DFU controller in central nRF52 device

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 10:49:18 GMT

There are ways to do this, though there is no example in the SDK. The closest is probably to look at the SDK for ZigBee and Thread as suggested in this post, as it does basically that (unlike for the BLE bootloader, in the ZigBee case the transport happens in the application, and the bootloader only activates the image that is already downloaded).

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Jchristf — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 21:05:36 GMT

Robin: I have the exact same need: DFU update of nrf52 targets from and nrf52 controller over BLE (long range). Did you ever make it work??

Nordic: In reading about the complexity of doing this over BLE, I was wondering if a workaround would be to download the DFU zip file to target using a simple file transfer protocol, like XMODEM style, but with BLE packets. Then after files is on target, start the DFU process locally. What that make thing simpler? Is there an example of how to start DFU process on NRF52 target with local file?

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Robin — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 09:12:01 GMT

I solved this problem. For SELECT RSP message, the parameter ordering was wrong. the right order is max_len, crc, and then offset. so, I can parse it as max_len=0x200, crc=0, offset=0. For CREATE RSP, the CREATE CMD message was wrong. obj_type should be 1 byte not 4 bytes. Thus, when I sent "01018d000000" I got write response "600101".

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Robin — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 05:57:54 GMT

Hi,

I could make the device move to DFU mode by using Buttonless service. Now, I could make a connection to DfuTarg device, and established dfu service. I am working on implementing the DFU protocol. Following is logs I got so far.

tx: 0601 // SELECT CMD

rx: 600601000200000000000000000000 // SELECT RSP

tx: 01010000008d000000 // CREATE CMD

rx: 600104 // CREATE RSP

When I sent SELECT message, I am getting SELECT Response message with offset=0x200, crc=0, max_len=0. But I have no idea whether these parameters are valid or not. Can you please explain what the offset, crc and max_len means and how I should handle these parameters?

When I sent CREATE message with obj_type=1 and obj_size=141 (which is app.dat file size), I got the result code 04 (insufficient resources). Can you please advise how to solve this error?

Thanks,

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:18:43 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="NaviEff"](1) how to parse the indication value "0x200101" and what's next step?[/quote]

You can check the buttonless DFU service implementation for details. Searching for ble_dfu_buttonless_resp_send will show you everything that is indicated from the nRF to the DFU master at this stage.

If you use DFU without bonding there is not that much that is communicated here. There is always DFU_OP_ENTER_BOOTLOADER (0x01), and the response is either DFU_RSP_BUSY (0x06) or DFU_RSP_SUCCESS (0x01). The last possibility is DFU_RSP_OPERATION_FAILED (0x04) and then the response code could be one of many, but that is typically only relevant for debugging. The key information is that it failed.

[quote user="NaviEff"](2) where to find buttonless protocol document.[/quote]

You can refer to the Buttonless Secure DFU Service documentation in the SDK.

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Robin — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 08:58:25 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to make DFU controller for myself, which to be run on nRF52832. currently I am working on making Buttonless work.

I managed to get Service Discovery work and grab DFU service(service uuid = 0xFE59 and characteristic uuid = 8ec90003-f315-4f60-9fb8-838830daea50). When I wrote a value "0x01" on the characteristic, I could get indication with a value "0x200101" from the characteristic.

My question is,

(1) how to parse the indication value "0x200101" and what's next step?

(2) where to find buttonless protocol document.

Thanks

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 14:33:36 GMT

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. We do not have any official DFU master implementation for the nRF5 SDK DFU protocol, so the closest you get is probably the code yu1998 linked to. Other than that we have DFU master implementations in python, JS, and for iOS and Android you can use as reference. Bu unfortunately nothing for the nRF. So you would have to implement that yourself, potentially using some of the existing implementations as reference, as well as referring to the DFU protocol documentation.

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Robin — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 01:50:16 GMT

Hello Nordic team,

Any update on this? It's been 4 days still I am waiting for help.

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

Robin — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 06:30:43 GMT

Hi Yul998,

Thanks for the advice. This is also what I need for complete project. I needed both DFU with BLE and UART transport. I will enjoy the codes. Thank you very much!!

RE: DFU controller in central nRF52 device

yu1998 — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 03:36:58 GMT

not recommended but https://github.com/jimmywong2003/nrf-slim-serial-uart-dfu-host-c-code might be what you need