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DFU via nrfutil is taking longer to start on our custom board than it does on the nRF52840-Preview-DK board

DBT

I tried out DFU functionality initially using nRF52840-PreviewDK and UART transport

When downloading an app via DFU, It takes about 6 seconds from the time I start nrfutil until the progress bar shows.

Now I've ported DFU code over to our custom board and it takes about 35 seconds from the time I start nrfutil until the progress bar shows.

Why is it taking so much longer to start on our custom board?

To be clear, the DFU download works on our board and I can confirm that the app is running after DFU download.

I just don't understand why nrfutil is taking longer to start.  I confirmed with a scope that nrfutil doesn't start sending data over the UART until after about 35 seconds, and our custom board responds to the initial message within about 50 microseconds, so it's not like nrfutil is pinging our board and its taking our board longer to start responding.  It seems like its something happening in nrfutil rather than in the bootloader on our board.

Our board does not use flow control, so I use the "-fc 0" command line option: nrfutil dfu serial -pkg app_dfu_package.zip -p COM13 -b 115200 -fc 0

The nRF52840-PreviewDK board apparently does use flow control, but I tried using "-fc 0" when downloading to the nRF52840-PreviewDK board and it didn't appear to affect the start time.

Do you have any insights on this issue?

  • 0 in reply to Einar Thorsrud

    I have windows, but C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu_transport_serial.py doesn't exist on my PC.  

    dfu_transport_serial.py isn't anywhere on my PC.

    C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages does not have a nordicsemi subdirectory.

    Do I need to install something?

  • 0 in reply to DBT

    Hi,

    The path was based on a few assumptions. It would be there if you are using nrfutil on a windows PC, and have Pything installed in C:\Python27 and installed nrfutil using pip. You will not find the dfu_transport_serial.py file if you are using a nrfutil that has been packaged as a .exe file.

    Can you try to install the latest nrfutil via pip? Please note that nrfutil requires python 2 (not 3). When you have python 2 installed you can call "pip2 install nrfutil" to install it. Then you will get the newest nrfutil (5.2.0) as a python script and it will automatically be in your path. Now you can do the change I suggested (adjust for any difference in where Python is in your system), and you will get a lot of logs during the DFU process.

  • 0 in reply to Einar Thorsrud

    This is what comes up in the terminal window:

    C:\nordic\nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\nRF5SDK153059ac345\nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky\pca10056\s140\ses\Output\Release\Exe>nrfutil dfu serial -pkg ble_blinky_app_dfu_package.zip -p COM13 -b 115200 -fc 0
    2019-08-08 09:47:14,815 Serial: Set Packet Receipt Notification 0
    2019-08-08 09:47:14,848 Serial: Selecting Object: type:1
    2019-08-08 09:47:14,864 Serial: Object selected: max_size:512 offset:0 crc:0
    2019-08-08 09:47:14,880 Serial: Streaming Data: len:141 offset:0 crc:0x00000000
    2019-08-08 09:47:15,072 Serial: Selecting Object: type:2
    2019-08-08 09:47:15,088 Serial: Object selected: max_size:4096 offset:0 crc:0
    2019-08-08 09:47:15,198 Serial: Streaming Data: len:4096 offset:0 crc:0x00000000
    [######------------------------------] 18% 00:02:312019-08-08 09:47:15,694 Serial: Streaming Data: len:4096 offset:4096 crc:0xA0E6B9DD
    [#############-----------------------] 36% 00:01:572019-08-08 09:47:16,190 Serial: Streaming Data: len:4096 offset:8192 crc:0xC10085B8
    [###################-----------------] 54% 00:01:232019-08-08 09:47:16,686 Serial: Streaming Data: len:4096 offset:12288 crc:0x64C25F08
    [##########################----------] 73% 00:00:312019-08-08 09:47:17,181 Serial: Streaming Data: len:4096 offset:16384 crc:0xCB18C2BA
    [################################----] 91% 00:00:092019-08-08 09:47:17,665 Serial: Streaming Data: len:1884 offset:20480 crc:0x3F1CF308
    [####################################] 100%
    Device programmed.

    That's more detail than normally shows during the DFU process.

    Is that what you wanted or is there a log file somewhere you're looking for?

  • 0 in reply to DBT

    Hi,

    That was the log I was thinking about. Looking at the timestamps it doe snot look like this took more than a few seconds. Do you have a similar log output from when you see the problem?

  • 0 in reply to Einar Thorsrud

    The problem is that it takes about 35 seconds to START after you issue the command, not how long it takes to finish after it starts.

    I changed the command prompt in my batch file to show the time when the command is issued

    So the nrfutil command is sent at 8:50:49 and the first message from nrfutil is at 8:51:23 (34 seconds later)

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