Buttonless DFU single bank SDK11

[sonnyz]

Hi,

I want to add DFU to our board running SDK11 S130 but facing some problems.

I followed the instructions on infocenter, and started with ble_app_hrs example (from here). Below are the steps I tried:

1. Compile project dfu_dual_bank_ble_s130_pca10028 and make bootld.hex.

2. Compile project ble_app_hrs_s130_with_dfu_pca10028 and make app.hex.

3. Merge s130_nrf51_2.0.0_softdevice.hex, app_valid_setting_apply.hex (from here), bootld.hex and app.hex.

4. Program the merged file with nRFgo studio to 51DK.

5. In  nRF Connect (Windows10, v3.6.1), connect to USB dongle(pca10031), find "Nordic_HRM" and connect to it. 

6. In nRF Connect, under Nordic_HRM, find Legacy DFU, click play button beside Legacy DFU Control Point (to Enable DFU notifications I guess, since it shows 0100 in Client Characteristic Configuration).

7. In Client Characteristic Configuration input 0104 (I want to update application), in Log, it shows "Attribute value written, handle: 0x1E, value (0x): 01-04"

Up to here, I expect a disconnection and 51DK should start to advertise as "DfuTarg", But it did not happen. So here are my questions:

1. What am I missing in above steps? Do I need to change the bootloader code (in step 1) for buttonless application? 

2. If I want to test DFU by using nRF Connect, how do I send the zip file to 51DK? I could not find anywhere in Connect that can attach a file. 

3. What do I need to change to use it as Single Bank application?

4. In nRF toolbox Android app (v2.9.0), I tried to perform DFU with dfu_dual_bank_ble_s130_pca10028 example on 51DK. In the app when I click SELECT DEVICE it's able to find "DfuTarg", but when I click on "DfuTarg", it never get connected, and the UPLOAD button is always gray. I tried with another phone, get the same result. Is this a bug?

Thank you so much for the help!

[Hung Bui]

Hi Sonny, 

From what you described the DFU buttonless should work. 

Could you try to debug the application and check if it asserts ? 
When you execute a write 0x0104 (note that you may need to write 0401 as the endianess is little endian. )

You can add a break point inside ble_dfu_on_ble_evt() in ble_dfu.c and check the BLE_GATTS_EVT_RW_AUTHORIZE_REQUEST event to see if the command is parse correctly.

[sonnyz]

Hi Hung Bui,

Now I'm able to perform DFU by the same process I described above with nRF Connect mobile (desktop app still not working). 

What make me confused is that I have never seen "DfuTarg" was advertised during the DFU process as described here. And it also happened a few times that when the connection between the app and the device was lost, I found the device neither advertise as "Nordic_HRM" nor as "DfuTarg", and I know it's not bricked since the LED is still lit. So the only thing to make the device advertise again is a power reset. While for a buttonless application this is not practical. How to deal with this situation? 

Thanks again!

[Hung Bui]

Hi Sonny, 
"DFUTarg" only appear right after the Nordic_HRM switches to the bootloader. This period may last only a few ms as the bootloader will be connected by the phone immediately after advertising. 

How often do you experience the issue that the device hang ? Could you get any logging from the device to check at which stage it's stuck ? After the power reset would it run the old firmware or the new firmware ? 

To debug this the best way is to add some logging in the bootloader to check if it stuck at any stage. 

The reason nRF Connect on PC doesn't work could be that the support for legacy DFU is removed. I will need to check with the team on this. 

[sonnyz]

Thank you Hung for the reply! Regarding the connection issue, probably it caused by using a wrong version of nrfutil. After making the file with version 0.3.0, it not happen anymore. 

[Hung Bui]

Hi Sonny,

Glad to hear. I assume that everything is good now ? 

[sonnyz]

Yes, so far so good! thank you for the help!