Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

i_am_trying — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 10:28:38 GMT

endnode - thank you for the links to the posts. They were very helpful. Much appreciated.

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

endnode — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 09:51:27 GMT

Well the "hack" is not mine and it rather looks to me that you must connect PIN 3 when you want to use SWD from built-in SEGGER J-Link over P20 header (SH_xxx connections). See this and this. However P19 is actually EXT_xxx pins which are probably treated differently in SEGGER FW on Atmel companion chip. So in the end you have 4 SWD interfaces (3 IN and 1 OUT) on the same board, great value for money;)

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

i_am_trying — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 22:43:26 GMT

Thank you endnode. I'm confused why you short P2 and P3...the nRF51 Development Kit User Guide 1.0 Figure 8 shows VIO as current measurement (along with VDD_nRF)... i.e.: the sh_ pins make sense to hook up to the external nRF51822. but to me not the others? Well heck, you say it works for you :-).

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

endnode — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 20:22:26 GMT

I'm actually using only following pins from header P20 on nRF51 DK boards to flash external board/chip:

P1 (VDD nRF) to power the target.
P2 (VIO) short connection to P3 (SH_VTG).
P4 (SH_SWDIO) as SWDIO line for SWD flashing/debugging interface.
P5 (SH_SWDCLK) as SWDCLK line for SWD flashing/debugging interface.

plus I use any GND from the board (e.g. PIN 6 from 2x3 header P5). It's working with nrfjprog (have you tried that or you cannot because of platform you are running?) and also with SEGGER J-Flash Lite (I don't have license for full J-Flash but I can at least connect and read in it so it should work as well). I'm wondering if also PIN reset is needed when you are using JLINK and GDB? Also nRF5x chips need special "recover" sequence when RBP (readback protection) is locked in UICR and I don't know how other tools then nrfjprog handle it. But that's not your problem I suppose...

Good luck! Jan

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

i_am_trying — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 20:11:15 GMT

Looking at "good" SWD traffic versus "bad" traffic, one thing that pops out are writes to the DebugPort return a FAULT from the external nRF51822. If this is the reason, perhaps the nRF51 DK (host) cannot write to Flash. Now i need to figure out how to test this by sending a write to flash within the JLINK command tool.

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

i_am_trying — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 19:26:51 GMT

Jan, thank you. I am able to verify debug out works. I hook up Adafruit's Bluefruit friend and am able to loadfile and debug. i assume it is something i am doing wrong on my pcb design. I want to minize...do you know what pins need to be engaged? E.g.: VDD, but not AVDD (not using radio/softdevice), SWD, SWCLK...so 4 pins on the chip are all that are needed to flash program?

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

i_am_trying — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 19:24:17 GMT

Thank you very much for your insight. I do believe I am connecting over SWD. Note the TCP/IP connection on the console output in Eclipse. Also, there are records to the debug port...which doesn't happen unless i connect. the protocol analyzer i am using is Saleae logic's..and i would agree with you...perhaps the parsing is incorrect. Connecting to J-Link... ... Target voltage: 3.30 V Listening on TCP/IP port 2331 Connecting to target...Connected to target Waiting for GDB connection...Connected to 127.0.0.1 Reading all registers Read 4 bytes @ address 0x00000000 (Data = 0x20000000) Target interface speed set to 1000 kHz Resetting target Halting target CPU... ...Target halted (PC = 0x0000048C)

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

endnode — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 19:23:57 GMT

Are you sure that "debug out" is really active on your nRF5x DK? There must be certain PINs shorted beside plugging all 4 or 5 wires (depending if you provide 3V3/5V power from DK board or separately). I'm using both nRF51 and nRF52 DK boards to flash custom boards with nRF51x22 chips and it works flawlessly (using nrfjprog or SEGGER J-Flash). In my case I simply connect PINs 2 and 3 on P20 header (VIO to SH_VTG).

Cheers Jan

RE: Failure to loadfile binary to my PCB w/ nRF51822 using nRF51 DK Debug Out

RK — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 03:00:21 GMT

That log I think shows you're really not connected to the SWD port at all. There's a few bit sequences in there that are impossible, for instance the writes to the ABORT register may not return WAIT or FAULT, similarly reads from the CTRL/STAT register may not return WAIT or FAULT. In general there are way too many FAULTS there. Also I believe with overrun detection turned on, the stickyoverrun flag should get set by the faults and according to that trace it's not.

What produces that trace? It's possible whatever is doing that is entirely confused and unsequenced and is decoding rubbish. Because I'm surprised you can even get the debugger connected if you have that many issues. Do you get a reasonable connection response to the initial connect on the JLink?

You could try dropping the SWD speed down, if you have some electrical issues on your board, it may be dropping bits at speed.