nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:48:26 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Olfox"]1. Now i wonder if i can still run in debug mode to place breakpoint etc ?[/quote]

Yes, but every time you program the application (for instance using "build & run", the bootloader would prevent it from starting since the validation check will fail. You can either test&debug your application without the bootloader present or disable boot validation when you generate bootloader settings by using "--app-boot-validation NO_VALIDATION".

[quote user="Olfox"]2. If code change, should i always follow this procedure to update setting.hex ?[/quote]

Yes, unless you do as suggested above.

[quote user="Olfox"]3.For production, has there is : softDist.hex, Bootloader.hex, settings.hex, and application.hex how usually customer proceed ? make a king of segger script to flash in order all this .hex?[/quote]

For production it would make more sense to have a single hex file, so I suggest you use mergehex from nRF Command Line Tools when it comes to that.

[quote user="Olfox"]4. And last question, to perform dfu update, i see there is steps to follow to generate a zip folder that is sent to the device. Is it notpossible to just update the .hex?[/quote]

No, you cannot use just the hex. You need to build a zip file using nrfutil. This converts the hex to a bin, and adds required metadata such as version information, dependencies etc, and signed the update using your private key.

As you asked about this I wonder if perhaps you have not noticed yet, but you need to adjust the bootloader to use your public key (in <SKD>\examples\dfu\dfu_public_key.c). See Working with keys and Validation.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 09:35:18 GMT

Woo i think it is working !!!

So step i did to make it work:

Build my application in release mode.

Flash it

( still not working)

With windows console, go into the build folder of dfu_butonless example, output folder where my application .hex is. Run this command :

C:\nordic\nRF5SDK160098a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_buttonless_dfu\pca10100\s113\ses\Output\Release\Exe>nrfutil settings generate --family NRF52 --application ble_app_buttonless_dfu_pca10100_s113.hex --application-version 3 --bootloader-version 2 --bl-settings-version 2 settings.hex

I get this result:

Bootloader DFU Settings:
* File: settings.hex
* Family: nRF52
* Start Address: 0x0007E000
* CRC: 0xD899FCE0
* Settings Version: 0x00000002 (2)
* App Version: 0x00000003 (3)
* Bootloader Version: 0x00000002 (2)
* Bank Layout: 0x00000000
* Current Bank: 0x00000000
* Application Size: 0x0000D65C (54876 bytes)
* Application CRC: 0x8171F9F8
* Bank0 Bank Code: 0x00000001
* Softdevice Size: 0x00000000 (0 bytes)
* Boot Validation CRC: 0x8C0FDA87
* SD Boot Validation Type: 0x00000000 (0)
* App Boot Validation Type: 0x00000001 (1)

Suprising to see Softdevice Size to 0 ?

Then, in nrfGo, i add HEX settings.hex freshly generated by nrfUtil command line. Flash it. And bingo, i saw the device rebooting in my port com terminal with dfu butonless application stating. now i see advertising with new name .

1. Now i wonder if i can still run in debug mode to place breakpoint etc ?

2. If code change, should i always follow this procedure to update setting.hex ?

3.For production, has there is : softDist.hex, Bootloader.hex, settings.hex, and application.hex how usually customer proceed ? make a king of segger script to flash in order all this .hex?

4. And last question, to perform dfu update, i see there is steps to follow to generate a zip folder that is sent to the device. Is it notpossible to just update the .hex?

I would like to thank you a lot for your support to help me to find the good way, there is documentation a bit everywhere and it is sometimes difficult to have all the steps and tool in good order. ;)

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 08:47:00 GMT

Hi,

Yes, this is the bootloader running. The bootloader will only start the application if it is present, marked as valid and has a valid CRC. When you program the application directly (instead of updating via DFU), you need to write the information that indicates this, which is in the DFU setting page. You do that by generating a valid dfu settings page that you program. With that in place, the bootloader will start the application. As a side note, you would be able to see this from the RTT log if you use a debug bootloader, as in that case it would log that there is no valid application to start.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 08:34:39 GMT

I thik yes, i'm following the step in the tutorial. With nrfGo, i erase all memories.

I place hex of soft device. i flash it. then i place the hex of bootloader secure_bootloader_ble_s113_pca10100 with the key i have generated. I flash. Then place my ble_app_buttonless_dfu_pca10100_s113 . i flash.

But may be i have also to sign with the key my application?

Because after all this step, i see in mobile app nrfConnect, DfuTarg with dfu services. but i think it is the bootloader that runs only and not the app.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 11:47:27 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Olfox"]So when i debug, i get this error. That strange because .hex of project secure bootloader is well flashed as shown in memory map[/quote]

No, this is expected. The memory map does not show a bootloader. Please refer to the memory layout in the bootloader documentation. As you can see, the bootloader is at the end of the flash (though technically you can move it down as much as you want, but would wast any space above it).

Are you sure you flashed a bootloader? If so, can you show me exactly how you program the device including all steps (perhaps you delete it later when programming the application or similar)?

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 11:42:05 GMT

Hi,

Ah, of course. I always started from the nRF52840 project because it was closest, and did not think about that uicr_bootloader_start_address was not configured in the other. That is the part that is missing. You can just keep the line as is, but if you want to be accurate, you can also change the flash and RAM sizes, so that it becomes 100% accurate (it does not have any practical implication, though).

FLASH RX 0x0 0x80000;RAM RWX 0x20000000 0x20000;uicr_bootloader_start_address RX 0x10001014 0x4

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:02:42 GMT

After searching why bootloader was not in ( even if i thought it was) here is the content of my memory:devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../CXSbAid38k.mp4

i really have a lake of knowledge on all this memry and boot order settings, where does program start, what do the secure bootloader, when it launch app etc to be able to debug it properly and manage . I'm really afraid of working with dfu and swap partition etc in the futur when i see how it is not so obvious to work with nordic lol.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 17:03:33 GMT

So when i debug, i get this error. That strange because .hex of project secure bootloader is well flashed as shown in memory map

Debug Window:

<error> app: No bootloader was found
<error> app: ERROR 4 [NRF_ERROR_NO_MEM] at C:\nordic\nRF5SDK160098a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_buttonless_dfu\main.c:854
PC at: 0x00026075
<error> app: End of error report
<error> app: No bootloader was found

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:46:28 GMT

When i run the app i have the feeling that app is running is the one of the bootloader. When i scan i see DfuTarg and not Nordic_Buttonless . Here is the content of my memory.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:04:37 GMT

Ha ! i have find the problem in my project , it comes from this :

I don't know how it is filled , do you know witch option did it please ?

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:49:25 GMT

Yes i also changed this files but it was not working. Have you tried my project ?

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 10:00:49 GMT

Hi,

I have uploaded a working project here: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../pca10100_5F00_fixed.zip. I forgot that you need to replace the startup and system files as shown here:

With that, it should work.

[quote user="Olfox"]Thanks a lot for all this explaination. My product will not be reachable ( so no button possibility). so if i understand well i just need to configure properly with additional file 0 the softDist, and use ble_app_buttonless in wich i place my custom services. No need of secure boot ( that is already inside ble_app_buttonless )?[/quote]

Yes, from the application perspective that is enough. But you of course also need to include the bootloader itself, by using the Secure BLE bootloader example. "Secure" here does not imply secure boot but secure in the sense that only signed update images are accepted.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:34:19 GMT

Thanks a lot for all this explaination. My product will not be reachable ( so no button possibility). so if i understand well i just need to configure properly with additional file 0 the softDist, and use ble_app_buttonless in wich i place my custom services. No need of secure boot ( that is already inside ble_app_buttonless )?

Theoreticaly, 0x20001198 should be enough, but i see there is also a callstack that required 1.75kB ( 0x700) that i should add too ?

Then it should be like this

FLASH_PH_START=0x0

FLASH_PH_SIZE=0x80000

RAM_PH_START=0x20000000

RAM_PH_SIZE=0x20000

FLASH_START=0x1c000

FLASH_SIZE=0x64000

RAM_START=0x20001898

RAM_SIZE=0x1e768

This should be the minimum required ?

Here is my project ( just placed here : C:\nordic\nRF5SDK160098a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_buttonless_dfu\pca10100\s113\ses )

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../pca10100.zip

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:00:13 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Olfox"]Also, should i use secure_bootloader_dfu + ble_app_buttonless application to have a complete dfu solution ? [/quote]

That depends on your requirements. If you want to use for instance a button to enter DFU mode, then you don't need to do anything in the application. But if you want to be able to enter DFU mode without any physical interaction with the device, then you must include the DFU service (which ble_app_buttonless application is an example of).

[quote user="Olfox"] have flashed secure_bootloader_dfu i can see it with nrf toolbox. But there is no while(1) loop so i guess it is not a software where to place custom ble services ans application ? I f you can clarify with big pictur point of view it will help a lot :)[/quote]

The bootloader is responsible for updates, including transporting the update over BLE (or other). But it will normally just start the application, which is a separate binary. You should not put your application logic, services etc. in the bootloader.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:57:32 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Olfox"][/quote]

I followed all the step already before, thanks it confirm i did right. But i'm always getting to this error, even if i change the memory size and start adress:

Output/Debug/Exe/ble_app_buttonless_dfu_pca10100_s113.elf section `.init' will not fit in region `UNPLACED_SECTIONS'

You should not get these problems. Can you upload your project so that I can try to see what is missing?

[quote user="Olfox"]But then How to know the size and where softDist has been flashed ?[/quote]

You can always find the SoftDevice size in the release notes of the SoftDevice. So, under <SDK16>\components\softdevice\s113\doc\ you find s113_nrf52_7.0.1_release-notes.pdf, and there it is specified that the size of the SoftDevice is 112.0 kB (0x1C000 bytes). The start address of the application must always be the same as the size of the SoftDevice.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:43:14 GMT

Also, should i use secure_bootloader_dfu + ble_app_buttonless application to have a complete dfu solution ? i have flashed secure_bootloader_dfu i can see it with nrf toolbox. But there is no while(1) loop so i guess it is not a software where to place custom ble services ans application ? I f you can clarify with big pictur point of view it will help a lot :) . thanks a lot !

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Olfox — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:28:29 GMT

Hi Einar, thanks for the reply ,

I followed all the step already before, thanks it confirm i did right. But i'm always getting to this error, even if i change the memory size and start adress:

Output/Debug/Exe/ble_app_buttonless_dfu_pca10100_s113.elf section `.init' will not fit in region `UNPLACED_SECTIONS'

region `UNPLACED_SECTIONS' overflowed by 96372 bytes

Output/ble_app_buttonless_dfu_pca10100_s113 Debug/Obj/thumb_crt0.o: in function `memory_set':

(.init+0xd8): undefined reference to `__stack_end__'

(.init+0xdc): undefined reference to `__stack_start__'

I have used this reference table to know which adresse should i use :

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/getting-started/posts/adjustment-of-ram-and-flash-memory

nrf52833 has 512kB ( 0x80 000) of flash and 128kB of ram ( 0x20 000) so this parts are ok. But then How to know the size and where softDist has been flashed ?

I have also used you value, it gives always same errors.

RE: nrf52833 ble dfu how to start?

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:14:17 GMT

Hi,

nRF5 SDK version 16 is probably the best SDK for nRF52833 unless you have a particular reason for using nRF Connect SDK. It is correct that many examples are not adapted to it, but adjusting an existing example takes just a few minutes once you know what is needed.

For reference, I started off with the BLE bliky example for nRF52840 in SDK 16, for SES (\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky\pca10059\s140\ses\ble_app_blinky_pca10059_s140.emProject).

1. Adjust the linker configuration macros to be correct for the flash and RAM size of the nRF52833, and the reduced size of the S113 SoftDevice:

2. Adjust the preprocessor defines to specify the correct board, IC and SoftDevice:

3. Adjust the include path to include S113 headers instead of S140 headers:

4. Make SES load the correct S113 SoftDevice when programming from SES: