Update ItsyBitsy nRF52840 SOC

[nsnyder1]

It appears that nRF52840 ItsyBitsy ships with the SoftDevice v6.1.1. I would like to update to v7.0.1 or later in order to use the S=8 coded BLE. What is required to do this?

[mikeysklar]

You can get the 0.7.0 bootloader here. (bottom right corner).

Step-by-step instructions for the three different bootloader update styles.

The Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader can be upgraded/downgraded without any additional hardware. There are 3 different ways to update bootloader, each has its pros and cons:

Use UF2: This is the fastest and safest way to update bootloader. However, it requires your existing bootloader version is at least 0.4.0 and only work with nRF52840 (not nRF52832).
Use Arduino IDE: work with all Adafruit nRF52 boards and bootloader version, typo free but may not be the latest bootloader version due to the BSP release cycle.
Use Command Line: work with all boards and bootloader version (including 3rd party one). This command line uses the back-end of the Arduino IDE method above.

[nsnyder1]

I will need a different solution that has a modern version of the SoftDevice. Here are the contents of INFO_UF2.TXT:

UF2 Bootloader 0.7.0 lib/nrfx (v2.0.0) lib/tinyusb (0.12.0-145-g9775e7691) lib/uf2 (remotes/origin/configupdate-9-gadbb8c7)
Model: Adafruit ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express
Board-ID: nRF52840-ItsyBitsy-revA
Date: Jul 13 2022
SoftDevice: S140 6.1.1

[mikeysklar]

There are three files bundled with the bootloader (zip). Two are small config meta data and one is a binary blog that contains the bootloader + soft device.

Code: Select all

itsybitsy_nrf52840_express_bootloader-0.7.0_s140_6.1.1.zip

Code: Select all

$ ls -rlt
total 196
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm     14 Jul 13  2022 sd_bl.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm 190744 Jul 13  2022 sd_bl.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm    530 Jul 13  2022 manifest.json

Code: Select all

$ ls -rlt
total 196
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm     14 Jul 13  2022 sd_bl.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm 190744 Jul 13  2022 sd_bl.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 sklarm sklarm    530 Jul 13  2022 manifest.json

Since Adafruit currently has no plans to update the softdevice. You can purchase a j-link to update it yourself.

[nsnyder1]

Thanks for following up. I can pursue that.

Version 7 of the Soft Device enables the long range BT 5 functionality of the chip. As IoT becomes more common, it seems that there would be a number of use cases and high demand for this. Just something to think about.

[mikeysklar]

Sounds like a good reason to support it.

Would you like to open a request to the github repo to support v7.0.1 (or later) for long range? The last request has been closed, but it did not specify a reason and is over a year old.