Custom board not being recognized

[mars_design]

Hi,

I have created a custom board with an NRF52832 chip on. Either programming via ULINK2 or the DK PCA10040 is no succes, board won't be recognized although it is powered.

Checked all support tickets around this subject, and wiring is set up okay including SWCLK, SWDIO, VTG GND. What else can be checked in hardware or wiring what could be the issue?

I have used the reference circuit diagram for the NRF52832 dcdc schematic.

Thanks.

[mars_design]

Hello.

Have had more success this weekend with programming. Appeared to be a issue on my custom board, but now able to load blinky or other code on. Also via NRFgo studio I can load and verify the softdevice 132. 

I'm not able to load the code (try to load the ble_app_uart with some modifications from myself), but it says: hex file has data in soft device region. 

Also via Keil i get the following error; Error: Flash Download failed  -  "Cortex-M4" 

What could this be?

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

You can try to erase the device via command line "nrfjprog -e" (or click the "Erase all" button in nRFgoStudio), then re-program the softdevice, and then the application?

Does your custom board have a external 32kHz crystal? If not, you need to configure your project to use the internal 32kHz RC oscillator instead.

Here's a answer from a colleague of mine how to change this in recent SDK versions:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/48170/i-have-a-development-board-and-load-the-client-central-ble-blinky-to-it-then-the-peripheral-ble-blinky-to-my-custom-board-and-power-up-and-the-central-development-board-stays-led-1-on-and-never-switches-to-led-2/192441#192441

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[mars_design]

Yes, it has an external crystal. 

Programming the soft device goes fine, afterwards programming the application shows the error.

If I erase everything, and program the application (without soft device) it goes correct as well. My indication is that the soft device is placed on a memory location where the application is placed as well. I've read other topics around that, is that possible?

[Håkon Alseth]

What SDK are you using, and which application are you trying out? The SDK version used will depend on a specific softdevice version. If you for instance flash S132 v6, when the SDK expects S132 v5, then you will both have API issues and flash issues.

 

Could you ensure that you are loading the correct softdevice that matches the SDK you're using?

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[mars_design]

I'm using soft device 6.1.1 and SDK nRF5_SDK_15.3.0

[Håkon Alseth]

All projects that are marked with "S132" should then work. for instance:

\nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\pca10040\s132

 

Did you try the precompiled .hex file? ble_app_hrs_pca10040_s132.hex in \nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\hex.

This also holds the S132 merged into one .hex file.