NRF52840 Makerdiary USB Dongle loses connection when transfering u2f-file

[smachine23]

Hi all,
at the moment a colleague and I are trying to update our Makerdiary USB Dongle (NRF52840). We were able to update the uf2 bootloader to version 0.7.1. And now we are trying to copy a custom uf2-file from our company to the device after entering the dfu mode by double pressing the button on the dongle. Unfortunately the stick reboots before finishing the transfer every time. We tried it on Windows 10 as well as macOs 14 Sonoma.
Is this a known issue? Does anybody have an idea what to do to solve it?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Best regards
Christian

[caizelin]

@smachine23 Could you share the flash memory layout of your custom uf2-file? Please follow this section to define your flash memory layout: https://wiki.makerdiary.com/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle/programming/uf2boot/#flash-memory-layout

[smachine23]

Hi,
thank you for your answer and sorry for the late reply. It seems like it has something todo with the security settings or group policies of our company notebooks. We've got a message from our development lately which I have to look into. But I will get here if it stays unsolvable for us. Thanks again.

[jsumners]

@caizelin I am having this exact problem with a brand new dongle (w/case) when trying to load https://github.com/makerdiary/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle/blob/dfa100afe0111e6b1f968ab55cb79da5878a014d/firmware/ble_sniffer/nrf_sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_v4.1.1.uf2 . Every time I try to copy the file to the mounted storage device, the device ejects before the file is fully copied over. It ejects if I copy via macOS Finder, or via CLI.

I'm on macOS 14.6.1 (23G93).

[caizelin]

@jsumners Currently you can just ignore that error, the programming is completed. This is an issue caused by the upgrade of macOS 14. Also seeing the issue here: adafruit/Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader#330

[jsumners]

@jsumners Currently you can just ignore that error, the programming is completed. This is an issue caused by the upgrade of macOS 14. Also seeing the issue here: adafruit/Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader#330

Should the INFO_UF2.TXT file change? Mine shows:

UF2 Bootloader 0.7.1 lib/nrfx (v2.0.0) lib/tinyusb (0.12.0-145-g9775e7691) lib/uf2 (remotes/origin/configupdate-9-gadbb8c7)
Model: Makerdiary nRF52840 MDK USB Dongle
Board-ID: nRF52840-MDK-USB-DONGLE
Date: Jul 20 2023
SoftDevice: not found

And this is what I get when looking for the interface:

Resources/share/wireshark
❯ ./nrf802154_sniffer.py --extcap-interfaces
extcap {version=0.7.2}{help=https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4}{display=nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4}
control {number=6}{type=button}{role=logger}{display=Log}{tooltip=Show capture log}

[wvw999]

Can someone link to an article for how to fix the MakerDiary usb dongle after this failed copy happens? Thanks!

[wvw999]

I suspect the device is bricked, as once the file copy fails, (I am copying across the firmware for Vysor), the device no longer registers when plugged into my mac or PC. the light does not come on, the button has no effect on its behavior. It might be possible to repair with debugging hardware and an app like pyocd, but I don't own that- someone posted about it here makerdiary/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle#102

[caizelin]

I suspect the device is bricked, as once the file copy fails, (I am copying across the firmware for Vysor), the device no longer registers when plugged into my mac or PC. the light does not come on, the button has no effect on its behavior. It might be possible to repair with debugging hardware and an app like pyocd, but I don't own that- someone posted about it here makerdiary/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle#102

@wvw999 We know Vysor. The firmware they published on their wiki is incompatible with our dongle, which will overwrite the bootloader and make the dongle bricked. So DO NOT use that firmware unless the author has fixed it. Unfortunately, vysor.io has closed their GitHub Issues, and what we discussed is not found.

If still want to use Vysor dongle firmware, I converted another hex to uf2 format for you testing:
vysor_dongle_nrf52840_fixed.uf2.zip. Just unzip this zip file and copy the .uf2 file to your UF2BOOT drive.

For the bricked dongles, you can always recovery them using a CMSIS-DAP debugger to reprogram the factory UF2 Bootloader.
Here is the factory UF2 Bootloader(.hex):
https://github.com/makerdiary/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle/tree/main/firmware/uf2_bootloader/0.7.1

[wvw999]

Thank you for the info! I will give that a try.

Also, I spent some time in Seattle, so I am hopeful some people I know might be connected to the Dev, who lives there. Perhaps I can get in touch with him.