DA14531 does not boot from SPI master after successful firmware transfer

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to boot the DA14531 chip from an STM32 SPI master on a custom board.
I followed the steps in AN-B-072 DA14531 Booting from serial interfaces, chapter 6.1 Boot from SPI Bus - DA1453x Act as SPI Slave:
lpccs-docs.renesas.com/.../SPI booting options.html

I am getting all the expected responses from the DA14531:
chunk 1 response=0x00 0x00 0x00 0x02
chunk 2 response=0x00 0x00 0x02 0x00
final response=0xaa 0x02

But, the firmware does not seem to boot. I have tried setting a pin to high at the end of the `periph_init` function of the DA14531 firmware:
`GPIO_SetActive(TEST_PORT, TEST_PIN);`
But the level does not change when measuring the connected pin in the STM32.

I have also tried uploading a firmware binary that advertises a BLE device but the BLE device does not appear when performing a BLE scan. This firmware binary was tested and works on the official DA14531 development board.

How can I verify that the firmware booted successfully?

Kind regards,
Kas

OV_Renesas · Answer

Hi Kas, Thank you for posting your question online. 
 Kas said: I have also tried uploading a firmware binary that advertises a BLE device but the BLE device does not appear when performing a BLE scan. This firmware binary was tested and works on the official DA14531 development board. How can I verify that the firmware booted successfully? 
 1) If the DA14531 should start advertising when it boots up and you can not see it advertising, or the test GPIO you set does not go into High, it seems that the booting process was not successful. 2) Since the same firmware works on the DA14531 Dev Kit, it might be a HW issue of the custom board. Have you checked the custom board? Had you previously loaded any other firmware that it worked on the custom board? 
 From my understanding, you are trying to load a program directly into the RAM of the DA14531 via an External MCU. Please refer on the following examples: 1) BLE_SDK6_examples/interfaces/external-processor-stm32 at main &middot; dialog-semiconductor/BLE_SDK6_examples (github.com) You can follow the same procedure as shown in this example but instead of Codeless use your own custom firmware. 2) BLE_SDK6_examples/interfaces/external-processor-renesas at main &middot; dialog-semiconductor/BLE_SDK6_examples (github.com) Best Regards, OV_Renesas

PT_Renesas · Answer

Hi Kas, Thank you for the reply. 
 
 Kas said: 
 Yes, there is firmware running on the STM32 successfully. The custom board works (I even tried 2 separate units). 
 
 You have tested the custom boards when connected to the STM32 or separately to see if they are working? From my understanding, those custom boards have the DA14531 SoC and you have not included any external SPI Flash. Please correct me if I am mistaken. 
 
 Kas said: 
 That is correct, I followed the manual I linked titled "Boot from SPI Bus - DA1453x Act as SPI Slave", it seems like the firmware upload works the way it should but clearly something is wrong somewhere 
 
 Please try and follow the available example with STM32. You can also refer on this option: ezFlashCLI/ezFlashCLI/serialCLI.py at main &middot; ezflash/ezFlashCLI (github.com) 
 
 Kas said: 
 Thank you for the examples, I am happy to try using (2w) UART as a booting medium like they do, but since the SPI firmware upload sequence returns an ACK I have doubts if it would make a difference. 
 
 Have you checked that the CRC check was OK after the transfer? Is it possible to attach a debugger on the DA14531 while the program runs on the RAM and check with Ozone if it crashes somewhere? 
 
 Kas said: 
 FYI, the radio is powered in BUCK configuration with 2V5 on VBAT_HIGH, could this cause booting issues? 
 
 Based on AN-B-075 , on page:12: There should not be an issue with 2.5V on VBAT_HIGH. However, if you could test it at 3V that would be good. Best Regards,