Firmware upgrade OTA for nRF9160 applications

[Chris Shaw]

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating the nRF9160 chip as a potential replacement device in our internet-connected products. In most cases the zephyr documentation and examples are enough for me to at least get started on all the features we need, but it falls down a little on firmware upgrade and would like some pointers.

In particular, for us it is necessary that whatever we select will allow for firmware upgrades (to the user application) in the field. Zephyr mentions (here) the DFU module but the only examples I've found are related to the nRF52 modules and using BLE to upgrade firmware from a linux command-line tool.

My plan is to be able to provide upgrade images over the air via the cellular connection in data packets of some manageable size (say 256 bytes per packet) and to then upgrade on the complete image being sent. Is it possible to do this using the zephyr DFU library, and are there any examples or guides on how to do this? I'm obviously happy that the firmware application will need to decode the packets and control the upgrade itself.

If this can't be done then the nRF9160 really becomes unfeasible in our system.

Thanks.

Chris

[Sebastien Mackaie]

Hello Chris,

Application OTA on nRF9160 is definitely supported.

Instead of looking at the Zephyr documentation I would recommend that you look at our NCS documentation, where we have examples and further details about application OTA.

You can look at http://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/1.1.0/nrf/samples/nrf9160/http_application_update/README.html

From that page you will get links to e.g. the FOTA download library: http://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/1.1.0/nrf/include/net/fota_download.html

Please let us know if you need further details.

Best regards,

Sebastien

[Chris Shaw]

Thank you Sebastien, that's immensely helpful. It looks like by using that library the entire process can be reduced to a few function calls.

It's a little difficult getting started with the docs, and knowing where to look for examples etc (zephyr, nordic etc) but I guess I'll become more experienced with that as I continue looking at the devices.

Regards,

Chris