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Successful dongle programming, but application not starting

Hello,

I am working with the nRF52840 dongle. There is a bootloader at the end of it's flash, which can be started by pushing reset after power up.

However I cannot start the written app on the dongle. It is strange, because even the SDK blinky app, with the provided hex file(MBR and app) won't start. Flashing a hex file, which I compiled(with an arm-none-eabi GCC) won't help either. The blinking led works, since in DFU mode, it is slowly pulsating in red. So I don't think it is a hardware problem. Of course I choose the binaries belonging to PCA10059.

I think after writing the app and mbr to the flash of the device successfully, the dongle should start the blinky app.

However only the always on green led is emitting light. No blinking whatsoever comes from the second led. I used the nRF Connect for writing the example. I tried pulling the dongle from the USB, and providing supply through the Vin and GND pins. I tried with 5V and 3.3V. Nothing helped. No blinking. However I could always reset to DFU.

Do you have any idea, what can be done, to start the app? What can be the problem?

Best regards,

Norbert

  • Hi, 

    There are two blinky examples, Blinky Example (<InstallFolder>\examples\peripheral\blinky) and BLE Blinky Application (<InstallFolder>\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky). Which example are you using? 

    If you flash the blinky_pca10059_mbr.hex to the nRF52840 dongle, you will observe that the LEDs are blinking. 

    Please provide the nRFConnect-Programmer log if you still have the issue.
     

    -Amanda H. 

  • I tried the example under <InstallFolder>\examples\peripheral\blinky.

    Here is the log:

    2020-03-10T09:04:51.381Z INFO Application data folder: C:\Users\daatn\AppData\Roaming\nrfconnect\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-programmer v1.3.1 official
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG App path: C:\Users\daatn\.nrfconnect-apps\node_modules\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG nRFConnect 3.3.0 is supported by the app (^3.3.0)
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: C:\Users\daatn\AppData\Local\Programs\nrfconnect\resources\app.asar
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG HomeDir: C:\Users\daatn
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.469Z DEBUG TmpDir: C:\Users\daatn\AppData\Local\Temp
    2020-03-10T09:04:51.486Z INFO Using nrfjprog library 10.5.0, pc-nrfjprog-js 1.6.0
    2020-03-10T09:05:00.895Z INFO Using USB SDFU protocol to communicate with target
    2020-03-10T09:05:00.903Z INFO Protocol Version:  1 found
    2020-03-10T09:05:00.905Z INFO Hardware: 52840 found
    2020-03-10T09:05:00.907Z INFO Firmware: Bootloader found
    2020-03-10T09:05:00.907Z INFO Firmware: Application found
    2020-03-10T09:05:46.493Z INFO Parsing HEX file:  C:\Projects\nRF5_SDK_16_00\examples\peripheral\blinky\hex\blinky_pca10059_mbr.hex
    2020-03-10T09:05:46.508Z INFO File was last modified at  10/18/2019, 9:31:01 PM
    2020-03-10T09:05:46.521Z INFO Data block: 0x00000000-0x00000B00 (0x00000B00  bytes long)
    2020-03-10T09:05:46.521Z INFO Data block: 0x00001000-0x00001640 (0x00000640  bytes long)
    2020-03-10T09:06:07.704Z INFO Does not need to be reloaded:  C:\Projects\nRF5_SDK_16_00\examples\peripheral\blinky\hex\blinky_pca10059_mbr.hex
    2020-03-10T09:06:07.708Z INFO Hash is generated by SHA256
    2020-03-10T09:06:07.711Z INFO Performing DFU. This may take a few seconds
    2020-03-10T09:06:07.727Z INFO DFU procedure starts. This may take a few seconds.
    2020-03-10T09:06:10.253Z INFO DFU for Application completed successfully!
    2020-03-10T09:06:10.253Z INFO 0 dfu package(s) left.
    2020-03-10T09:06:10.253Z INFO Waiting for device
    2020-03-10T09:06:15.255Z ERROR Reopen device failed: Timeout while waiting for device  DDDA8FA252F5 to be attached and enumerated
    2020-03-10T09:06:15.255Z INFO Nordic DFU Trigger Interface was not found.Please physically reset device.
    2020-03-10T09:06:15.256Z ERROR Device not found due to failure during DFU
    2020-03-10T09:06:15.265Z INFO Target device closed.

    Resetting the device to start the application can be done with a power off-on cycle after programming, right? Because I still can't see the app working.

  • Turns out Makerdiary's dongle which I use(which is sold as a nRF52840 dongle, resembles your dongle, and behaves in DFU mode like your dongle),is marketed with your SDK. The nRF chip pinout is different. Because why not make a halfway compatible hardware? Adapting the board definitions for pca10059 solves the problem.

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