nRF52840 dongle original bootloader - nRF Connect timeout issue

[bartbart]

Hello,

I've designed a pcb using the 52840 chip which is essentially identical to the dongle design. My intent was to use the firmware that comes pre-installed with the dongles and flash it to my this pcb board. This way I would be able to use nRF Connect and have the software update any files my new board would need (so have it behave like an off-the-shelf nRF52840 dongle).

I flashed the blank 52840 with the bootloader from this ticket. The install went well and I see nNRF52 SDFU USB (COM3) in the device manager.

Next I open up nRF Connect and select RSSI Viewer, then I click on the Unknown device from the dropdown menu and receive a message that 'Device must be programmed, do you want to proceed?' to which I click yes. After doing that I hear a USB port chime that a device is disconnected, and the log file within RSSI VIEWER states that Error while setting up device EF72164C18DA: Timeout while waiting for device EF72164C18DA to be attached and enumerated

This is where I am stuck on since it appears that the device cannot be programmed by nRF Connect. Is this a bootloader issue? I have tried a couple other bootloaders that I found but they all appear to give me the same results. 

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Sigurd]

Hi,

Did you see the same with e.g. the Bluetooth Low Energy app in nRF Connect for Desktop, or is this issue only with the RSSI app?

Do you have a reset button on your dongle to put it into bootloader mode?

[bartbart]

So I switched over to the BLE app in nRF Connect, selected the board from the dropdown menu, said yes to device being programmed, and lo and behold the discovery feature works and I can scan for BLE devices.  

But the original issue is still there - why doesn't it work this way in the RSSI Viewer? I get the same 'device must be programmed' message, I click yes, and after a little while the device gets disconnected from USB and the RSSI Viewer log shows the 'Timeout while waiting for device to be attached and enumerated' message. 

I don't have a reset button on the board but I do have access to the reset pin which I can jumper to ground. When should the reset be pressed?

[Sigurd]

bartbart said:

shows the 'Timeout while waiting for device to be attached and enumerated' message. 

 And if you plug the device out from the computer, plug it back in, and open RSSI app, selects the device from the dropdown menu, do you get the same message that you need to re-program it?

If yes,

then try to program the device from the Programmer app. Here are the hex files needed.

mbr.hex

rssi-10059.hex

Still not working? Then there might be some incompatibility between the RSSI firmware and your board.

Here is the source code for the RSSI firmware code that runs on the nRF52:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-rssi/blob/master/fw/src/rssi_cdc_acm/main.c

bartbart said:

When should the reset be pressed?

 Right before you select the device from the dropdown menu.