nRF52840 Dongle in Mesh

[Liv]

Hi,

I want to create a mesh network with two nrf52840 dongles. To programming them I used the light-switch example from SDK Mesh v4.0.0 following the steps in this tutorial: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf52840-dongle-programming-tutorial. When I tried to provisioning them with nRF Mesh app for Android I didn't see them. Can you tell me what changes I have to make in the code?

Thanks in advance.

[tesc]

Hi,

I am very sorry for slow response on this one. Have you gotten any further in solving the issue?

There is (at least) one more difference that may have to be taken into account when running an nRF5 SDK for Mesh project on the nRF52840 Dongle, namely that the Dongle uses a different bootloader from the nRF Mesh bootloader. This means it may be easier to use an external debugger, and use everything from the mesh SDK instead of trying to mix it with the nRF5 SDK bootloader.

What approach did you try, and what indications do you get that anything is running? It may be difficult to debug the Dongle, because of the lack of programmer. Connecting an external debugger may be the way to go for properly debugging and figuring out what goes wrong.

Regards,
Terje

[Liv]

Hi,

Thanks for reply. Unfortunately, I'm stuck on this issue with running SDK-mesh on Dongle.
1) I did:
- took the project: nrf5_SDK_for_Mesh_v4.0.0_src\examples\light_switch\client\light_switch_client_nrf52840_xxAA_s140_7_0_1
- changed the settings of preprocessor definitions in board-type from PCA10056 -> PCA10059
- changed the settings of Preprocessor -> Linker -> placementMacros ... addresses like in attached screenshots

- then I changed in the main() to have RGB led on immediately after initialize

int main(void)
{
    initialize();
    start();

    for (;;)
    {
        
        //RGB led on immediately after initialize
        hal_led_pin_set(LED_ON_START, 1);

        (void)sd_app_evt_wait();
    }
}

- then downloaded the hex file using nRF-connect-Programmer.
- then nothing happens when starting the dongle

2) I understood from you that I need an external debugger to be able to download a new bootloader in dongle, in order to be able to start-up the SDK-mesh project.
- where is this new bootloader?
- once I downloaded this new bootloader, can I use then the nRFconnect-programmer to download the compiled application based on SDK-mesh? (without external debugger)?
- for SDK-mesh (using BLE) - I think I need to download the soft-device, right? how/what settings should I check in the projects of soft-device, of the SDK-client-application, in bootloader ... such as they work fine?

3) I've searched a bit on nordic, google and I'm confused on what debugger can I use. I have both DK and a bunch of dongles.
If I modify the voltage reference on dongle, can I use DK's debugger to download the bootloader?
saw some posts like this:
devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../is-it-possible-to-program-the-nrf52840-dongle-using-the-nrf52832-dk-using-swd

I also plan to purchase a professional debugger that works with Segger Studio. Which one do you recommend?

4) I intend to develop & debug the BLE-mesh application on DK, but then the final deployment (hence the testing) => would be a dongle network.

Kind regards,
Liv