Not able to load the soft device by using external debugger(i-Jet) in nRF52840 board

[Srinivas V]

Hi Team,

We are using the nRF52840 board for our development purpose. We are using the external debugger(i-jet) for our development purpose.

We are able to connect the debugger and load the active application, but when we try to load the soft device hex file we are getting error like " The flash loader program reported an error".

1. Able to connect and debug the application with out soft device.

2. Able to load the active application from IAR using the option Project=>Download=>Download Active application   == success

3. Same set up if we give the option like Project=>Download=>Download File (Select the Soft Device .hex file) it is giving the error like " The flash loader program reported an error".

4. Is there any other setting we need to do for loading Soft device like loader and any linker settings.

Attached the error screen shot for reference:

     

Regards,

Srinivas.V

[Simonr]

Hi

Can you try enabling flash loaders in the debug settings when using the i-jet? What MDK version are you using? There was a bug in the versions prior to v8.31.0, so please make sure that you're using a version that's later than this one.

Best regards,

Simon

[Srinivas V]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your reply.

I have enabled the flash loaders in debug settings and i am using 8.35.0 IAR 5-Clause Nordic License.

Apart from these is there some thing we need to do settings in IAR to make it work other debuggers like IAR i-jet and other.

Is there any precautions we need to take while connecting the nrf52840 DK through usb connector, in terms usb type and current rating for that. We are facing issues with these boards. Recently we bought new boards and connected through J2 connector and one day it works fine, next when i connect usb cable power led is not glowing and on board debugger also not detected and SOC led also not blinking.

When we connected through Coin battery soc led is blinking , what further steps we need to take on this issue, it is very much helpful to us , almost we lost three boards with same issue.Even we are not able to entered into Bootloader mode also.

Regards,

Srinivas.V

[Simonr]

Srinivas V said:

Is there any precautions we need to take while connecting the nrf52840 DK through usb connector

 If you connect them to a computer with a USB cable, the only precautions necessary should be to make sure all switches are in the correct places. If they're not working for some reason, you can try nrfjprog --recover with the nRF Command Line Tools. It might also be the case that the Interface MCU has been flashed with incorrect firmware, in which case you can see how to enter the bootloader mode on the Interface MCU here, and download the MCU firmware from here (the .bin file).

I'm sorry, but we don't have too much experience with the IAR i-jet debuggers, so I'm running out of suggestions regarding the i-jet troubles you're having. It seems it is also important if you're using the SoftDevice that this is present in extra options (see picture below).

Can you make sure the debugger resets the custom board properly when entering debug mode? Does the custom board rout the RESET to the SWD connector?

Best regards,

Simon