No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

Simonr — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 09:15:17 GMT

Thank you for your input!

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

mytzyiay — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:15:40 GMT

Thanks. Since nrfutil still works with nRF Connect it would also be helpful to update the instructions with the procedures for flashing the dongle via CLI:

Install nrfutil through pip because it's not bundled with nRF Connect
nrfutil pkg generate --debug-mode --hw-version 52 --sd-req 0 --application zephyr/merged.hex /tmp/dfu.zip
nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg /tmp/dfu.zip -p /dev/cu.usbmodem* -b 115200
Probably need a pm_static_nrf52840dongle_nrf52840.yml file to keep the default flash partitions from colliding with the bootloader at the end of flash and to adjust the SRAM offset
Flash offset of 0x1000 is automatically applied by the nRF Connect tools, doesn't need to be changed in menuconfig
SRAM offset doesn't need to be changed in menuconfig
How to add the DFU trigger to an app?

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

Simonr — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 08:44:54 GMT

I see, I will add that to the internal ticket with the development/documentation team as well. I see that specifically stating that "no SoftDevice" should use --sd-req 0 would be clarifying.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

mytzyiay — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:34:18 GMT

[quote userid="75734" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/85200/no-uart-or-cli-flasher-on-nrf52840dongle/355582#355582"]At least the --sd-req is described by writing nrfutil pkg generate --help.[/quote]

I don't see anything that tells me what value to use for a blinky or Zigbee app that doesn't use SoftDevice at all? The correct answer was "0x00" which does not appear in the documentation. Every other value I tried caused a mismatch during flashing.

I'm not implementing BLE so nothing besides nrfutil has ever asked me about a SoftDevice.

--sd-req TEXT The SoftDevice requirements. A comma-
separated list of SoftDevice firmware IDs (1
or more) of which one must be present on the
target device. Each item on the list must be
a two- or four-digit hex number prefixed
with "0x" (e.g. "0x12", "0x1234"). A non-
exhaustive list of well-known values to use
with this option follows:
|s112_nrf52_6.0.0|0xA7|
|s112_nrf52_6.1.0|0xB0|
|s112_nrf52_6.1.1|0xB8|
|s112_nrf52_7.0.0|0xC4|
|s112_nrf52_7.0.1|0xCD|
|s113_nrf52_7.0.0|0xC3|
|s113_nrf52_7.0.1|0xCC|
|s130_nrf51_1.0.0|0x67|
|s130_nrf51_2.0.0|0x80|
|s132_nrf52_2.0.0|0x81|
|s130_nrf51_2.0.1|0x87|
|s132_nrf52_2.0.1|0x88|
|s132_nrf52_3.0.0|0x8C|
|s132_nrf52_3.1.0|0x91|
|s132_nrf52_4.0.0|0x95|
|s132_nrf52_4.0.2|0x98|
|s132_nrf52_4.0.3|0x99|
|s132_nrf52_4.0.4|0x9E|
|s132_nrf52_4.0.5|0x9F|
|s132_nrf52_5.0.0|0x9D|
|s132_nrf52_5.1.0|0xA5|
|s132_nrf52_6.0.0|0xA8|
|s132_nrf52_6.1.0|0xAF|
|s132_nrf52_6.1.1|0xB7|
|s132_nrf52_7.0.0|0xC2|
|s132_nrf52_7.0.1|0xCB|
|s140_nrf52_6.0.0|0xA9|
|s140_nrf52_6.1.0|0xAE|
|s140_nrf52_6.1.1|0xB6|
|s140_nrf52_7.0.0|0xC1|
|s140_nrf52_7.0.1|0xCA|
|s212_nrf52_6.1.1|0xBC|
|s332_nrf52_6.1.1|0xBA|
|s340_nrf52_6.1.1|0xB9|

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

Simonr — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:55:21 GMT

At least the --sd-req is described by writing nrfutil pkg generate --help. The HW version I don't have an excuse for, but it seems you guessed correctly. I'll forward your feedback internally. Thank you!

Yes, it's hard to do debugging without the proper equipment. If you have a 10 pin cable and a 10-pin header you can also use the DK to debug the Dongle, but again this requires soldering on the 10 pin header onto the bottom of your nRF52 Dongle. Yes debugging using UART isn't straight-forward I'm afraid, since it's not really designed for development.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

mytzyiay — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 20:52:52 GMT

For flashing from the command line, I wound up using this procedure (which is not at all well-documented for nRF Connect users, IMO):

pip3 install nrfutil
cd build
nrfutil pkg generate --debug-mode --hw-version 52 --sd-req 0 --application zephyr/merged.hex /tmp/dfu.zip
nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg /tmp/dfu.zip -p /dev/cu.usbmodem* -b 115200

Had to guess at the --hw-version and --sd-req values since I didn't see any guidance for how to set them. Other values failed.

I have debugging accessories on order but it will take a few days. In particular I wasn't able to find a quick way (e.g. Amazon Prime) to get the 2x5 1.27mm debug header. I tried running jumpers from SWDCLK/SWDIO to a cable attached to a J-Link Mini EDU but it looks like VREF, and maybe nRESET, are also required. Too many pins for a hacky ad-hoc setup 👎

CONFIG_NFCT_PINS_AS_GPIOS=y is the default setting in zephyr/boards/arm/nrf52840dongle_nrf52840/nrf52840dongle_nrf52840_defconfig and it is already enabled in my .config.

UART TX on pin 22 doesn't work any better than TX on pin 10. I think something else is going wrong here. Does nobody else ever try to enable a debug UART on the dongle boards? This seems like a really basic request given the prevalence of printf() style debugging in the general population.

SRAM_OFFSET only seems to be getting used in zephyr/arch/x86/Kconfig for an emulated x86 system. I think it has to be forced via Kconfig; I don't think that I can change it from menuconfig or editing .config directly. So I guess the 8 byte offset is no longer necessary on the dongle boards after moving from the legacy SDK to nRF Connect? The blinky example worked fine without it.

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

Simonr — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 14:07:18 GMT

1. The Programmer app is the easiest way to program the nRF52840 Dongle, but you can also use a debugger if you're up for some soldering (described in the Dongle programming tutorial).

2. One red flag I noticed here. You say you're using pins P0.09 and P0.10. These are NFC pins by default I think. Please try adding the following CONFIG to your project: CONFIG_NFCT_PINS_AS_GPIOS=y

3. Where is SRAM_OFFSET set to 0 exactly? I would think this would be handled in the Dongles board files, but I can't seem to find anything on it. I can ask internally how this behaves if you'd like. I would suggest setting the RAM offset to 8 to be on the safe side at least.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: No UART or CLI flasher on nrf52840dongle?

mytzyiay — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 06:56:09 GMT

Also I have:

UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL(=3)
UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL_DBG(=n) "Debug"
UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL_ERR(=n) "Error"
UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL_INF(=y) "Info"
UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL_OFF(=n) "Off"
UART_CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL_WRN(=n) "Warning"
UART_CONSOLE_MCUMGR(=n) "Enable UART console mcumgr passthrough"