How to recover bricked nRF52840 dongle (PCA10059)?

[choehyunho]

Hi teams,

Recently I have bricked my PCA10059 dongle by accidental writing PPK2 firmware to it.

I have read several recovery documents including https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/guides/short-range-guides/b/getting-started/posts/nrf52840-dongle-programming-tutorial, but not succeeded.

I made external jumpers to connect my JLink Base debugger, which can be used with Vref = 1.8V, and below is the result of JLink Commander.

SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.58 (Compiled Nov  4 2021 16:29:29)
DLL version V7.58, compiled Nov  4 2021 16:28:06

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Nov  2 2021 12:14:50
Hardware version: V10.10
S/N: 50128807
License(s): GDB
VTref=1.832V


Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>connect
Please specify device / core. <Default>: NRF52833_XXAA
Type '?' for selection dialog
Device>?
Please specify target interface:
  J) JTAG (Default)
  S) SWD
  T) cJTAG
TIF>S
Specify target interface speed [kHz]. <Default>: 4000 kHz
Speed>1000
Device "NRF52840_XXAA" selected.


Connecting to target via SWD
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
Failed to power up DAP
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
Failed to power up DAP
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
Failed to power up DAP
InitTarget() start
InitTarget() end
Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
Failed to power up DAP
Cannot connect to target.
J-Link>

I noticed messages about SW-DP and failed to power up DAP messages.

How can I rewrite original bootloader to it?

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

Sorry to hear about this issue. Just to verify, have you tried holding the reset button while inserting the dongle in USB? 

Will need some time to figure out what is going on, and will provide an answer by tomorrow. 

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[choehyunho]

Hi.

When pressing reset button and connect to USB, the red LED is blinking like heartbeat.

But, still not detected as proper nRF device when using BLE app, and if I tried to rewrite default bootloader using Programmer app, the following message is shown while reading device map.

2021-11-17T05:41:28.773Z INFO Application data folder: C:\Users\firebird\AppData\Roaming\nrfconnect\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-programmer v1.4.11 official
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG App path: C:\Users\firebird\.nrfconnect-apps\external\3.7 compatible apps\node_modules\pc-nrfconnect-programmer
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG nRFConnect 3.7.1, required by the app is (^3.6.0)
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: C:\Users\firebird\AppData\Local\Programs\nrfconnect\resources\app.asar
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG HomeDir: C:\Users\firebird
2021-11-17T05:41:28.849Z DEBUG TmpDir: C:\Users\firebird\AppData\Local\Temp
2021-11-17T05:41:28.862Z INFO Using nrfjprog library 10.12.1, pc-nrfjprog-js 1.7.6
2021-11-17T05:41:39.386Z INFO Using nrfjprog to communicate with target
2021-11-17T05:41:39.961Z INFO Using J-Link Software version 7.58
2021-11-17T05:41:40.387Z INFO Segger serial:  50128807
2021-11-17T05:41:40.387Z INFO Segger speed:  2000  kHz
2021-11-17T05:41:40.387Z INFO Segger version:  J-Link V10 compiled Nov  2 2021 12:14:50
2021-11-17T05:41:40.414Z INFO Core probed: 50128807
2021-11-17T05:41:40.415Z INFO Core RAM: 256KiB
2021-11-17T05:41:40.415Z INFO Core ROM: 1024KiB in pages of 4KiB
2021-11-17T05:41:40.565Z INFO Model: NRF52840_xxAA_REV2.
2021-11-17T05:41:50.844Z ERROR Error while getting readback protection
2021-11-17T05:42:04.060Z INFO Parsing HEX file:  C:\Users\firebird\Downloads\pca10059_bootloader\graviton_bootloader_mbr_v1.0.1-[nRF5_SDK_15.0.1-1.alpha_f76d012].hex
2021-11-17T05:42:04.071Z INFO File was last modified at  2018. 5. 22. 오전 8:20:20
2021-11-17T05:42:18.403Z INFO Using nrfjprog to communicate with target
2021-11-17T05:42:28.717Z ERROR Could not fetch memory size of target devkit: Error: Error occured when get library info. Errorcode: CouldNotOpenDevice (0x4)
Lowlevel error: Unknown value (ffffff24)

2021-11-17T05:43:11.568Z INFO Target device closed.
2021-11-17T05:43:15.746Z INFO Using nrfjprog to communicate with target
2021-11-17T05:43:16.230Z INFO Using J-Link Software version 7.58
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Segger serial:  50128807
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Segger speed:  2000  kHz
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Segger version:  J-Link V10 compiled Nov  2 2021 12:14:50
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Core probed: 50128807
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Core RAM: 256KiB
2021-11-17T05:43:16.655Z INFO Core ROM: 1024KiB in pages of 4KiB
2021-11-17T05:43:16.818Z INFO Model: NRF52840_xxAA_REV2.
2021-11-17T05:43:27.143Z ERROR Error while getting readback protection
2021-11-17T05:43:39.043Z INFO Using nrfjprog to communicate with target
2021-11-17T05:43:49.339Z ERROR Could not fetch memory size of target devkit: Error: Error occured when get library info. Errorcode: CouldNotOpenDevice (0x4)
Lowlevel error: Unknown value (ffffff24)

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

If you have programmed the PPK2 firmware on the nRF52, then this will not be detected as a BLE device. 

choehyunho said:

When pressing reset button and connect to USB, the red LED is blinking like heartbeat.

This is correct to how the "Getting started guide" describes the LED behavior. Did you try to program the dongle with a supported sample, e.g. BLE App Blinky?

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[choehyunho]

I understood my dongle is in bootloader mode, but don't know how to proceed.

Previously, I connect dongle and run BLE app, it shows dongle as 'Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 Connectivity", or suggested to update firmware to proceed.

But currently, dongle is not shown in device list.

I have tried to write firmware via JLink with Programmer, and not succeeded as above.

I'll try via DFU tomorrow.

BTW, is there any prebuilt nRF52840 dongle firmware which can be used with BLE app or RSSI Viewer app?

[Øyvind]

In the programmer app of nRF Connect for Desktop, when the device is blinking red and connected to USB of computer, does the device list show "Open DFU Bootloader"? Or in the device manager, under COM ports, do you have a nRF52 SDFU USB device?

choehyunho said:

BTW, is there any prebuilt nRF52840 dongle firmware which can be used with BLE app or RSSI Viewer app

Have a look at the BLE App for nRF Connect for Desktop documentation on how to configure the dongle.