Connecting nRF9160

[fletzkus]

Hello,

I am trying to connect my nRF9160 but am running into some trouble. Only LED 3 blinks for about 3 minutes and then just stays on without blinking; LED 4 never blinks. My location is Barcelona. Could it possibly be because I have bad cell service or is it another issue?

Kind regards,

Faith

[Øyvind]

Hello Faith, 

According to GSMA Mobile IoT Deployment map, Barcelona and Spain are using NB-IoT. You will need to update your modem FW to the latest which supports both LTE-M and NB-IoT. The modem FW is available here, under nRF9160 LTE-M/NB-IoT/GPS Modem Firmware, and includes instructions on how to update the FW. To ensure that NB-IoT is configured, you can verify this by issuing the AT command AT%XSYSTEMMODE?. More information about AT commands in the AT Command Reference Guide.

After updating the modem FW, you will most likely need to update the software as well. Have you installed the nRF Connect SDK (NCS)? If not, I recommend following the Getting Started Assistant available through nRF Connect for Desktop. It is very important to follow these steps all the way through. More details can be found here.

After downloading NCS, please ensure that SW5 on the board is set to nRF9160, before programming. If you are using Segger Embedded Studio v4.16 (SES) to program the software, be aware that there is currently an issue with SES and NCS. NCS will compile a multi-image .hex file which SES does not support at the moment. The workaround can be found here.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask questions.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[fletzkus]

Thank you Øyvind for such a detailed response! When you say "issuing the AT command" where do I issue that? in the terminal? Additionally when reading the steps here: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-Tools/Development-Kits/nRF9160-DK/GetStarted#infotabs, it seemed like I should be able to at least get the board online before having to worry about installing these things for development. Will following your steps also help me get the board online?

[Øyvind]

Hello again,

fletzkus said:

Thank you Øyvind for such a detailed response!

 You're welcome! That's what we're here for!

fletzkus said:

When you say "issuing the AT command" where do I issue that? in the terminal?

 Yes, this depends on what version of the software the board is running. But you can try to issue the AT%XSYSTEMMODE? in a terminal. I recommend using the LTE Link Monitor that is also available through nRF Connect for Desktop. Just type in the command in where is it says "Type AT Command here", then if you have the correct version of the software it will respond with e.g. 

%XSYSTEMMODE: 1,0,0,0
OK

fletzkus said:

Will following your steps also help me get the board online?

This depends on the modem FW on your board. Older boards had a modem FW that supports LTE-M only, which means an update is needed. Given the original post of your ticket, I would say that you do not have the correct modem FW and will need to update to the latest FW which support NB-IoT.

Hope this answers your question, just ask if you have more 

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[fletzkus]

Hello again, 

When trying to update the FW I was following along with the steps. However, when with the command "nrf9160_mdm_dfu --update," I got this error message:

"Could not locate a JLinkARM.dll in the default SEGGER installation path. Please provide the absolute path of the SEGGER JLINKARM.dll to use by the use of parameter 'jlink_arm_dll_path'. See API.py API.__init__() function for details."

Additionally, when installing the toolchain for nRF Connect SDK, the following two commands gave me a "verification failed" message:

Install CMake by entering the following command:
brew install cmake

Install Python3 by entering the following command:
brew install python3

Could you help me disipher what is going on?

Thank you!
Faith

[Øyvind]

Hello Faith, 

fletzkus said:

Could not locate a JLinkARM.dll in the default SEGGER installation path. Please provide the absolute path of the SEGGER JLINKARM.dll to use by the use of parameter 'jlink_arm_dll_path'. See API.py API.__init__() function for details.

Have you installed J-Link Software and Documentation pack for macOS? Also, you need to have Python installed for this to work.

fletzkus said:

Additionally, when installing the toolchain for nRF Connect SDK, the following two commands gave me a "verification failed" message

 I'm sorry, but can you please provide the error messages that you receive? Does everything else install correctly, i.e. brew install ninja?

Kind regards,
Øyvind