Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

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jorgrodsjo
 
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Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:21 am

Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by jorgrodsjo »

Hello

I've got a Circuit Express Bluefruit (blue board).

I got no reaction when copying a new bootloader version to the CPLAYBTBOOT-folder.

So I might have gotten a little too eager. I read on https://tinygo.org/docs/reference/micro ... bootloader that I needed to use the adafruit-nrfutil tool to upload the bootloader. Which I did with the following command and output:

Code: Select all

j-mpb-m1 ~> /Users/jorg/Library/Python/3.10/bin/adafruit-nrfutil --verbose dfu serial --package Downloads/circuitplayground_nrf52840_bootloader-0.7.0_s140_6.1.1.zip -b 115200 --singlebank --touch 1200 -p /dev/tty.usbmodem11201
Upgrading target on /dev/tty.usbmodem11201 with DFU package /Users/jorg/Downloads/circuitplayground_nrf52840_bootloader-0.7.0_s140_6.1.1.zip. Flow control is disabled, Single bank, Touch 1200
Touched serial port /dev/tty.usbmodem11201
Opened serial port /dev/tty.usbmodem11201
Starting DFU upgrade of type 3, SoftDevice size: 151016, bootloader size: 39000, application size: 0
Sending DFU start packet
Sending DFU init packet
Sending firmware file
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
############
Activating new firmware

DFU upgrade took 20.13381600379944s
Device programmed.
Now, when restarting, the board power led lights up. On a single press of the reset button, all neopixels light up red, and then go dark. Fast double click gives me first red, then all green leds, where the CPLAYBTBOOT folder momentarily appears in Finder, but then disappears again.

Fingers crossed that I haven't bricked it and that there is something to be done. You are my only hope!

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mikeysklar
 
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Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:10 pm

Re: Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by mikeysklar »

Are you running MacOS Ventura? If so, that would explain the drive appearing and going away quickly.

https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/10/31/up ... uitpython/
The new macOS release 13.0 (Ventura), has trouble uploading files to “fake” USB drives that are used for firmware updates on microcontroller boards. These fake USB drives are presented by UF2 bootloaders and also ARMmbed DAPlink bootloaders. UF2 bootloaders take .uf2 files and are used on Adafruit boards, Raspberry Pi Pico boards, and many other manufacturer’s boards. ARMmbed DAPlink takes .hex files and is used on the micro:bit and other boards.

The problem is in the macOS Finder. Dragging a firmware file to the drive produces “error code 100093”. This error apparently occurs because the Finder is trying to copy extended attributes to the drive.

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jorgrodsjo
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:21 am

Re: Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by jorgrodsjo »

I am. But I got around that by using the command line. It showed up fine in Finder before I ran the nrfutil-command:/

When I double-press now, it just flashes in and out for a second and I get the "Eject CPLAYBOOT" before disconnecting it.. message from the OS.

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mikeysklar
 
Posts: 13936
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:10 pm

Re: Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by mikeysklar »

You will need to find another machine that is not running Ventura and upload the bootloader to 0.7.0 if you have not already using the UF2 file.

https://circuitpython.org/board/circuit ... bluefruit/
However, this workaround does not work on nRF52840 boards that use an older UF2 bootloader (versions 0.6.2 and newer work). On those boards, the bootloader appears to fail quickly. Copying a UF2 file does not work, which is indicated by the UF2 filename appearing in the BOOT drive. On these nRF52840 boards, including the Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluefruit, the Feather nRF52840, and the ItsyBitsy nRF52840, the only way to load a UF2 file is to use a non-Ventura computer.

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jorgrodsjo
 
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Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:21 am

Re: Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by jorgrodsjo »

That was probably me not reading the first answer well enough. Got a hold of a Windows machine and everything worked fine - which is a little embarrasing.

But that you! The help was very much appreciated!

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kense
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:47 am

Re: Bricked my Bluefruit when trying to update bootloader with nrfutil?

Post by kense »

Had the same problem with Ventura on the Mac. Instead of using the finder I've used Forklift (left screen (update file) to right screen (the 'disk')) to copy the updater. That worked without problems on the Mac with Ventura. After copying the update file the 4 LED's (green, orange, orange en red) start to show up. After some time and pressing the Reset button twice the new INFO_UF2.TXT shows the latest version.

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