nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 21:48:37 GMT

Ok, no problem.

Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 20:11:43 GMT

Let's continue the discussion about this specific issue in this thread.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 12:37:11 GMT

So what I see now, from investigating this further is that I have a problem in one direction:

peripheral to central BLE device is working OK, and sending a lot of data at once
central to peripheral is outputting 20 but 20 bytes on the UART.

Do you think this has to do with BLE central buffer or BLE peripheral buffer?

Best regards,
Vojislav

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 13:55:08 GMT

Hi Simon,

I wish you a happy holiday!

This is the current situation regarding this issue:

I have three boards connected: nrf91-DK (mcuboot with hello_world app) connected with jumper wires (UART RX, TX, and GND) to the nrf52-DK (nrf52832, this runs peripheral_uart app) and nrf52840-DK (nrf52840, this runs central_uart app).
So now I have bidirectional communication in this path: myPC <-USB-> nrf52840-DK <-BLE-> nrf52-DK <-UART-> nrf91-DK.
I do not anymore have a problem with the termination of UART messages because I used logic analyzer and sniffed the messaged going back and forth on the UART and saw that responses that nrf91 is sending to mcumgr CLI also have a termination, and this was not written in the mcumgr serial documentation.
with all this, I am able to send the mcumgr CLI command for reset over my "BLE UART" while the device is in the serial recovery mode and the device will reset and go to the application. This command has rather small send and receives the command, and that is ok for current application
now at the last step problem is because firmware upgrade sends much bigger data packets and because BLE is sending it in chunks od 20 bytes a timeout happens at mcumgr CLI application.

So I was looking to extend buffer size on both ends (peripherial_uart and central_uart) but just setting the buffer to some bigger value is not enough, do you have some tips on this and what else is necessary to achieve bigger buffer size on both ends?

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Sat, 30 May 2020 17:18:14 GMT

I am sorry for the delay. I will look into your issue on the next working day (which is Tuesday due to Norwegian holiday on Monday).

Best regards,

Simon

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 29 May 2020 15:31:01 GMT

What I have tested is that if I remove waiting for '\r' or '\n' or full buffer and send character but character, the mcumgr tool cannot process that (this is not in the code above, but it is in the main.c of peripheral_uart). From what I see in the connectivity_bridge project they are using hardware flow control for understanding when UART write from nrf91 is done, and then send that data over BLE NUS or to the USB.
So my question is do you think we can do this in software or is it necessary to do in with CTS and DTS pins like on Thingy91?

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 29 May 2020 14:37:27 GMT

I suppose that this tread needs to be changed:

void ble_write_thread(void)
{
	/* Don't go any further until BLE is initailized */
	k_sem_take(&ble_init_ok, K_FOREVER);

	for (;;) {
		/* Wait indefinitely for data to be sent over bluetooth */
		struct uart_data_t *buf = k_fifo_get(&fifo_uart_rx_data,
						     K_FOREVER);

		if (bt_gatt_nus_send(NULL, buf->data, buf->len)) {
			printk("Failed to send data over BLE connection\n");
		}

		k_free(buf);

		if (rx_disabled) {
			rx_disabled = false;
			uart_irq_rx_enable(uart);
		}
	}
}

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 29 May 2020 14:20:32 GMT

Hi Simon,

Currently, I am stuck at the last step. I have done everything on the BLE side, and I have mcumgr communication up to nrf91. Currently, the problem is that I am using peripheral_uart example because I will have nRF52832 instead of nRF52840, so no USB, and it is not sending messages from nRF91 to the NUS because I suppose it is waiting for the end character "\n". Do you have any idea how to resolve this?

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Thu, 28 May 2020 08:39:55 GMT

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the answer, this is good information and I will look more into this. On the other hand, I took a different approach. I saw that in the zephyr/boards/arm/nrf9160_pca10090/nrf9160_pca10090_common.dts file there is configuration for the zephyr,uart-mcumgr = &uart0; so I just changed uart pins for UART0 in that file. Now I want to add an overlay file to my application and that way set new pins for uart0 and mcumgr.

Do you think this is a good approach? This seems better because everything I change stays in the application folder.

Also at some point, I will add my own board...

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Wed, 27 May 2020 13:04:08 GMT

[quote user="voja"]Where is defined which UART pins MCUboot will use for SMP?
Does it take from nrf91 board device tree file? and will overlay file in the application folder affect the change of pins/port?[/quote]

If you look at the line uart_dev = device_get_binding(CONFIG_RECOVERY_UART_DEV_NAME) in serial_adapter.c, you can see that it will use the UART instance CONFIG_RECOVERY_UART_DEV_NAME.

CONFIG_RECOVERY_UART_DEV_NAME is by default equal to "UART_0".

If you build the sample in ncs\bootloader\mcuboot\boot\zephyr using e.g. nrf9160_pca10090, and you haven't added an nrf9160_pca10090.overlay file inside ncs\bootloader\mcuboot\boot\zephyr, then the default pin configurations in zephyr/boards/arm/nrf9160_pca10090/nrf9160_pca10090_common.dts will be used in MCUboot for the transmission of the mcumgr SMP data.

Since UART_0 is routed to the USB port through the interface MCU, you can use the computer to perform a DFU

However, you can change the UART instance as well as the UART configurations, by setting CONFIG_RECOVERY_UART_DEV_NAME to something else in prj.conf and creating an overlay file in ncs\bootloader\mcuboot\boot\zephyr.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Tue, 26 May 2020 13:42:55 GMT

Hi Simon,

I have managed to upload the new app image over UART to the nRF91-DK using mcumgr and configuration I explained in the previous post.
The command for upload is:

$ mcumgr --conntype=serial --connstring=/dev/ttyACM0 image upload app_update.bin 
 223.01 KiB / 223.01 KiB [==================================================] 100.00% 3.34 KiB/s 1m6s
Done

My question still stands,
Where is defined which UART pins MCUboot will use for SMP?
Does it take from nrf91 board device tree file? and will overlay file in the application folder affect the change of pins/port?

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Tue, 26 May 2020 07:45:10 GMT

Ok, Simon, I am also looking into it. I forgot to write that nrf9160_pca10090.conf file for MCUBoot looks like this:

# Disable Zephyr console
CONFIG_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_CONSOLE_HANDLER=n
CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=n

# MCUBoot settings
CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256

# MCUboot serial recovery
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_BOOT_SERIAL_DETECT_PORT="GPIO_0"
CONFIG_BOOT_SERIAL_DETECT_PIN=6
CONFIG_BOOT_SERIAL_DETECT_PIN_VAL=0

To configure Button 1 on the nRF91-DK as the trigger for serial recovery mode.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Mon, 25 May 2020 23:21:16 GMT

My apologies for the delay. I will look prioritize your issue in the next days.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 22 May 2020 14:38:09 GMT

Hi Simon,

I am back on this subject, and I have read everything you referenced in previous responses. Now I have a bit better understanding of Zephyr, MCUboot, and its modules.

So let's start from the nRF91 side. The first thing is to get the nRF91 into the serial recovery mode. On the Thingy91 this is done bu holding SW3 and rebooting the device, and I would like to do that as well on nRF91-DK. So I created file /ncs/bootloader/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/boards/nrf9160_pca10090.conf as you suggested. When I build an asset_tracker application with mcuboot enabled and hold Button1 on the nRF91-DK the board does not boot, so I assume that it is stuck somewhere in the bootloader. My next step was to try to flash new applications using nRF-Connect for Desktop and MCUBoot option, but this does not work, it never starts.

Is there something else I need to be able to write an app image over UART?
Where is defined which UART pins MCUboot will use for SMP?

Currently, I have setup with NCS v1.2.0 and Ubuntu 18.04LTS

I am not sure if this functionality was added in this release:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/cellular-iot-guides/b/getting-started-cellular/posts/thingy91_2d00_fw_2d00_update_2d00_mcuboot

Best regards,
Vojislav.

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 12:21:46 GMT

Take a look at the configurations in e.g. \ncs\bootloader\mcuboot\boot\zephyr\boards\nrf9160_pca20035.conf and try to add that to MCUBoot when building for the nRF9160 DK.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 10:23:31 GMT

Hi Simon,

Yes, this is what we need. Just I am not sure what is serial recovery mode on nrf91?
What are the nest steps to achieve this configuration?

Best regards,
Vojislav

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 10:20:16 GMT

I talked to a colleague internally and got proposed the following solution:

In this solution, the SMP/Console is used the whole way through. You can also use the example ncs\nrf\samples\bluetooth\peripheral_uart on he nRF52840 (just to relay the message).

Does that work for you?

Best regards,

Simon

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Vojislav — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 13:18:32 GMT

Hi Simon,

You understood well what I want to do.
In the meantime, I will investigate more what you wrote in the thread you mentioned.

Ad this moment do you think it is better to go with nRF5 SDK or NCS/Zephyr on the nRF52 chip?
An additional request from my side is if you are trying something on hardware please do it on nRF91-DK as I only have that board with me at the moment due to current the situation in the world.

Thank you and looking forward to your response.

Best regards,
Vojislav

RE: nRF91 firmware upgrade over BLE

Simon — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 12:18:48 GMT

If I understand you correctly, you want to transfer a firmware image in the following manner: [ BLE Device ] →BLE→ [ Thingy/91 DK (nRF52→UART→nRF91) ].

Regarding the transfer from the nRF52840 to the nRF9160, it can be achieved by following the steps in my last comment (at the moment) in this thread. In that thread, the roles are switched (Serial DFU from nRF9160 to nRF52), but the process should be the same.

I need some more time to answer your question fully but I will try to get back to you within this week.

Best regards,

Simon