Nordic Thingy:91 MCUBoot not working

[saremshal]

Hello,

I had recently gotten a Nordic Thingy: 91 and I was following this tutorial to help me get started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ7hDzRULJQ

When it came to updating the firmware, I was running into some issues with MCUBoot.

I had done the following process:

1) I turned off my Nordic Thingy:91

2) I plugged my Nordic Thingy:91 into my computer with a USB

3) I opened the Programmer in the Mac OS nRF Connect application

4) I made sure MCUBoot was enabled in the programmer

5) I held down SW3 (the big black button) and while holding it down, I flipped the switch on the Nordic Thingy:91 to ON

6) I then went to Select Device and selected the Nordic Thingy:91 in the programmer,

7) From there I clicked Update Modem, selected the firmware, and clicked write

After doing this, I get the following result:

For context as well: When I hold down the button and turn on the device, I notice the LED does not turn off. I am assuming that means the device had entered Serial Recovery Mode.

Do you know what I may be doing wrong or why this is not working?

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Hi,

What Thingy:91 version do you have?

Have you tried updating the application firmware?

What version of nRF Connect for Desktop and Programmer application do you have?

What OS are you using on your computer?

Best regards,

Didrik

[saremshal]

Hello,

1) This is the firmware version that it's running: mfw_nrf9160_1.1.1 (based on what nrfcloud.com says)

2) I have been attempted to update the firmware but I can not seem to do so due to this MCUBoot issue (if you look at the image you can see I am attempted to flash the updated firmware to it)

3) nRF connect version is v3.6.0 and the programmer version is 1.4.7

4) Mac OS version is 10.14.6

Also, I noticed I made a typo in my original ticket, this sentence should say this:

"For context as well: When I hold down the button and turn on the device, I notice the LED does not turn ON. I am assuming that means the device had entered Serial Recovery Mode."

Thank you for taking your time to help me with this issue btw!

Edit: The application version is also thingy91_1.4.0_production_final as well (based on what nrfcloud.com says)

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Did you update the application firmware?
Could you try to update the application firmware on the nRF52840, and the nRF9160?
If that also does not work, you can try to use mcumgr on the command line. See instructions here: Thingy91 DFU from command line

[saremshal]

I tried updating it with one of the application firmware .hex images that are included in the thingy91_fw_2020-09-23_b6ad40d0 (specifically thingy91_fw_2020-09-23_b6ad40d0⁩/⁨images_dfu_hex⁩/thingy91_nbiot_dfu_2020-09-23_b6ad40d0.hex), but this didn't seem to flash either. This gave me the same error that I encountered with the modem firmware.

Also, command-line does not seem to work either. When I used command-line, it stayed at 0% completed and didn't seem to do anything at all. 

[Didrik Rokhaug]

What file did you use when trying to use the command line? .bin or .hex?

Have you tried to update the nRF52840? Could you see if that works?

[saremshal]

I tried using a .hex file called thingy91_nbiot_dfu_2020-09-23_b6ad40d0.hex

When updating the nRF52840, it seems to let me flash this through the command line. The file I used for this was thingy91_nrf52_usb_uart_bridge_dfu_2020-09-23_b6ad40d0.hex 

(It also lets me flash with nrf Connect Programmer but halfway through the flashing, the Programmer App screen goes white and doesn't let me view any of the GUIs for some reason) 

[Didrik Rokhaug]

When using mcumgr you must use the .bin files, not the .hex files.

After updating the 52, have you been able to update the 91?

You might also want to try the connectivity_bridge instead of the usb_uart_bridge on the 52.

Finally, there is a newer version of the firmware available on our website. Using the newer firmware might solve the problem.

[saremshal]

Hi, I was trying to test out these suggestions you recommended, but for some reason, my device is no longer showing up on my computer. I was able to verify this by looking at the devices that appear when I do "ls /dev/tty.*" in the command line. So I am not able to connect to it due to this. 

(I also tried this on another mac computer and it did not seem to find the device either)

Did perhaps flashing the .hex with the nRF52 mode cause this? 

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Hi, and sorry for the late response.

I tried to use mcumgr with a .hex file, but it did not let me, always returning a "file not found" error.

I will try again on Monday from a Linux VM to see if I get a different result then. I'll also ask our developers if they know what is wrong.

Does the device appear if you put it in DFU mode?

And just to be sure, when you put the nRF52 in DFU mode, are you using the big or the small button?

[saremshal]

Hi, the device does not appear if I put it into DFU mode and when using nRF91 I use the big black button, but for nRF52 I use the small white button. 

[Didrik Rokhaug]

I assume it does not appear both when you put it in DFU mode and when you do not?

Do you have an external programmer that can be used to program the nRF52840 (such as an nRF52 52840 or 91 DK)?

On Linux, you should be able to use 'lsusb' or 'usb-devices' to list all the connected USB devices. If you use those commands, does the Thingy get listed then?

What about if you use 'dmesg' to read the kernel log? If you connect the Thingy to the computer right before you run 'dmes', do you see any log indicating that a new USB device was connected?

[saremshal]

Hi

So I tried programming the thingy in nrf52 mode with my debugger that I had from my nrf52480 DK board and that seems to restore the USB connection. I think what happened was when I try to flash anything to the thingy through the nrf connect programmer, what ends up happening is that it bricks the USB connectivity and/or the DFU for some reason.

Luckily, I am able to restore this by flashing the thingy with the nrf52480 DK board and nrfprog. I, unfortunately, do not have an nrf91 DK board to flash my thing with though.

So this brings up two questions then:

1)  Would it be possible to flash an nrf91 app with an nrf52480 DK programmer? And if so, what mode should the thingy be in to do so?

2) Would you maybe have any idea to why the nrf connect programer would be behaving in a way that would brick my USB connectivity and/or DFU?