Zip file format for DFU on iOS nRF Toolbox

[Paul]

I am having some trouble sending DFU to my development board through the iOS app.

When I prepare a zip file for the nRFToolbox app, I include the .dat and .bin files in a zip file. I transfer this zip file to my iOS device. When I load the file through the nRF toolbox app it says "DFU application.hex not exist inside selected file demo.zip" [sic].

I downloaded the iOS nRFToolbox source and found a few of the example zip files - "hrs_sdk7_1_bin_sc.zip" - if I manually upload this to my iOS device I can transfer it using DFU to my board. In other words the demo zip works.

But. If I unzip "hrs_sdk7_1_bin_sc.zip" and rezip it (using either Mac or Windows) and repeat the process I can no longer send the DFU and get the same "DFU application.hex not exist inside selected file nordicExample.zip" error as above. Because the contents of the zip file is identical to the demo zip and the only difference was that it was extracted and re-compressed, I am lead to believe there is something in how this is being zipped up that is causing the iOS app to not parse the .bin/.dat file. Also given that it is looking for a .hex file in the error message makes me think this is a generic exception.

I am using nRF Toolbox 1.8, released a few days ago in the App Store.

Please advise.

[Hung Bui]

@Paul: Could you upload your zip file ? I'm testing here with the "hrs_s110_7_1_sdk7_1.zip" file from nRFToolbox source code. And I had no problem doing DFU with the zip file generated based on the application.bin and application.dat file on a Windows machine. Have you make sure you have the latest nRFToolbox version v1.8 ? I attached here the file I created.

HRS_S110_V7.zip

[Paul]

I am using nRFToolbox version 1.8, updated April 17, 2015, downloaded from the iOS App Store. Whether or not this differs from the repo version of nRFToolbox available through the Nordic website, I couldn't say.

I see the same issue with your attached HRS_S110_V7.zip file. Sending it straight over to the app works fine. Uncompressing and recompressing it causes the app to fail with the same "application.hex not exist inside selected file HRS_S110_V7_Mac.zip"

I am reattaching both zip files. The original you can see in a hex editor is identical to yours. My uncompressed and recompressed version using OS X's built-in zip tool yields a different zip file. When both files are extracted, the contents of the .bin and .dat files are identical when doing a binary diff. Attaching files in the following comment due to character limit.

[Paul]

HRS_S110_V7.zip - original, works

HRS_S110_V7_Mac.zip - uncompressed, recompressed on Mac OS X, fails

Edit, and just for good measure a version uncompressed and recompressed using Windows which also fails: HRS_S110_V7_Win.zip - original example, uncompressed and recompressed in Windows, fails

[Paul]

Wow, now I feel stupid. Turns out, one needs to create a .zip file by zipping together the *.bin and *.dat files directly and not zipping a folder containing both.

Previously, when I was unzipping the example .zip's sent by Nordic, it would create a folder of the same name as part of Windows and Mac's built in behavior. I wrongfully assumed by rezipping this folder the example would work again. No, one first needs to go into the folder and just zip the files. The .dat and .bin files need to be in the root directory of the zip file, not in an identically named folder. Default UI in Mac when extracting files makes this difference imperceptible.

[Hung Bui]

I'm glad that it worked for you Paul. Thanks for the detailed information on how you solved it. It's useful for others.