https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-Tools/Development-Kits/nRF9160-DK/GetStarted#infotabs Get Online Step by Step

[Burt]

The instructions are wrong -- I have verified with 3 different boards that Step 3 does not work.

Step 3 states: Click the large “+” sign on the top left to add your new “LTE” board to your account and follow the instructions to register the board and the SIM card.  

The message I receive is

There was an error adding your device. You might be trying to upgrade an older nRF91 development kit. Unless you update your device, you will have to click the "Have an old devkit without a PIN?" link below.

All 3 boards are new enough to have a PIN.

Indeed I can register the SIM card but not the LTE board.

Again, I have tried with 3 different boards, 2 of which have come directly from the factory in Norway.

I am looking for a clear, straight up answer as to why this bug is happening.

Gratefully,

Burt Silverman

[Burt]

Thank you very much, Heidi.

Regards,

Burt

[Heidi]

Thank you.

Those boards are not new enough to have a PIN. You may be mixing PIN with HWID, but they're not the same. 

So all three DK's need to be updated (both modem firmware, application firmware and nRF Cloud certificates) before you can add them to nRF Cloud.  

Please let me know if I can help you with this process.

Best regards,

Heidi

[Burt]

Thank you Heidi, this helps me very much. But I want to point out something that would, without your answer, would always have caused me (or anybody) confusion: what shows up when adding an LTE device to nRF Cloud is:

I don't know how clear that screen shot is, but I guess you can see it says PIN/HWID. Now, very interesting is that somebody else who opened a case https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/51093/nrf9160-dk-bought-fairly-recently-cannot-locate-pin-to-register-on-nrfcloud showed a screenshot where nothing is mentioned about HWID in the Add LTE Device pop up. How is it that that person got a pop up that does not mention HWID, and yet mine does? Are we accessing different nRF Cloud websites do you think, or something totally different. (Like maybe because they changed the pop up since that person reported his case. So it is like they changed PIN to PIN/HWID but... I better stop trying to figure it out and let you tell me!)

Regards,

Burt

[Heidi]

Hi, I do see how that's confusing. And you are definitely not the only one! 

You're not accessing different webpages, but that post is from 8 months ago, and as the nRF Cloud website is in constant development, it tends to change often. So, that's just a screenshot from an older version of the website. 

They changed from PIN to PIN/HWID because earlier, when you had a DK, you would need to perform user association by performing a set of switches and button presses on the kit. Now, you can just use the HWID like a PIN, and the buttons and switches method has been deprecated.

[Burt]

Okay, Heidi. To tell you what happened with me: the first board I had, I struggled a bit, but eventually got it to come up on nRF Cloud. The second board was shipped to me because the first was too old (0.8.3) for GPS to work. But I got stuck with #2 -- the board connected to the nRF Cloud, but no matter what I did, I got the "There was an error adding your device..." message and the board would not show up under my account. I had all the latest firmware. Even the FAE could not fix this during an online session we had. Eventually I was able to make it work by putting on old asset_tracker firmware and go through the switches/buttons procedure. Board 3 was sent to me while I was still struggling with board 2. For board 3, I came up with this "alternate" bring up procedure, which may be awkward, but at least it worked. I jotted down the steps and will copy them here, even the one where I made a mistake, I leave it in here and point out that mistake. Oh, and note that my procedure assumes that the board is delivered to me with an old asset_tracker firmware installed.

1. Scrape hiding off eSIM PIN.

2. Add LTE device to cloud:

   a) activate SIM

   b) Try and fail to add LTE

3. Insert SIM

4. Power up board, allow device drivers to be found by Windows, start LTE Link Monitor

5. After some time, the board is ready for the buttons and switches sequence for pairing (the board comes from factory with old asset_tracker) Do that.

6. Add certificates to the board using at_client.

7. THIS IS WHERE I MADE A MISTAKE: IT IS NECESSARY TO UPGRADE THE MODEM FIRMWARE AT THIS POINT, AND I FORGOT THAT. THE BOARD WILL KEEP POWER CYCLING REGARDLESS OF WHICH ASSET_TRACKER YOU USE: OLD, NEW, ANYTHING.

8. Upgrade modem firmware like should have happened in step 7.

9. Load old asset_tracker. Maybe new one will work, but I used the old one.

10. Go to nRF Cloud and you should be able to add the device BUT you may have to reset the device before adding it. Nothing is totally clear because of the step 7 mistake I made.

I will wait a bit in case you have a reply and then I will close this ticket, or you have my permission to close it from your side.

Best Regards,

Burt

[Heidi]

Yes, I understand and I completely empathize with this experience.

Again, you are not alone in having a hard time working with nRF Cloud. We are approaching a point where all new DK's shipped out will have the app and modem firmware version necessary to add the device to nRF Cloud without performing the buttons and switches method. This is why there has not been a lot of focus on improving this experience for the user right now. 

I'm glad you were able to connect to nRF Cloud and I will close this case now. 

Best regards,

Heidi