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?

[choehyunho]

Dongle is detected as SDFU com port, and I tried to write ble_connectivity_s140_usb_hci_pca10059.hex, which is in nRF52 SDK.

It seems to be write correctly, but still not working.

Device Manager shows nRF52 Connectivity device in 'Other Device' section, and yellow bang displayed.

I just want my dongle use with BLE app, RSSI Viewer, or Sniffer purpose, because I already have other DKs.

[Øyvind]

choehyunho said:

I just want my dongle use with BLE app, RSSI Viewer, or Sniffer purpose, because I already have other DKs.

Please see the nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE documentation. 

[choehyunho]

OK, thanks. Now I can use BLE sniffer successfully.

How can I config my dongle back to use with Bluetooth Low Energy App, or RSSI Viewer App.

I expected to rewrite original bootloader back may solve the problem, but failed.

Tried to use /cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/4/1512.pca10059_5F00_bootloader.zip & /cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/4/7853.pca10059_5F00_bootloader_5F00_mbr_5F00_v1.0.1.hex , but both shows the following error in Programmer App.

2021-11-18T11:24:12.210Z ERROR DFU failed: Error message for known extended error code from DFU target: The init packet does not contain a signature. This bootloader requires DFU updates to be signed.
2021-11-18T11:24:14.222Z ERROR Device not found due to failure during DFU

What should I do now?

[choehyunho]

Never mind.

I restart the dongle in bootloader mode, and I can reprogram it in BLE app.

Thank you for your support.