Broken Compatibility between SKDS/Firmware/Devices?

[Francesco.Puntar]

Hi guys I just bought:

• one nRF51 Dongle (nRF6825 Rev 1.1.0 2015.27)
• some nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kits (nRF6930 Rev. 1.0.0 2014.27) that are basically beacons with battery.

The "nRF Beacons" App worked nicely on a friend's Android as I understand iOs is currently hiding beacons that haven't been authorised by Apple.

I tried to flash the applications from the latest version of "nRF Toolbox" from my iPad mini but they kill my beacon: it stops advertising and the led switched off.

I then tried to roll back, I entered in DFU mode again and I flashed the application from the pre-compiled hex at "nRF51822-BK-FW - nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit Firmware Files - 1.1.1" from "MyPage" and the beacon is still dead, with the led blinking red for a really small amount of time, probably in an infinite reset loop and it wouldn't even go into DFU mode pressing SW1.

I get my bacon back only if I flash the application ble_app_beacon_from_source_code.hex as suggested here and pressing SW1 while inserting the battery devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

I can't flash a soft device or a boot installer from nRF Toolbox because it would say "Old DFU only supports Application upload", I assume the app is not compatible with the boot loader installed in the beacon or viceversa.

Anyway I can't flash a newer/compatible soft device or even the application mentioned above from my Dongle with Master Control Panel 3.10.0 and with "MEFW nRF51822 0.11.0" or "MEWV nRF51822 0.9.0" because it would say "Error during firmware upload. Error occurred while waiting for response for START DFU. Error response Not Supported." as per screenshot and log attached within.

So I would like just to be able to flash my beacons using the Dongle, so far I've only been able to build and flash the UART sample on the dongle and that was working fine.

Do I own a Dongle incompatible with my beacons so I wonder why the dongle is recommended rather than the old development kit or there's a way to fix this and how? I've spent an incredible amount of time and patience fiddling with this and I can't find anymore info in the existing discussions.

Thank you in advance for any help. Francesco

image.png MasterControlPanel.txt

[Stefan Birnir Sverrisson]

Hi Francesco

For Beacon kit version 1.0.0, there is softdevice 110 6.0.0 and bootloader from SDK 6.0.0 on board, as well as nRF51 second revision hardware. Your kit is only compatible with beacon firmware 1.0.x. You can also flash example applications from nRF51 SDK 6, but you will have to do some changes to the applications in order to make the LED and buttons work on the beacon kit, but it should still communicate normally over BLE.

You are correct, the bootloader on the beacon kit you have is only capable of application updates, not softdevice or bootloader updates.

Do you have the PCA10031 dongle (the newer version) or the PCA10000 dongle (the older version) ? The older version has nRF51 second revision but the newer dongle has third revision nRF51. To see what software is compatible with different nRF51 revisions, look at the nRF51 compatibility matrix, table 4

Update 22.10.2015 I made a nRF51 Beacon kit content table

Yes, your beacon kit is the oldest version of the kit. Your assumption is correct, it is the CEAADx variant on your beacon kit.

If you have a programmer and an adapter cable, you can flash a newer S110 to the beacon kit, another bootloader and another firmware, basically anything you want. If you have the nRF51-DK kit you can use that as a programmer for the beacon board, as I have described here in my update from 17.11.2014. There is a link there also for a compatible adapter cable.

With the PCA10031 (nRF51-Dongle) you can load new applications over the air to your beacon kit. In order to do that you need to flash the MEFW 0.11.0 to the nRF51-Dongle

1. Open the Master Control Panel
2. Select the nRF51-Dongle serial number in the upper left corner
3. Select file -> Flash Programming and program the MEFW 0.11.0 to the nRF51-Dongle

With your current beacon kit, i.e. with S110 6.0.0 and bootloader from SDK 6.0.0, you can only upload beacons over the air based on beacon kit firmware version 1.0.1. Do that with the Master Control Panel and the nRF51-Dongle, or you can also do it via your Android/IOS smartphone, see the Beacon kit user guide on how to flash the Beacon kit over the air. If you have a programmer and flash S110 7.1.0 and bootloader from SDK 7.1.0, then you can upload the beacon from Beacon kit firmware 1.1.1 over the air.

You can additionally upload any S110, bootloader or application to the beacon kit, see description on this thread.

[Francesco.Puntar]

Thanks for your prompt and concise reply Stefan:

• I have the newer version "PCA10031 v 1.1.0 2015.27 680917600" and the IC is "N51422 QFACA 11503AD"
• does the kit (beacon) come only in the revision I have or I've been sold very old beacons?
• can I flash a newer S110 using an external programmer physically connected to it? My kit (beacon) IC is "N51822 CEAAD0 1405BV" which I can't match exactly in the compatibility matrix, I assume it's this one "nRF51822 IC revision 2 CE AA Dx0a Package WLCSP 256kb Flash 16kb RAM" and the biggest chance looks like to be memory upgrade.
• Would nRF51-DK (a bigger board, not a dongle) allow me flash my beacons on the air and if yes which revision I need to ask for exactly?

Thank you for your support. Francesco