Application not flashing to board

[bsas]

Hello,

I am trying to flash my application to my NRF51422. In short, the application is a combination of the ble_app_uart and twi_scanner examples, I am reading data from a TWI slave device and sending it via BLE. When I debug the application in SEGGER embedded studio, it runs with no issue. However, when I try flashing this application to the board, it does not seem to work.

I am using NRF Connect to do this, though I have tried drag-and-dropping it as well as using the older nRF Go, all with the same results. I first flash the softdevice with no issue. Then, when I try to flash the application, I don't get any kind of error returned or anything, but my board does not begin advertising, and I do not see it flashed on the nRF Connect GUI. The following screenshot is after I add the two .hex files (my application and the SD), and choose "erase and write":

Is there some kind of setting I didn't enable before building my application or something? Thank you in advance for your help,

Bennett

[Hung Bui]

Hi Benneth,

Have you tried to test with the unmodified example(s) ? When you flash the example and the softdevice do you see it reflected in nRF Connect app ? 

Which softedvice do you use and which SDK version ? 

[bsas]

Hi Hung,

Yes, I've tried using unmodified examples, both with and without softdevices, and they seem to be flashing fine. I see the same thing as above in the nRF Connect app when I flash the examples with SDs.

I am using S130 and SDK 12.3.0.

[Hung Bui]

Hi Bennett, 

It's more likely a bug in our nRFConnect software. Seems that it doesnt recognize the S130 softdevice when reading the flash. I will report this to the team. 

But it shouldn't be a big problem. The chip should still operate. Do you see the chip advertising after you flash the softdevice and the application ? Note that the precompiled hex in the examples in the SDK already include a softdvice. 

Which hardware board do you have ? Please be aware that in the example we expect the 32kHz crystal on board. If you don't have 32 kHz crystal you would need to configure the soft device to use 32kHz RC instead. 

[bsas]

Hi Hung,

Thank you for your response. After I flash the application and soft device, I do not see it advertise, I don't see anything reported on the nRF Log or anything like that.

i have the NRF51 DK, with a 32 kHz crystal. I also tried using the RC oscillator instead, and get the same results.

Thanks,

Bennett

[Hung Bui]

Hi Benneth, 

Please try to debug the application. You can start first by testing a simple application (the blinky application for example) without softdevice. Just to make sure the chip running correctly. 

Then you can test and debug application with softdevice (ble_app_hrs for example). Please step in the code and debug. 

Please follow this debug guide. 

[bsas]

Hello Hung,

I have debugged my application (along with other unmodified examples) and they run as expected. It's only when I try flashing the application with nRF Connect (or any other method, for that matter) that I do not see the board advertise/application run. Again, it does work when I flash unmodified examples, however.

Thanks,

Bennett

[Hung Bui]

Which IDE do you use to flash and debug your application ?

If you debug your application did it work ? 

Which modification did you make ? If you simply change the advertising name, would it work ? 

[bsas]

Hi Hung,

I'm using SEGGER.

Yes, if I debug the application in SEGGER, it works fine.

I've added some of the TWI_Scanner functions to my project, as well as modifying the nus_data_handler function to send some data from the TWI slave when it recieves certain characters via BLE.

Yes. As a test, I used ble_app_uart and changed the name of the device and flashed the hex and SD to my board, and it works fine.

Thank you,

Bennett