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

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

Mr.Newlove — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:22:22 GMT

All of my problems were because of a bad soldering job, I am suspect of the solder paste I used. This was a hand assembled board for pre-production.

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

helsing — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:57:14 GMT

Thank you for the update, great to hear you figured it out.

Regarding the SIM-card issue: As this is a new topic, please create a new case and we will help you. You may link to this case if relevant.

What does the issue look like? Have you measured SIM_1V8 to see if the SIM gets powered?

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

Mr.Newlove — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 22:34:38 GMT

Well, after nearly a week of screwing with this, turns out pin 24 didn't get connect correctly... talks to the ESP32 now and can be programmed fine. Having SIM card issues now, I am not entirely sure if its the board or the SIM at this point

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

Mr.Newlove — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 20:46:03 GMT

I guess a summery of the issues I am having is for some reason I cannot transmit or receive on the nRF9160 side on pin P.0.24, everything on the ESP32 side is working as expected.

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

Mr.Newlove — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 04:31:41 GMT

I wired up a FTDI cable directly to the nRF9160, and cant get it TX on the pin its supposed to, but it will transmit "Ready" on the pin I need to use for RX, and the FTDI can send data out(verified by scope) but the nRF9160 never responds.

back to trying to use the circuitdojo board def

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

Mr.Newlove — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:03:01 GMT

Another odd thing, if I put the ESP32 pins into high impedance input I will get "READY" from the nRF9160 on what should be the RX pin, and if I swap them in my overlay file it stops entirely.

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

Mr.Newlove — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 05:35:36 GMT

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.

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

Mr.Newlove — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 05:12:35 GMT

I've verified the nrf9160 is for sure running on the board, so its likely just a software problem of some sort now. I can debug, step through ect.

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

Mr.Newlove — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 18:25:23 GMT

If I connect to my custom board with the DK via JLINK I seemingly can read/write from memory fine, if i erase, and then read its empty but then when i load and read back i get an odd memory structure:

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

Mr.Newlove — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 17:32:41 GMT

bootloader? I thought that was included in the merged.hex file?

I am trying to load blinky this morning

My problem is likely not loading the bootloader section, but how do I get to MCUBoot mode?

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

helsing — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 12:55:47 GMT

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?