How load Espruino on 8211NB

Hi,
I am completely new on Espruino. Bought a RAK8211NB/G kit including an iTracker board.
In order to connect to the board, I understand to flash the board first with Espruino firmware.

Attaching the delivered USB cable to the iTracker board, COM19 is being configured but using e.g. putty is not working. Using BLE and Espruino Web IDE I cannot flash the board because the board is not responding..

The main question is, where can I find a proper description how to load Espruino firmware on the iTracker board straight from the box?!

thanks in advance

Sat 2019.04.27

Hello @etmpvga, welcome to the exciting journey with Espruino!

Many refer to this excellent @wklenk article

https://wolfgangklenk.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/espruino-on-rak8212-getting-started/

Is that enough to get started?

The link @Robin gave should do you - I believe RAK also have some info on getting started on their website (although if I'm honest I'm having difficulty finding it now).

The official Espruino boards come pre-installed, but most others (like the RAK ones) have to be loaded up manually.

Thanks guys for the info, the point is that I don't have J-Link adapter. I am afraid that's exactly what's missing.

The main problem is that I bought indeed the development kit as indicated by the @wklenk article except for the J-Link adapter.

The question remains, is it possible to load the Espruino firmware straight via the IDE web tool using BLE for instance?!

is it possible to load the Espruino firmware straight via the IDE web tool using BLE for instance?!

You could ask RAK Wireless whether they have included a bootloader on their devices from the factory, but I don't think so - in which case I'm afraid you're out of luck.

It is possible to use OpenOCD from a Raspberry Pi to program nRF52 though - I'm afraid I don't have the link handy but I believe it was Adafruit that had something

Hi,

I ordered this J-Link Adapter for about 20€ and it worked without issues.

SEGGER J-Link EDU MINI

But be aware that you also have appropriate cables to wire it all up.

Wolfgang

Tue 2019.04.30

Thank you @wklenk, I had wondered if the ~$300 N.A. version shown in Segger images was going to be a necessary evil. Knowing the option you suggested puts this project on the front burner. ;-)

The image as shown on the wordpress site seems to be this model which is a bit pricey.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2209?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzZD92qT54QIVDrXACh2jrgUyEAQYAiABEgIBy_D_BwE

Is this the one?

https://shop-us.segger.com/J_Link_EDU_mini_p/8.08.91.htm

Yes, that's the right one.
The cables that come with the adapter where useless for the RAK8212, you need to have appropriate breadboard cables (male/female endings?).

Super, thx guys.

I am going to order the mini J-Tag module and try out via my raspberry.

Keep you updated

Received the J_Link_EDU_mini from Segger. Pretty sure the cabling is ok towards the RAK8211NB adapter board after some soldering...:-)

Question is how to continue? Load J-Link software and did some reading about flashing...but still don't feel secure to start. Can somebody give me some point-wise hints. Would be very much appreciated.

Got one step further..I guess we need to use the J-Flash lite utility of Segger. In my case, I selected device nRF52832_xxAA, SWD and speed 2000 khz.

From Espruino site I would like to load espruino_2v02_RAK8211.hex but cannot download the file :-(. According to website, the hex file can be loaded from GitHub as well...tried but could not find it.

And again a step further...download complete Espruino package, hex file is included.

Final step I guess is just load via Flash lite utility?!

Hmm….just tried to flash but...
Conecting to J-Link...
Connecting to target...
ERROR: Could not connect to target.
Done

With respect to the cabling, I have taken the small ribbon cable and adapted it to support the Vcc, GND, SWDCLK and SDWIO. Measuring the cables, the first 4 tiny cables starting from (1) on the board are to my understanding representing Vcc, SWDIO, GND and SWCLK.

However, putting in the USB cable into my computer and measuring the voltage on (1) and (3), I don't measure something like 3.3VDC. I am not sure if this correct or is switched on when flashing.

Any ideas?!

I think the J-Link adapter is not used for supplying power to the board. The connector on the SWD interface says "VTref", so this is only used to get a "voltage reference" in order to generate the appropriate signal levels when programming. So you definitely need to power the device by other means, e.g. by USB.

So, I need to attach the J-Link adapter as is and in parallel the delivered USB cable for power. Makes sense but I need to be sure...
After work, I'll continue the project.

I succeeded...it' working...
As I am new...need to find some samples...

In case of any suggestions, looking for RAK8211-NB examples...