How to include buttonless DFU in existing SES Project

[Caleb Dueck]

Hello,

I would like to add buttonless DFU to my project.

This is so that in the field our mobile application will be able to push new FW to the device upon connection.

I am using a BMD-350 which is based on the nRF52832.

Using NRF 15.3.0 and Segger Embedded Studio

I have got the secure_dfu example working on an eval board.

However, I am wondering how to add the bootloader to the project? Is it added as a part of the SES project, or is something similar to the secure_dfu example flashed before the FW is flashed?

I've read over https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v14.0.0%2Fsdk_app_serial_dfu_bootloader.html
and it says that the secure_bootloader needs to be programmed. Does this mean it is a separate project that is flashed before flashing other SW is programmed?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Tim]

I found this blog very helpful:

https://novelbits.io/ota-device-firmware-update-part-1/
https://novelbits.io/ota-device-firmware-update-part-2/
https://novelbits.io/ota-device-firmware-update-part-3/
https://novelbits.io/nrf52-ota-dfu-ble-part-4/

I implemented using the same SDK (15.3) and chip (nRF52832).

For our iOS app that users use to push new FW to BLE devices, I used Nordic's iOS DFU Library:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/IOS-DFU-Library

Hope it helps.

Tim

[Caleb Dueck]

Hello, that blog has been great! Thank you for sharing. I've successfully followed all his steps, using our code instead of nrf_blinky.
Unfortunately, after I flash the device I receive this error: 

00> <error> app: ERROR 4 [NRF_ERROR_NO_MEM] at C:\Users\Caleb(CDUE)\repos\lancelot_p_fw\app\main.c:3551
00> PC at: 0x0003B77D

Reading this post suggests the issues is that I have not included a bootloader. However, I have indeed included secure_bootloader_ble_s132_pca10040.hex when merging the hex files.

Please let me know if you have a solution for this issue.

[Tim]

Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience (or time :-) to speculate about your error. One suggestion would be to try integrating buttonless DFU into an SDK BLE example like ble_app_uart. If you succeed, that might point you to something specific about your application.

Good luck!

Tim

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

What does your code look like around line 3551 in your main.c? Most importantly, which function call returned NRF_ERROR_NO_MEM?

[Caleb Dueck]

That is an important detail I should have mentioned.
err_code = ble_dfu_buttonless_init(&dfus_init);
I'm calling this which I added to my services_init() function which is called early in main

This was added as per the instructions in: novelbits.io/.../

[Einar Thorsrud]

That makes sense.

ble_dfu_buttonless_init() adds the buttonless DFU service, increasing the SoftDevice memory usage. If the application start address is too low or the SoftDevice configuration is not appropriate, you will get this error (see this thread).

(As a side note in case other come across this thread, NRF_ERROR_NO_MEM is also returned from ble_dfu_buttonless_init() when there is no bootloader present. And in that case you need to program the bootloader in order to avoid this.)