nRF Progammer v2.3.3

[Learner]

Hello,

While programming my board with a merged.hex I sometimes see some differences at the end of the Programmer log.

Sometimes the log ends like this,

2022-03-25T14:05:24.026Z DEBUG Usage data has been sent
2022-03-25T14:05:24.026Z INFO Loading readback protection status for Application core
2022-03-25T14:05:24.662Z INFO Readback protection status: NRFDL_PROTECTION_STATUS_ALL
2022-03-25T14:05:24.671Z INFO Parse memory regions for Application core
2022-03-25T14:05:24.675Z INFO Device is loaded and ready for further operation

and other times it ends like this,

2022-03-25T13:49:15.964Z DEBUG Usage data has been sent
2022-03-25T13:49:15.964Z INFO Loading readback protection status for Application core
2022-03-25T13:49:16.725Z INFO Readback protection status: NRFDL_PROTECTION_STATUS_NONE

The programming of the target board looks as if it succeeded but I am concerned something else went wrong e.g. the SoC protection is not enabled.

Which of the two programming sessions have completed successfully?

Does it mean I need to reprogram the boards when I get NRFDL_PROTECTION_STATUS_NONE?

Can someone please explain what is going on here? 

Thank you.

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Simonr]

Hi Mohamed

Are you programming multiple boards and are seeing the different "PROTECTION_STATUS" messages on different boards? If so, you might have different revisions of the nRF52833 SoCs. Some with and some without the readback protection.

Best regards,

Simon

[Learner]

Hi Simon,

Thank you.

How can I check if I do have different revisions of the nRF52833 SoC.?

I have now checked some of the boards I still have access to and found these various revisions of the nRF5283 SoC:

N52833 QDAAA0 2036B0

N52833 QDAAA0 2120GL

N52833 QDAAB0 2118AB

According to the Product Specification manual the hardware version code is different.

What is the difference between hardware versions A and B ?

Which of these revisions have the security feature built-in?

Kind regards

Mohamed