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Precompiled Connectivity firmware USB for NRF52840 Dongle?

Hello,

We use the NRF52840 dongle in a production environment.  Currently when we buy more dongles to add them to the line, we have to program with NRF Connect to get the connectivity firmware loaded.  I'd like to have the connectivity firmware precompiled, in a usb-dfu package, so that we can use nrfutil to load the dongles directly.  I've seen various references to pre-compiled dongle firmware, but have not found one that works.  The compilation instructions given in the github repo pc-ble-driver use a very different build environment from what we have set up for out own custom NRF52840 board so I have not invested in running through it, because it seems a precompiled option is supposed to work.  I did try making the dfu package per this link (https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/getting-started/posts/nrf52840-dongle-programming-tutorial) using hex files in the /examples/ folder and the dfu package appeared to be created properly, but this appeared to "brick" the device (used button to put back to bootloader).

I did load the dfu package from https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-ble-driver/tree/v4.1.1/hex/sd_api_v6 but NRF Connect then said it needed programming, so this is apparently not the latest version.  Since we have done all our testing based on what nrf connect programs the dongle with, ideally I would like to use the same version.  Is there a place I can find this?  

In the github repo there are api versions 2-6 and I cannot find any documentation on the difference between these, so i'm not sure if my problems are related to choosing the wrong one.

Finally, at risk of asking too many questions, what is the the command we can use to query the current version of connectivity firmware on the dongle?

Note: in our production setup we program our own devices with ble-dfu using the NRF dongles, and we also connect to our custom service to collect logs and set parameters.  

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  • Hi,

    The API version is what version of the SoftDevice API is used. It maps to major version of the SoftDevice.

    There are two API versions that can be used on the nRF52840 Dongle; API versions 3, 5 and 6. You should find DFU zip packages in the respective folders under the hex folder on release tags of pc-ble-driver. Which connectivity firmware version is used depends on version of nRF Connect, and there is a dependency nRF Connect -> pc-ble-driver-js -> pc-ble-driver dictating which exact connectivity firmware to use. From what I recall, it is API version 3 or 5 which is currently used, but I will check that and get back to you on Monday.

    What version of nRF Connect for Desktop are you using?

    Are you using nRF Connect for Desktop for the production programming (over DFU), or are you using a different tool for that? E.g. nrfutil.

    Regards,
    Terje

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  • Hi,

    The API version is what version of the SoftDevice API is used. It maps to major version of the SoftDevice.

    There are two API versions that can be used on the nRF52840 Dongle; API versions 3, 5 and 6. You should find DFU zip packages in the respective folders under the hex folder on release tags of pc-ble-driver. Which connectivity firmware version is used depends on version of nRF Connect, and there is a dependency nRF Connect -> pc-ble-driver-js -> pc-ble-driver dictating which exact connectivity firmware to use. From what I recall, it is API version 3 or 5 which is currently used, but I will check that and get back to you on Monday.

    What version of nRF Connect for Desktop are you using?

    Are you using nRF Connect for Desktop for the production programming (over DFU), or are you using a different tool for that? E.g. nrfutil.

    Regards,
    Terje

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