nRF52832 BT832XE randomly disconnects

[mbates14]

So, after using my Devkit and everything working OK as far as I can tell, I decided to order up a bare BT832XE module and place it on my PCB. 

Flashed it with the same firmware inside SEGGER using the Nordic PCA10040 devkit. 

Seems to connect, everything works fine. for a little bit. Then I will get a random disconnect. It does not show up at all in the debug terminal. as far as it knows, it still thinks its connected. 

When I hit pause, it stops at DEADBEEF. With no rhyme or reason as to why. 

I tried recompiling as debug, and then tried again. Same thing. the disconnects are random. it can happen 30 seconds in, and it can happen as late as 4 to 8 minutes. But it ALWAYS happens. 

I tried adjusting the Clock to 500 with its internal oscillator (not using a crystal externally). No difference. I even tried adding extra bypass capacitance near the module on my PCB, the voltage going in appears to be stable so thats not it. 

Any thoughts? 

[mbates14]

I narrowed it down. if the RX pin on the UART gets grounded, it causes the BT module to crash. This seems like an overlooked bug in the SoftDevice, or something. I found a little piece of copper wire stuck in my pins which is why this was happening. 

if I physically "ground" the RX pin, even for just a second on the BT module, it'll disconnect. I dont have any pullups or pulldowns on the TX/RX pins, they are connected directly into an xBee module. (its a BT to RF device I made).

Edit: the copper thing was a fallacy. I removed it, it still happens randomly. especially if I am "handling" it.