Porting merged application from DK to Dongle does not work (with SOFTDEVICE)

[ny_quist]

Hello again,

I have merged two projects as described here:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/67575/serial-communication-usb-with-ble-hid

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/67602/nrf_success-undeclared-first-use-in-this-function-did-you-mean-exit_success

My application works on the DK, however, when flashing it (with the adjustments I'll describe next), it does not advertise any HID on Bluetooth and does not open a serial COM port in the device manager.

Adjustments I made:

Adding those two lines to main.c:

#define TX_PIN_NUMBER 6
#define RX_PIN_NUMBER 8

as described here https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/getting-started/posts/nrf52840-dongle-programming-tutorial  , I adjusted the memory layout of the resulting hex.

I then flashed only the resulting hex on the Dongle, which results in the following memory layout:

0x0 - 0xFFF MBR

0x1000 - 0x2466F Application

0xE0000 - 0xFDFFF Bootloader

I think that my project already includes a softdevice, as when I'm trying to add the s140 hex I get the following error in nRF Programmer:

Any ideas?

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

I think you are using s140_nrf52_7.2.0_softdevice. Then, the Flash start address of the application should be 0x27000 after the softdevice. The Ram start address should be 0x20001678. Please see Adjustment of Ram and Flash Memory and the s140_nrf52_7.2.0 release notes under nRF5_SDK\components\softdevice\s140\doc. 

-Amanda H.

[ny_quist]

I adjusted the memory layout but unfortunately it seems to fail still. Maybe it has something to do with that my program accesses LEDs on the Dongle that are not present (1-3 from the DK)?

[Amanda Hsieh]

There are slight differences in the hardware of nRF52840 Dongle (Buttons and LED) and DK (Buttons and LEDs). See pca10059.h for the Dongle and pca10056.h for the DK under nRF5_SDK_17.0.2_d674dde\components\boards. 

You could refer to (or duplicate) the example for the Dongle under nRF5_SDK\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky\pca10059 as the base.

-Amanda H.   

[ny_quist]

Hello,

thank you for pointing that out. I thought, when using the board support package (which both of the merged projects used) I do not have to take care of that kind of button declaration within my project, do I?

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

If you use the correct board support package for the device, the application code can work the same.

Here is the UART configuration for nRF52840 Dongle in this post. Hope it can help you. 

-Amanda H.