NRF52832-QFAB-R FLASH and RAM memory mapping

[sboudaud]

Hello,

I want to try the secure bootloader + softdevice 7.0.1 + ble app buttonless dfu example from SDK16

I want to test all that in our custom board NRF52832-QFAB (256k flash + 32k ram)

- what I found is that for softdevice I need at least 0x26000 bytes for flash and 0x1668 bytes for RAM

- The ble app dfu buttonless example size is 0xCDB0 (found wit running hexinfo.py: first: 0x00026000, last: 0x00032DAF, length: 0x0000CDB0)

- I suppose that this mean that the app mapping could be:

MEMORY
{
  FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x26000, LENGTH = 0x12000
  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20002270, LENGTH = 0x5d90
  uicr_bootloader_start_address (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001014, LENGTH = 0x4
}

- The bootloader need 0x6000 bytes for flash, so the memory map for bootloader could be:

MEMORY
{
  FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x38000, LENGTH = 0x6000
  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20003278, LENGTH = 0x4d88
  uicr_bootloader_start_address (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001014, LENGTH = 0x4
  bootloader_settings_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x0003F000, LENGTH = 0x1000
  uicr_mbr_params_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001018, LENGTH = 0x4
  mbr_params_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x0003E000, LENGTH = 0x1000
}

- In addition to the memory mapping I have to change in nrf_dfu_types.h:

FROM

#elif defined(NRF52832_XXAA)
    #define NRF_MBR_PARAMS_PAGE_ADDRESS         (0x0007E000UL)

...

#elif defined( NRF52832_XXAA )
    #define BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS_ADDRESS     (0x0007F000UL)

TO

#elif defined(NRF52832_XXAA)
    #define NRF_MBR_PARAMS_PAGE_ADDRESS         (0x0003E000UL)
...
#elif defined( NRF52832_XXAA )
    #define BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS_ADDRESS     (0x0003F000UL)

- As our custom board don't have buttons and leds I added new board:
  in board.h
  #elif defined(BOARD_PCA10040_ABW)
    #include "pca10040_abw.h"

  And changed in the make files BOARD_PCA10040 => BOARD_PCA10040_ABW

- After all changes I flashed my custom board:
$nrfjprog --program nRF5_SDK_16.0.0_98a08e2/components/softdevice/s132/hex/s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex --chiperase
$nrfjprog --program secure_bootloader_abw/pca10040_s132_ble/armgcc/_build/nrf52832_xxaa_s132.hex
$nrfutil pkg generate --application examples/ble_peripheral/ble_app_buttonless_dfu/pca10040/s132/armgcc/_build/nrf52832_xxaa.hex --application-version 1 --application-version-string "1.0.0" --hw-version 52 --sd-req 0xCB --sd-id 0xCB --softdevice components/softdevice/s132/hex/s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex --key-file private.key FW_abw.zip
$nrfjprog --reset
=> The device start advertising DfuTarg, So I start DFU by sending FW_abw.zip but after the upload finish the device still in DFU!
     Note: when tried on the Devkit (without changing anything listed before) while making the DFU process it seems that the phone sent 2 files (I suppose SD and App), but when updating the custom board the phone seems sending only one file.

Question:

1- The app flash mapping is correct?

2- The bootloader flash mapping is correct?

3- The app ram mapping is correct? can i do better than that?

4- The app flash mapping is correct? can i do better than that?

5- Beside all these change anything else to do?


Thanks by advance.

[sboudaud]

Hello,

I think I found why after DFU the application don't start and my device stay in DFU:

I set a led in pin 16 and this pin is LEDS_ACTIVE_STATE 1 so the default state is low, and I saw in pca10040.h that pin 16 is reserved for button 4 that is used to enter in bootloader mode after a reset, So I think that my device enter in bootloader because of that!

I don't understand why this happen as I don't define pin 16 as a button! So where can I change the code in the bootloader to don't use a button to enter in bootloader mode?

Thanks

[sboudaud]

Ok the button pin 16 was resolved by setting #define NRF_BL_DFU_ENTER_METHOD_BUTTON 0 in sdk_config.h

If you can just help me to understand how I can configure the RAM mapping and then you can close this issue, because for the RAM I set start address like I found in some discussion but I don't know how exactly I can set it by my own.

Thanks.

[sboudaud]

Just on thing is that when in my board I set "#define BUTTONS_NUMBER 0" when I build the secure bootloader it show this error:

../../../../../components/libraries/bootloader/nrf_bootloader.c:231:30: error: 'BUTTON_PULL' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'BUTTONS_MASK'?

Note that I set in sdk_config.h

#define NRF_BL_DFU_ENTER_METHOD_BUTTON 0

we shouldn't reach the line 231 in nrf_bootloader.c as the test below in line 436 should be invalid

    if (NRF_BL_DFU_ENTER_METHOD_BUTTON)
    {
        dfu_enter_button_init();
    }

could you help?

[tesc]

Hi,

Even though the function dfu_enter_button_init() may never be called, the compiler will still try to compile it. Since BUTTON_PULL is not defined when BUTTONS_NUMBER is 0, you get the error. This means the DFU bootloader does not work out-of-the-box when using a board with no buttons. I will report this in our internal issue tracker.

As a workaround I suggest rewriting the if block into a preprocessor directive, as well as surrounding the definition of dfu_enter_button_init() in a preprocessor directive so that the code is only included if BUTTONS_NUMBER is not null (or maybe better if BUTTON_PULL is defined.)

Edit: Even better, the check should be on NRF_BL_DFU_ENTER_METHOD_BUTTON, and only include the code if it is set to 1.

Regards,
Terje

[sboudaud]

Thanks for the response.

Do you have any advice about RAM mapping for BL and APP?

[tesc]

Hi,

Bootloader and application does not run concurrently, and so both will have ram start and ram size as dictated by the SoftDevice RAM requirements (which depends on SoftDevice configuration.)

Regards,
Terje