nRF52810 flashing problem: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION (ffffffa6)

[tmllr]

Hi,

I'm trying to program a custom board with a nRF52810 via nRF Connect. I keep getting the following error messages:

Error when getting device info: Error: Error: Error occured when get device info. Errorcode: CouldNotCallFunction (0x9) Lowlevel error: NOT_AVAILABLE_BECAUSE_PROTECTION (ffffffa6)
20:06:57.641	Could not fetch memory size of target devkit: Cannot read property 'family' of undefined

I followed this post and tried the following commands:

$ nrfjprog.exe --coprocessor CP_APPLICATION --memrd 0x00FF8000
ERROR: The operation attempted is unavailable due to readback protection in
ERROR: your device. Please use --recover to unlock the device.

$ nrfjprog.exe --coprocessor CP_APPLICATION --recover
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
ERROR: Recover failed. Please make sure that the correct device family is given
ERROR: and try again.

I'm using a Segger j-link debugger with a 6-pin-needle adapter to connect the board with my PC via SWD.

Any advice on how to solve this problem is very much appreciated!

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi tmllr, 

Please use J-Link Commander to check the VTref and make sure it could be detected as 3.300V. If this cannot help, please execute nrfjprog.exe -f NRF52 --recover -log and provide the log. 

-Amanda H.

[tmllr]

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for your suggestions. I manually set the VTref to 3.3V but connecting to the device still didn't work.

SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.50a (Compiled Jul  8 2021 18:22:32)
DLL version V7.50a, compiled Jul  8 2021 18:21:11

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link V9 compiled May  7 2021 16:26:12
Hardware version: V9.30
S/N: 269303476
License(s): FlashBP, GDB
OEM: SEGGER-EDU
VTref=0.000V


Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>VTREF 3300
New fixed VTref = 3300mV
The new configuration applies after power cycling the probe.
J-Link>connect
Please specify device / core. <Default>: ARM9
Type '?' for selection dialog
Device>?
Please specify target interface:
  J) JTAG (Default)
  S) SWD
  T) cJTAG
TIF>
Device position in JTAG chain (IRPre,DRPre) <Default>: -1,-1 => Auto-detect
JTAGConf>
Specify target interface speed [kHz]. <Default>: 4000 kHz
Speed>
Device "NRF52810_XXAA" selected.


Connecting to target via JTAG
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
TotalIRLen = ?, IRPrint = 0x..000000000000000000000000
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
TotalIRLen = ?, IRPrint = 0x..000000000000000000000000
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
TotalIRLen = ?, IRPrint = 0x..000000000000000000000000
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
TotalIRLen = ?, IRPrint = 0x..000000000000000000000000
Cannot connect to target.
J-Link>

The log from nrfjprog is this:

$ nrfjprog.exe -f NRF52 --recover --log
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
ERROR: [  nRF52] - Access protection is enabled, can't read device version.
ERROR: [  nRF52] - Failed to write UICR after recovering.
ERROR: Recover failed. Please make sure that the correct device family is given
ERROR: and try again.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Seem you don't connect the VTref pin of the J-Link to the VDD of the nRF. Can you check it?

-Amanda

[tmllr]

Hi Amanda,

The VTref pin is connected with the VDD of the chip. I checked that. 

However, I started the J-Link Commander before connecting the board, that is why VTref=0.000V was detected. Doing it in the right order, it seems that the debugger detects some voltage:

SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.50a (Compiled Jul  8 2021 18:22:32)
DLL version V7.50a, compiled Jul  8 2021 18:21:11

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link V9 compiled May  7 2021 16:26:12
Hardware version: V9.30
S/N: 269303476
License(s): FlashBP, GDB
OEM: SEGGER-EDU
VTref=4.817V


Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>

Connecting still doesn't work, though.

Best,

Thilo

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Thilo, 

Please provide power 3.3v to the VDD and make sure VTref is detected as 3.3v.

-Amanda H.