NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

[brec]

I keep seeing NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION errors on all sub-programs of nRF Connect when attempting to program the associated firmware (RSSI viewer, Bluetooth Low Energy, Programmer, etc). J-Link command line keeps flagging the part as protected every time I connect to it:

nrfjprog gives:

C:\windows\system32>nrfjprog --family nrf52 --recover
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
ERROR: Recover failed. Please make sure that the correct device family is given
ERROR: and try again.

C:\windows\system32>nrfjprog -v
nrfjprog version: 10.12.1
JLinkARM.dll version: 6.90

I can only program the part through dropping a hex file on the JLINK drive or through nRF Connect SDK version of SES.

Part = nRF52840

nRF Connect for Desktop v3.6.1

How can I use any of the nRF Connect for Desktop apps?

Thanks,

Bob

[Simonr]

Glad you were able to (at least partly) solve this on your end. However, what you're explaining seems very weird, and I'll contact our desktop developer team to see if they know what is going on here. Thank you for your thorough research and explanation of the matter! I will get back to you as soon as I hear back from the devs.

What hardware version(s) are these nRF52 Development Kits that run into these nRFConnect for Desktop "Protection" errors, and are they all nRF52832 DKs, or do you have some nRF52840 kits as well? Can you provide the log file of the nRFConnect BLE app you're seeing?

Best regards,

Simon

[brec]

Hi Simon,

I'm actually running four of our own BMD-380-EVAL EVKs, one at a time. All do the same thing.

They're functionally equivalent to your nRF52840 DK, right down to the Atmel part running the J-Link-OB interface. On the EVKs are our BMD-380 modules with Rev 2 silicon of the nRF52840-CKAA.

Here's a recovery of one of the boards with the older nrfjprog:

H:\>nrfjprog --version
nrfjprog version: 10.10.0
JLinkARM.dll version: 6.84a

H:\>nrfjprog --family nrf52 --recover
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
Erasing user code and UICR flash areas.

H:\>

Right after executing the above, I tried the latest nRF Connect. Upon selecting the EVK, I see a dialog box indicating that the firmware needs loaded. I click "Yes". After about 10 seconds, I see the protection error. Here's the log:

Fullscreen 2021-01-05T22_04_45.985Z-log.txt Download

2021-01-05T22:04:46.438Z INFO Application data folder: C:\Users\brec\AppData\Roaming\nrfconnect\pc-nrfconnect-ble
2021-01-05T22:04:46.553Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-ble v2.4.2 official
2021-01-05T22:04:46.553Z DEBUG App path: C:\Users\brec\.nrfconnect-apps\node_modules\pc-nrfconnect-ble
2021-01-05T22:04:46.553Z DEBUG nRFConnect 3.6.1 is supported by the app (^3.6.0)
2021-01-05T22:04:46.553Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: C:\Users\brec\AppData\Local\Programs\nrfconnect\resources\app.asar
2021-01-05T22:04:46.553Z DEBUG HomeDir: C:\Users\brec
2021-01-05T22:04:46.554Z DEBUG TmpDir: C:\Users\brec\AppData\Local\Temp
2021-01-05T22:04:47.451Z VERBOSE Could not fetch serial number for serial port at COM3
2021-01-05T22:05:01.141Z ERROR Failed to setup device: Error occured when close opened device. Errorcode: CouldNotResetDevice (0x5)
Lowlevel error: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION (ffffffa6)

FYI, COM3 is internal to the laptop.This EVK is on COM19.

I have an nRF52840 DK (PCA10040) v1.0.0 as well. I have not tried anything on it yet, but will and enter an update here.

Cheers,

Bob