Fanstel BT832X evaluation board with softdevice does not run

RE: Fanstel BT832X evaluation board with softdevice does not run

JONATHAN LL — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:23:00 GMT

Hi,

Doing a erase or recover of the device and then program it again is often the solution if it at first does not seem to work.

> nrfjprog -e
> make flash_softdevice
> make flash

This way you can make sure the device does not have any garbage left that can interfere.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: Fanstel BT832X evaluation board with softdevice does not run

Draco — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 04:43:16 GMT

I think "make flash_softdevice" and "make flash" only write the softdevice and application respectively, and do not touch the MBR because they call "nrfjprog --sectorerase". If MBR contains garbage, it will prevent the board from booting up.

Is my assessment correct?

RE: Fanstel BT832X evaluation board with softdevice does not run

Draco — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:44:34 GMT

I dumped the full image from my working board and flashed it into the "broken" board and now the "broken" board is working just fine. Obviously `make flash_softdevice` and `make flash` commands do not program a section of flash that's needed to boot the softdevice.

What am I missing?

RE: Fanstel BT832X evaluation board with softdevice does not run

Draco — Sat, 21 Aug 2021 16:26:41 GMT

Update:

I have 2 of this BT832X evaluation boards. I loaded the same software on both of them. One of them does not even run when software is compiled with softdevice. The other board works as expected. The curious thing is, I loaded Fanstel's AT command firmware (HEX file only) onto the broken board and it managed to boot up and respond to AT commands. This doesn't make any sense...