"No ping response after opening COM port"

[amarin]

Hi,

I am working on programming a bootloader on a NRF52840 DK using a different NRF52840 DK. Currently I have them connected via the debugger and have been successful in programming the application, softdevice and bootloader onto the NRF52840. However, part of my project is wanting to DFUs via UART. I have been testing this by programming the bootloader and softdevice onto the device and do dfu to update the application. However, I have been getting the following error and I do not know how to go about solving this error. Does anyone have any ideas?

$ nrfutil pkg generate --hw-version 52 --sd-req 0xAE --application ble_app --application-version 2 --key-file priv.pem app.zip

$ nrfutil dfu serial -pkg app.zip -p COM3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python37-32\Scripts\nrfutil-script.py", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('nrfutil==6.1.0', 'console_scripts', 'nrfutil')()
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 829, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 782, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1066, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 610, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 1056, in serial
    timeout)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 970, in do_serial
    dfu.dfu_send_images()
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 127, in dfu_send_images
    self._dfu_send_image(self.manifest.application)
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 88, in _dfu_send_image
    self.dfu_transport.open()
  File "c:\program files (x86)\python37-32\lib\site-packages\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu_transport_serial.py", line 214, in open
    raise NordicSemiException("No ping response after opening COM port")
pc_ble_driver_py.exceptions.NordicSemiException: No ping response after opening COM port

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

The commands you are using looks to be correct except for the missing file extension in the --application argument. It should be either a .hex or .bin file. Either way, this does not explain the ping error.

Is the nRF52840 DFU target board connected directly your PC through the Segger USB port? Or asked differently, is your COM3 port being shown as a "JLink CDC UART Port" in your Windows device manager?  "no ping response" usually means the the device is not entering DFU mode, but that should not be the problem here as you had only programmed the Softdevice and bootloader (bootloader has no choice but to stay in DFU mode when there is no valid application present).

Also, is the final goal to do DFU from a PC, or from the other 52840 DK board?

[amarin]

The goal is to do a dfu on the 52840 DK. Currently I have my DFU target connected to the debug out port on the other 52840 (master). The master is connected via USB MCU port directly to my computer.

[Vidar Berg]

That explains the ping error, the DFU target board must be connected to the PC if you are going to do DFU with the nrfutil tool.

amarin said:

Currently I have my DFU target connected to the debug out port on the other 52840 (master

 This setup allows you to program the chip through the debug interface using the Jlink programmer mounted on your master nRF52840 DK, which is not the same as doing DFU over UART.

[amarin]

Thanks! This explains a lot!