Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

RE: Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 11:48:53 GMT

Hi Kevin,

I see. DFU over Bluetooth with the nRF Connect SDK with the enRF52810 is not feasible. This is because the application will need to handle the Bluetooth transport (as demonstrated by the SMP Server Sample when configured for Bluetooth). And then dual bank is required, and there is simply not enough room o the RF52810 to do dual bank DFU.

An option could be to consider external flash memory for the secondary slot if your HW is not set in stone. You should validate your self that the application will fit with all the features you need and a bootloader even so though, as that will be application specific. But bases on what you have written I would expect that you should be able to fit what you need including DFU if the secondary slot is on external flash.

If neither external flash or another nRF device with more flash memory is an option, then DFU over Bluetooth is not feasible. (You may still be able to use serial recovery over UART though, if that makes sense for your product).

Einar

RE: Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

choseuna@hotmail.com — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 22:30:22 GMT

Hi Einar,

Here are the answers to your question.

1. nrfConnect SDK

2. Bluetooth (Peripheral role)

3. no external flash memory is used.

Cheers,

Kevin

RE: Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 09:00:46 GMT

Hi Kevin,

[quote user="choseuna@hotmail.com"]I'm using nrfConnect(VisualGDB) v2.3.0 and technically using a nRF52810 chip(not DK) and plan to use BLE peripheral for DFU.[/quote]

Do you mean that you use nRF Connect SDK? Or are you using the nRF5 SDK?

[quote user="choseuna@hotmail.com"]And from my understanding SoftDevice S112 is required for BLE peripheral role.[/quote]

The S112 SoftDevice is a peripheral only SoftDevice that can be used with the nRF5 SDK. If you are using the nRF Connect SDK, then there are no more SoftDevices. Instead, you will be using the Bluetooth host from Zephyr, and the SoftDevice controller library (but there is no difference between S112, S132 etc there, but what you need will be included in the application binary when building it).

Some questions:

Please clarify which SDK you use so that there is no confusion about this.
Which transport do you want to use for performing the DFU? (UART, Bluetooth, or something else)?
Do you have external flash that can be used for the secondary slot?

The answers to these questions is essential in order to understand if it may be possible to fit everything or not. I should say though, that in any case it will be difficult to give a definitive "yes", as you want to do a lot with a small device.

RE: Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

choseuna@hotmail.com — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 22:31:31 GMT

Hi Einar,

Thank you for the response.

I'm using nrfConnect(VisualGDB) v2.3.0 and technically using a nRF52810 chip(not DK) and plan to use BLE peripheral for DFU.

And from my understanding SoftDevice S112 is required for BLE peripheral role.

Thank you,

Kevin

RE: Feasibility of supporting NUS(Nordic UART Service) + DFU + MDS on NRF52810

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 14:12:24 GMT

Hi Kevin,

Are you using the nRF5 SDK or the nRF Connect SDK (I am not sure as you refer to the SoftDevice but also mcumgr and Memfault)? And which transport will you use for DFU (UART or BLE perhaps)? It will be a tight fit in any case though, and particularily if you want to do DFU over BLE in the nRF Connect SDK you will need more flash space (though you may be able to get by wth just an external flash for the secondary slot).

Einar