Custom nRF9160 Board can load, but does not appear to be running

[Mr.Newlove]

I had been working with a DK and a Circuit Dojo - nRF9160 Feather https://github.com/circuitdojo/nrf9160-feather just to get my basic hardware working. I just had custom boards made for our first pre-production hardware but I cannot get it talking using the serial_lte_modem example at all, using the same hex file, same RX and TX pins on the nRF9160 and ESP32 basically nothing has changed other than trying to transfer things to our own board instead of evaluation boards.

Here is the schematic for the nRF9160 hookup, everything loads fine form the DK to the nRF9160 but doesn't want to respond to anything sent over the serial port. 

https://i.imgur.com/23LeGKg.png

GPS sub-sheet:

LTE-ANT sub-sheet:

Sim sub-sheet: 

I also tried to create a custom board definition but it doesn't want to work either: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o87fcq1u89i85fq/custom_nrf9160.zip?dl=0

I am really at a loss to why this isn't working when it worked on the other boards.

[helsing]

Hi Kyle,

Have you programmed any bootloader onto nRF9160 on the custom board? Does your hex contain any bootloader?

Have you tried loading any other sample like hello_world?

[Mr.Newlove]

another odd thing, I am using pins 23 and 24 for serial, but I get slightly different results when I swap these in the overlay. This makes me think it is actually having an effect:

Normal state:

Pins Reversed:

clearly the bootloader section that assigns peripherals is loading? or am I just crazy?

Edit: I should say, I have the ESP32 sending AT\r\n every 100ms looking for a response, but nothing back.

Excuse my bad probing, I am using an Analog Discovery on my desk at home trying to get this working.