected the Dongle to the computer's USB port at the same time

I have searched the forum and the internet, the 2 possible solutions are:

Solution 1:

The command

(gdb) set *0x10001304 = 5

from here which doesn't see to work, I get the error:

Cannot access memory at address 0x10001304

Solution 2:

The command:

nrfjprog --memwr 0x10001304 --val 0xFFFFFFFD

which results:

nrfjprog --memwr 0x10001304 --val 0xFFFFFFFD

while dmesg command records the following:

[ 1972.462260] nrfjprog[3893]: segfault at fffffffffffffff9 ip 00007fede43f604f sp 00007ffd9c3bc450 error 5 in libjlinkarm_unknown_nrfjprogdll.so.9.8.1[7fede43ed000+15000]

The 2nd solution in a windows 10 machine  doesn't return any errors but never changes the Voltage to the desired 3-3.3V

[TasosR]

I tried it, my results are below. No success at all

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

Try the IDAP-Link. It's a lot cheaper than the JLink pro and it can reprogram the dongle through SWD interface.

[haakonsh]

Try 'nrfjprog -f NRF52 -e' and report your result. 

[TasosR]

Even

dmesg

cannot recognize the dongle, I consider it as damaged and I am playing with another one this time

[TasosR]

Same problem with new dongle, steps I followed:

1) Passed the adafruit's bootloader  (github.com/.../Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader)

using the command

nrfjprog -f nrf52 --program pca10059_bootloader-0.2.9_s140_6.1.1.hex --chiperase --reset

device turned to 1.8Volts, I turned it to 3.3V by using:

nrfjprog --memwr 0x10001304 --val 0xFFFFFFFD

2) I passed 2-3 times software using the Arduino IDE, everything OK

3 I tried giving external power to the dongle, tried a LiPo with 3.7 volts and power supply 5V

connecting then to the VBUS of the Dongle, Dongle never booted (should I open new Issue ???)

While programming it, sometime the Dongle turned to 1.8Volts again and CANNOT program it using the j-link EDU.

The

nrfjprog --memwr 0x10001304 --val 0xFFFFFFFD

returns

$ nrfjprog --memwr 0x10001304 --val 0xFFFFFFFD
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

I can use the solution you provided to me earlier (Disconnect the dongle from the USB port and supply 3V externally to the VDD circuit of the dongle, then you should be able to program with the J-Link EDU or OB.)

BUT I am afraid that sometime this Dongle could be damaged as well

When I connect this device to the PC, dmesg gives:

[Mar 6 12:08] usb 3-2.1: new full-speed USB device number 20 using xhci_hcd
[  +0,114336] usb 3-2.1: New USB device found, idVendor=239a, idProduct=8029
[  +0,000002] usb 3-2.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  +0,000002] usb 3-2.1: Product: Bluefruit nRF52840
[  +0,000002] usb 3-2.1: Manufacturer: Adafruit Industries
[  +0,000001] usb 3-2.1: SerialNumber: 8D4C5F5CB3BB6718
[  +0,000962] cdc_acm 3-2.1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[  +0,001351] usb-storage 3-2.1:1.2: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  +0,000192] scsi host6: usb-storage 3-2.1:1.2
[  +0,161242] usb 3-2.1: USB disconnect, device number 20