NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 09:15:42 GMT

Thank you for the update Bob, I'll forward this to the developers as well. Seems to be a bug in the latest nRFConnect release(s). Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this soon. No luck in finding someone with a CKAA package on our end, but I'll keep asking around. I assume we will be able to reproduce it on these packages as well, I just need to confirm it somehow.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:15:39 GMT

Hi Simon,

For the small board I was thinking of, we don't have any built up, just bare PCBs.

One other point of reference -- on several attempts throughout the course of debugging this ticket, I pulled P0.18 high to ensure the module was not held in reset for some reason. VDD & VDDH measure approximately 3.1 V on the EVK due to the protection diode for multiple power sources and 3.3V on the small test board.

I tried one more new EVAL board with only using nRF Connect BLE. When attempting to load the firmware, the debug IC re-enumerated on USB a couple times. After a few seconds wait, I see the same protection error.

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 14:46:59 GMT

Hi Simon,

No worries -- I meant to put a smiley at the end of that sentence :-) Even the helpers need help now and again.

Thanks for updating your internal ticket. I'm headed to our lab today to pick up some supplies. I'll see if we have any boards with just the BMD-380 already mounted, and try them with an external SEGGER J-Link Base.

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 09:16:31 GMT

Hi again Bob

I'm very sorry about the generic "ask U-Blox" comment in my last reply. The fact that this is specific to the CKAA package chips, point towards that these are not added as compatible in nRFConnect for Desktop or nrfjprog for some reason. I have updated the internal ticket I have with the devs to check whether this is the case.

Unfortunately, I'm restricted to home office at the moment (COVID is on the uprise again here in Norway) so I don't have any CKAA packages available at the moment to test, but I'll ask my colleagues if they have any and can test this.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 01:13:11 GMT

Hi Simon,

Fresh boards operate the same, so that eliminates any issues with the nRF Connect SDK and tools.

The only board I'm having trouble with is the BMD-380-EVAL. Our BMD-340-EVAL, BMD-341-EVAL, and BMD-345-EVAL can all be erased with nrfjprog -f nrf52 --recover (tools v10.12.1 / J-Link v6.88a). All of them use the nRF52840. The only difference is that the BMD-380 uses the CKAA package, where the others use the QIAA. I checked the EVAL schematics. They're identical except for a couple GPIOs that weren't mapped to module pins on the BMD-380.

Do you have any boards there with the CKAA package to try?

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 16:35:00 GMT

Hi Simon,

I am the u-blox guy and trying to figure out why operation changed. This is the first we've seen the issue.

I can run the nRF Connect BLE and Programmer app on a BMD-340-EVAL (nRF52840-QIAA) that I have at my desk. The only differences between these two EVKs is the routing for the different size module. All of the SEGGER-side circuitry is the same. I can also run it on the BMD-300-EVAL (nRF52832-QFAA) -- I've been doing this for some time on various of our EVKs. nrfjprog runs as expected as well on all of them.

All I can think of is that I was also running the nRF Connect SDK tools on these same BMD-380-EVAL boards right at the time v1.4.99-dev1 showed up in the Toolchain Manager -- trying the peripheral_lbs, peripheral_uart, and central_uart examples. Did something change in those programming commands in the new SDK? Where can I find the programming scripts?

I'll get a fresh BMD-380-EVAL and try it later today. Perhaps it was operator error when I was working with the four boards in question.

The nRF52840 DK I used yesterday is indeed the PCA10056, v1.0.0. I can also run it on several nRF52 DKs, PCA10040.

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 06:58:23 GMT

Okay, the fact that you use the BMD-380-EVAL EVKs at least explain why you have issues with the nRFConnect BLE app, because the Segger IDs for these devices doesn't match our DK IDs, so nRFConnect won't know what sort of device you're trying to connect to. The reason it is like this specifically for the BLE app is that the BLE app requires the connected device to work with any BLE device, which is why the app is locked to a specific range of Segger IDs. AFAIK, there are no plans to change this.

However this shouldn't affect nrfjprog, and the error messages you're seeing doesn't reflect this. Please confirm that you don't see these errors on the other nRFConnect apps, as these shouldn't be restricted to our DKs.

Please also note that the PCA10040 is the nRF52832 DK, while the nRF52840DK is called PCA10056. Please confirm which of these DKs you have, and whether it is working as intended. We don't have too much experience with the BMD-380 EVKs, so you could also ask U-Blox if they have seen anything like this on their end.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 22:13:01 GMT

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:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../2021_2D00_01_2D00_05T22_5F00_04_5F00_45.985Z_2D00_log.txt

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

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 09:17:25 GMT

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

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 01:50:52 GMT

nRF Connect for Desktop still gives the protection error - on just the Bluetooth Low Energy app. I believe it has its own newer J-Link version, but can't seem to find it on my system.

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 01:22:01 GMT

Hi Simon,

I got everything working. You were on the right track about J-Link versions, though I had to go further back.

I did the following:

Uninstall all Nordic and SEGGER software
Reboot PC
Install the nRF Command Line Tools v9.8.1
Start an EVKs into bootloader mode and upload the J-LINK-OB BIN file from your site
Restart the EVK and run `nrfjprog -f nrf52 --recover`
Accept the firmware update to v6.40
Process completes with erasing code and UICR
Restart EVK

For good measure, I uninstalled Bitdefender to be sure it wasn't blocking anything. I got some errors when it was running, so maybe it prevented some files getting installed correctly.

I also did some further testing. It seems the recovery error creeps in with nRF Command Line Tools v10.11.0 and later when the release notes state things about APPPROTECT and other related entries.

I'll keep using v10.10.0 for now.

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 18:47:18 GMT

Hi Simon,

Happy New Year! I was also out for the holiday break.

I'm afraid I'm still stuck. I tried loading the J-Link BIN file through the BOOTLOADER drive, and am using J-Link v6.88a. I went through the DK checklist. I also tried the following J-Link commands which we typically use in a script. This time, I just copied and pasted each command into a J-Link terminal:

H:\>jlink
SEGGER J-Link Commander V6.88a (Compiled Nov 18 2020 15:10:56)
DLL version V6.88a, compiled Nov 18 2020 15:09:23

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link OB-SAM3U128-V2-NordicSemi compiled Mar 17 2020 14:43:00
Hardware version: V1.00
S/N: 682863243
License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
VTref=3.300V


Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>connect
Please specify device / core. <Default>: NRF52840_XXAA
Type '?' for selection dialog
Device>
Please specify target interface:
  J) JTAG (Default)
  S) SWD
  T) cJTAG
TIF>s
Specify target interface speed [kHz]. <Default>: 4000 kHz
Speed>
Device "NRF52840_XXAA" selected.


Connecting to target via SWD
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
DPIDR: 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
Cortex-M4 identified.
J-Link>WriteDP 1 0x50000000
Writing DP register 1 = 0x50000000 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>WriteDP 2 0x01000000
Writing DP register 2 = 0x01000000 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>WriteAP 1 0x00000001
Writing AP register 1 = 0x00000001 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>ReadAP 2
Reading AP register 2 = 0x00000001 (0 read repetitions needed)
J-Link>ReadAP 2
Reading AP register 2 = 0x00000000 (0 read repetitions needed)
J-Link>WriteAP 0 0x00000001
Writing AP register 0 = 0x00000001 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>WriteAP 0 0x00000000
Writing AP register 0 = 0x00000000 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>WriteAP 1 0x00000000
Writing AP register 1 = 0x00000000 (0 write repetitions needed)
J-Link>ReadAP 3
Reading AP register 3 = 0x00000001 (0 read repetitions needed)
J-Link>ReadAP 3
Reading AP register 3 = 0x00000001 (0 read repetitions needed)
J-Link>

At the end, notice the ReadAP command is always returning 1, which indicates APPPROTECT is still set.

Now when I try `nrfjprog -f nrf52 --recover`, I see:

H:\>nrfjprog -f 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.

H:\>

The same happens on both PC and Mac systems, using different USB cables.

Cheers,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 09:44:04 GMT

Sorry about the late reply, but I've been out of office during the Holiday, and we're just getting back to full staff. What J-Link version do you have in these faulty boards? Other people reporting this J-Link version issue also fixed it by reinstalling the interface MCU firmware and downgrading the J-Link version to a supported one.

Please also check out our DK checklist to see if any of these "regular" fixes help you out.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:11:39 GMT

Hi Simon,

I'm afraid that only worked on one board. I have a couple others that still show the failure. Any new thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 16:52:53 GMT

Hi Simon,

That did the trick. Thanks!

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 06:10:56 GMT

Hi again Bob

Please try to reinstall the interface MCU firmware on these boards that you used with J-Link v6.90. To do so, hold the reset button (SW5) while you power on the DK until LED (LD5) starts to blink. Once the DK is in bootloader mode, drag and drop the downloadable Interface MCU firmware .bin file into the bootloader folder that should have popped up on your computer. Do not drag and drop any other file here, as that may overwrite and ruin the bootloader entirely without an option of recovery.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 15:14:55 GMT

After downgrading, I can successfully program a board that I did not use with J-Link v6.90. Boards that were used with v6.90 always show the recover failed, or an app protect error in nRF Connect for Desktop / Bluetooth.

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

brec — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 14:58:40 GMT

Hi Simon,

I uninstalled J-Link, nRF Command Line Tools, and nRF Connect for desktop, then rebooted.

I installed nRF Command Line Tools and nRF Connect for Desktop, and still see issues with J-Link v6.88a -- which was installed by the command line tools:

C:\windows\system32>nrfjprog -f nrf52 --version
nrfjprog version: 10.12.1
JLinkARM.dll version: 6.88a

C:\windows\system32>nrfjprog -f 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>

I tried erasing through SES -- the version installed with NCS. That appeared to work but I still see the same with nrfjprog.

Thanks,

Bob

RE: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION, jlink fails, nRF Connect for desktop fails

Simonr — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 12:47:17 GMT

Hi Bob

Seeing as you're able to program it using SES, this seems to be due to the J-Link version you're using. The latest J-Link version that nRFConnect supports is J-Link Software version 6.88. I see that you use v6.90, which is not tested with, and therefore likely to not be compatible with, nRFConnect. Please try downgrading your J-Link software to see if that solves this issue for you.

Best regards,

Simon