app_ble_uart example not initializing BLE on nRF52DK PCA10040 SDKv16 and S132 soft device

[SChary]

Hi

I am trying to get the ble_app_uart to run on my nRF52DK with the nRF52832 on board. I am using SDK version 16 and SoftDevice version 132.

When compile and download the program, i do not see it advertising as it is not visible in the scanned device list on the nRF Connect app on my iPad.

Upon debugging, I find that during initialization in main(), the program seems to run into an error and goes to the app_error_weak() function and stays there.

The call stack shows that it arrived there from the following function - APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code) after bsp_init() funct

<code>

static void buttons_leds_init(bool * p_erase_bonds)
{
    bsp_event_t startup_event;

    uint32_t err_code = bsp_init(BSP_INIT_LEDS | BSP_INIT_BUTTONS, bsp_event_handler);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    err_code = bsp_btn_ble_init(NULL, &startup_event);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    *p_erase_bonds = (startup_event == BSP_EVENT_CLEAR_BONDING_DATA);
}
</code>

Since there were no logging calls in place in the code until this point, there was no information on the Debug terminal.  I will put in some logging calls to indicate the status of the execution and post it here soon.

PS: To confirm if the hardware is ok, I downloaded the LED_blinky example and it works fine - i am able to see the blinky device on the nRF LED_Blinky app on my iPad and communicate with it.

So it appears the problem is happening only with this example, which sounds strange. I haven't made any changes yet, just using the default example code. 

Regards

Sreenivasa Chary

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Sreenivasa, 

When compile and download the program, i do not see it advertising as it is not visible in the scanned device list on the nRF Connect app on my iPad.

Did you use the Segger ble_app_uart_pca10040_s132 project file? If not, did you flash the application image with s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex? Did you also Erase the kit board before loading the hex? If you use segger, you should be able to see the log in the Debug Terminal window of Segger. If you still have the issue, I would suggest you download SDK16 again.

-Amanda H.

[SChary]

Hello Amanda

I use the Segger SES example and when I download the application, the output log shows me the following:

Connecting ‘J-Link’ using ‘USB’
Connecting to target using SWD
Loaded C:/Program Files/SEGGER/SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM 4.30c/bin/JLink_x64.dll
Firmware Version: J-Link OB-SAM3U128-V2-NordicSemi compiled Jan 21 2020 17:30:48
DLL Version: 6.54c
Hardware Version: V1.00
Target Voltage: 3.300
Device "NRF52832_XXAA" selected.
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
Scanning AP map to find all available APs
AP[2]: Stopped AP scan as end of AP map has been reached
AP[0]: AHB-AP (IDR: 0x24770011)
AP[1]: JTAG-AP (IDR: 0x02880000)
Iterating through AP map to find AHB-AP to use
AP[0]: Core found
AP[0]: AHB-AP ROM base: 0xE00FF000
CPUID register: 0x410FC241. Implementer code: 0x41 (ARM)
Found Cortex-M4 r0p1, Little endian.
FPUnit: 6 code (BP) slots and 2 literal slots
CoreSight components:
ROMTbl[0] @ E00FF000
ROMTbl[0][0]: E000E000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 000BB00C SCS-M7
ROMTbl[0][1]: E0001000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 003BB002 DWT
ROMTbl[0][2]: E0002000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 002BB003 FPB
ROMTbl[0][3]: E0000000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 003BB001 ITM
ROMTbl[0][4]: E0040000, CID: B105900D, PID: 000BB9A1 TPIU
ROMTbl[0][5]: E0041000, CID: B105900D, PID: 000BB925 ETM
Preparing target for download
Executing Reset script TargetInterface.resetAndStop()
Reset: Halt core after reset via DEMCR.VC_CORERESET.
Reset: Reset device via AIRCR.SYSRESETREQ.
Downloading ‘s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex’ to J-Link
Programming 2.7 KB of addresses 00000000 — 00000aff
Programming 146.1 KB of addresses 00001000 — 000258bf
J-Link: Flash download: Bank 0 @ 0x00000000: Skipped. Contents already match
Download successful
Downloading ‘ble_app_uart_pca10040_s132.elf’ to J-Link
Programming 62.1 KB of addresses 00026000 — 0003587f
Programming 0.1 KB of addresses 00035880 — 0003591f
J-Link: Flash download: Bank 0 @ 0x00000000: Skipped. Contents already match
Download successful

Regards

Sreenivasa Chary

Amanda Hsieh said:

s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex

[SChary]

I also erased the kit and reloaded the software - both the soft device and the app, but still the same issue is seen.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Sreenivasa, 

After loading images, did you press  again to run? What is the log you see in the Debug Terminal window? Did you see LED1 blinking  (BSP_INDICATE_CONNECTED)? If not, Could you flash the image with nRF Connect Programmer or Command Line Tools with the following commands:

nrfjprog --family NRF52 --program s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex --chiperase --verify
C:\Users\amhs\Downloads\nRF5_SDK_16.0.0_98a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_uart\hex
nrfjprog --family NRF52 --program ble_app_uart_pca10040_s132.hex --sectorerase --verify
nrfjprog -r

Did you see LED1 blinking (BSP_INDICATE_CONNECTED)?

-Amanda H.

[SChary]

Yes Amanda, I did press the Play button to start the target running, but as i mentioned, there are no NRF_LOG() statements in the code prior to the hanging point. So the debug terminal was empty. I will try to program as you said , from the nrfConnect tool and check again, will revert to you asap......

REgards

Chary BS