Performing a FOTA V2 update from the nRF Cloud to Thingy91 using NCS v1.5.0

[Adeel]

Hi Dev team,

I am currently using the NCS v1.5.0 and have a Thingy91 v1.4.0 with me. I want to test the FOTA v2 update from the nRF Cloud to the Thingy91.

I tried using the aws_fota sample for that. I know that by default it is used to connect to the AWS IoT for updates.

I want to make it work to get the FOTA update from the nRF Cloud.

To do that, I changed the KConfig file and set the Use NRF Cloud to y:

config USE_NRF_CLOUD
bool "Use nRF Cloud"
default y

I also uploaded the (app_update.bin) file of the program I want to update in the Upload Bundles section in the NRF Cloud. 

I compiled and ran the program and the NRF Cloud gets connected through MQTT, but it does not download the file that I have uploaded in the NRF Cloud.

I wanted to know the correct way to upload the app_update.bin in the NRF Cloud so that it could be downloaded by the Thingy91 ?

Regards,

Adeel.

[Øyvind]

Hello Adeel, 

I've tested the update functionality using the Asset Tracker which worked as expected. I uploaded app_update.bin and pushed the update to device. 

Have you added the correct config in prj.cong?

Kind regards,

Øyvind

[Adeel]

Hi Oyvind,

I am trying to use the aws_fota sample in the NCS v1.5.0. I tried to use it as it is and only changed the KConfig parameter of : config USE_NRF_CLOUD
bool "Use nRF Cloud"
default y

Øyvind said:

Have you added the correct config in prj.cong?

What other things needed to be added in the prj.conf ?

Could you let me know how the AWS_FOTA sample can be made to get updates from the nRF Cloud (what all changes might be required in the sample).

Regards,

Adeel.

[Øyvind]

Adeel, I've talked to our NCS team regarding support for FOTA v2, and currently this is only supported in the Asset Tracker.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Adeel]

Hi Oyvind, 

Thanks for the update on this. However, I have been having some issues generating the app_update.bin file for my project on NCS v1.5.0.

To generate an app_update.bin file, I added the CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y in my prj.conf file and tried to build my application. I get the following error : 

Could you help me understand how to fix this error ?

Regards,

Adeel.

[Øyvind]

Hi Adeel,

I'm not able to reproduce your issue. I added CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y in the AWS_FOTA project using SES, and built without issues. 

What other changes have you introduced?

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Adeel]

Hi Ovyind,

No worries, I got it working now.

Just 1 more question regarding FOTA. It know that it works on the MQTT protocol with the AWS broker.

I have a program of mine that also uses MQTT to publish data to a different broker. I am now looking to integrate FOTA sample in my application. 

Is it possible to work with 2 different brokers ? If so, do I need to define anything extra in the CONFIG files to make them work ?

Regards,

Adeel. 

[Øyvind]

Hello Adeel, 

I needed confer with our developers, and this is their answer:

that shouldn't be an issue - you just need to have two separate mqtt_client structure instances and handle them separately (i. e. separate init, connect etc.). There's no fixed configuration like client port in the MQTT library, all the data is kept within the mqtt_client context so you can maintain as many MQTT connections as you want (in the boundaries of the available memory of course)

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Adeel]

Hi Oyvind,

Thanks for the confirmation. This clears my doubts :) 

Regards,

Adeel.

[Adeel]

Hi Oyvind,

Sorry that the conversation keeps extending but I had a question regarding the FOTA sample.

At the start of the sample, it says : 

BUILD_ASSERT(!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_LTE_AUTO_INIT_AND_CONNECT),
"This sample does not support auto init and connect");  

Can you let me know why the FOTA sample does not support : CONFIG_LTE_AUTO_INIT_AND_CONNECT ?

Regards,

Adeel.

[Øyvind]

Hi Adeel, 

This is because the application needs to ensure full control of the modem when doing FOTA updates. 

Kind regards,
Øyvind