EVM-BT40-V1 fails flashing fw to cpuapp core

[abanana]

Trying to flash firmware to nRF5340 cpuapp core with a sample from nRF connect sdk 1.6.1. I'm able to flash it to a PCA10095 dev kit. With EVM-BT40-V1 from Fanstel, I can erase all the cores and flash firmware to cpunet core. However, flashing firmware to cpuapp core results in the following error:

[Vidar Berg]

Hello,

Please try to follow the procedure here (link) to unlock the approtect the chip with nrfjprog if you haven't tried already. I don't recognize error message you are getting, and  I think it's a bit surprising that it only happens when you program the application core.

Best regards,

Vidar

[abanana]

I've been testing it in different ways (including the linked procedure) and sometimes I'm able to write firmware by using merged_domain.hex. Most of the time it doesn't work.

I've tried the following in the link to recover the chipset:

nrfjprog --recover --coprocessor CP_NETWORK
nrfjprog --recover

It still does not work.

[Vidar Berg]

To narrow down the problem, please try to flash the board through the command line and see if it gives you a similar error.

e.g.

// Update PATH and ZEPHYR_BASE from cmd.exe by running the env.cmd 
C:\Users\<user>\ncs\<sdk version>\nrf\samples\bluetooth\<bluetooth sample directory>\..\..\..\..\toolchain\cmd\env.cmd

// Recover and flash the application and network core with this command
C:\Users\<user>\ncs\<sdk version>\nrf\samples\bluetooth\<bluetooth sample directory>\west flash --recover -d <insert name of build directory generated by segger embedded studio here>

[abanana]

Cool, the command works well with no error for those. Does that narrow anything down?

What is the difference between normal flash and debug on SES and the west flash way? I'm still unable to debug in SES.

[Vidar Berg]

OK, thanks for confirming. So this implies it's not a HW problem, but rather something with the SES setup. It could be that the 'nRF CPU Support package' in SES is not up-to-date.

Please try to download the latest support package at https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-MDK/Download

Then install the downloaded package from SES by selecting Tools -> Manually install Packages.. from the menubar.

If you still get the same error after updating the CPU package, then please check if the correct target device is selected in your project settings here:

Another alternative is to use our VS code with our VS code extension as the IDE since we know West flash works (extension uses west under the hood).