NRF52832 Firmware Upgrade using Esp8266

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi Team

I am trying to implement the firmware upgrade for master controller nrf52832 on chip using esp8266 over uart and I am very new with this boot-loader part.

I had gone through many examples and trying to understand the flow from where to start. Code had already implementation of DFU using nrf connect application and working, but now I need to do this using esp8266.

My flow is I will download the hex file from the server and then upgrade the hex file form esp8266 over uart.

I had seen the examples - secure_bootloader_dfu and iot example but still not able to understand the example.

Any help or suggestion in this.

[Matt]

Sounds like your Esp8266 plays the role of DFU controller. I've not touched DFU lately but I do find the DFU documentation back in SDKv11 very detailed and readable. There's also an DFU example using uart instead of ble for transferring the new firmware image. Checkout SDKv11 to see if that example helps with what you plan to do: Software Development Kit > Previous versions of nRF5 SDK > nRF5 SDK v11.0.0 > Examples > DFU bootloader examples > BLE & HCI/UART Bootloader/DFU > Architecture

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi can you suggest me the settings that I should do in bootloader file to enable the serial dfu.

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi All,

I have reached a step ahead where I need to transfer hex file from esp8266 to nrf52832 in dfu mode. 

But I am confused with the packet structure and flow of transfer of data. Can you help me in this. 

[Marjeris Romero]

Hi,

Did you see the DFU master example in the blogpost I pointed to? Can you explain more about where you are stuck at? The packet structure and how to test is explained in the documentation of the example.

First step is you need to make sure you can control the UART port on the ESP chip, maybe use a logic analyzer to have a closer look on what's on the UART lines.

BR,

Marjeris

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi

Yeah from you blog spot I got some help. 

I am stuck at:

I am able to put the nrf in DFU mode in which I can send the hex file using NRF Connect and also using ESP.

Using NRF Connect I am able to perform the DFU.

Using ESP - I am able to download the hex file from our server and store it in memory. Now I need to transfer the hex file to the NRF which is in DFU mode but what will be the packet structure I need to follow.

I has also commented the slip function as I realise they are only use to validate the data and I have my own way to validate the data received over uart.

I need to transfer the data to the function "on_packet_received" and found that this function has some states such as "SERIAL_DFU_OP_CODE_CREATE_OBJECT",  so I need to know what format of packet to be sent to NRF to get the things worked.

I am available for remote help also if anyone can help me out in this

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi can you please reply.

[Marjeris Romero]

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply.

In the blogpost I linked to there is a document called 'DFU_SPI_readme.docx' which is the documentation for SPI DFU master code, this was  the documentation I was referring to. There is a link there where the DFU protocol and packet structure is explained, here. Have you read it?

The SLIP library is not only for validation, it performs encapsulation for encoding and decoding packets as defined in RFC1055. Our UART bootloader is configured to use SLIP, so I am not sure if it would be wise to not use it, unless you also modify the UART bootloader.

Best regards,

Marjeris

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi

Thanks for you reply I will go through the document and report the problem if any.

If I got no issue I will mark this ticket as close.

Thanks

Vaibhav

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Hi,

Apologies for responding this late. 

Document you had shared in for DFU zip file right?

[Marjeris Romero]

The document DFU_SPI_readme is inside the DFU zip file from the blogpost yes

[Vaibhav_Bansal]

Ok I had seen two things here. As I am doing upgrade using esp I have few more questions.

1. in Zip File I found two files - .dat and .bin.

Which file is needed to upload first.

2. In document, they has mentioned about object data, which file contains that data.

Sorry for silly questions but I am confused in this.

[Marjeris Romero]

From document DFU_SPI_readme.docx in the "Getting started with Nordic's Secure DFU bootloader, a step by step guide" blogpost:

How to test

The host application itself can be programmed as any other application.

• Compile the bootloader with the public key you generated. Flash the target board with softdevice and the bootloader. Flash the DFU master application on the master board.
• Generate the DFU .zip package file as you do on normal DFU (make sure you use private key as used to generate the public key)
• Open the .zip file and unzip the init .dat file and the binary image .bin of the application or the softdevice/bootloader.
• Rename the init .dat file to a .bin file (make sure you don’t overwrite the image .bin file) e.g init_packet.bin
• Use J-Link commander to flash the binary file to the right part of the flash in the host
  1. Run the command line in the folder where you have your binary files
  2. From the command line, start J-Link commander by running jlink (this requires the C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\JLink_VXXX folder to be in your PATH environment settings in Windows)
  3. In J-Link commander, type the following commands, this is for writing application, the similar applied for softdevice/bootloader just choose the right location:
     1. connect
     2. <Select nRF52832 and select SWD interface>

• loadbin init_packet.bin 0x9000

1. loadbin app_image.bin 0x10000
2. r
3. g

• When the DFU Master started it will send a SPI ping command. After that you can choose to update application or softdevice/bootloader by pressing Button 1 or button 2 on the DFU master board.
• LED 1 will lid when the image is being transferred