DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

Charlie — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 07:33:54 GMT

Sorry, I forget to mention one modification. I have added one more step to the original answer.

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

kalpino — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 15:07:04 GMT

Thanks Charlie for sharing the correct repository. I've been looking for it for a while now.

I quickly tried to program a nRF52840 Dongle, already provided with its default bootloader, with the hex file you provided at point (1): the error message that I get is the same as before (Failed to reset NCP. Please flash connectivity firmware.)

Do I have to use a different bootloader or add any softdevice?

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

Charlie — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 14:04:28 GMT

Hi Kalpino,

I try the latest NCP build from ot-nrf528xx/src/nrf52840 at main · openthread/ot-nrf528xx (github.com) and it works.

You can try now with the following steps:

Build NCP for nRF52840 Dongle from that GitHub repository, you will get this firmware:
devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ot_5F00_ncp_5F00_ftd.hex
Program nRF52840 Dongle.

Comment line 223 and 224 on your nrfutil installation: Python/Python38/Lib/site-packages/nordicsemi/thread/tncp.py

        # if (self._config[NCPTransport.CFG_KEY_RESET]) and not self._wpan.cmd_reset():
        #     raise Exception('Failed to reset NCP. Please flash connectivity firmware.')

Run DFU Thead server with command "nrfutil dfu thread -pkg app_dfu_package.zip -p COMx --channel 11 --panid 43981"

Just let me know if it works on your setup.

Best regards,

Charlie

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

Charlie — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:05:03 GMT

Hi Kalpino,

The DFU over Thread does not use pc-ble-driver. The nrfutil source codes shows connectivity firmware from pc-ble-driver is only used in ble dfu. While in the thread dfu part, you can find codes in the nordicsemi/thread/tncp.py shows it uses one 4 years old version of the pre-build ncp.hex file which only works on nRF52840 DK.

The good news is that a nRF52840 Dongle can also run as NCP. The bad news is that the latest NCP doest not compatible with the old one.

I need some time to find the reason, will reply to you later.

Best regards,

Charlie

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

kalpino — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 09:13:25 GMT

Thaks for the reply but this is not the case

RE: DFU Thread with nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

yu1998 — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 08:35:33 GMT

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/40311/nrfutil-4-0-0-dfu-thread i think its the same question