Error: Operation failed, DFU State: DFU_FAILED, nRF52832, Adafruit Bootloader

[SaltedBlowfish]

Hello!

Looking for some guidance here. I have the library installed and "functional" but I believe I have identified an issue with the packets per connection interval causing the update to crash.

Error (from exception on phone):

Error: Operation failed

DFU logging in console:

LOG  DFU State: CONNECTING
LOG  DFU State: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG  DFU State: ENABLING_DFU_MODE
LOG  DFU State: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG  DFU State: DFU_STATE_UPLOADING
LOG  DFU progress: 0%
LOG  DFU State: DFU_FAILED

The Nordic nRF Connect app throws the same error but provides an error code, which I've come to realize happens when the phone sends too many packets. I turned the "PRN" option in the Nordic app down to 6 (from 12) and the firmware update works fine.

Seems like we need a way to throttle the speed of the upload for devices that can't handle it.

Here is some more info on my setup:

iOS 13.3.1
iPhone 11 Pro Max
nRF52832
Adafruit Bootloader: feather_nrf52832_bootloader-0.3.2_s132_6.1.1.hex (latest)
react-native-ble-manager: 7.2.0
react-native-nordic-dfu: 3.0.1

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you.

[Looveh]

@SaltedBlowfish Great catch! I'd have a look at the underlying libraries provided by Nordic and see if there's support for throttling there:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/IOS-Pods-DFU-Library
https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-DFU-Library

[SaltedBlowfish]

@Looveh

There does seem to be support for the exact same PRN value that they use in the nRF Connect app in both libraries.

iOS Example for Legacy DFU:

• https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/IOS-Pods-DFU-Library/blob/d8d32fe5c4ccf229ae5d21c1055780ff259f20f0/iOSDFULibrary/Classes/Implementation/LegacyDFU/Peripherals/LegacyDFUPeripheral.swift#L133-L136

I'm going to see if I can resolve this before circling back to this issue again (but please keep open as I think it's a valid feature request).

As a note to anyone using Adafruit's nRF bootloader that stumbles across this problem:

The real issue seems to be in Adafruit's bootloader for the nRF, and there are some GitHub issues and a PR for it here:

• Application can't trigger OTA DFU adafruit/Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader#63
• Nordic DFU OTA Compatibility adafruit/Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader#80

Still, would be awesome if this library supported the PRN system like the nRF Connect app does.

[giobauermeister]

I think I have related issues with iPhone X being too fast to send packets.

When using nRF Connect app from Nordic I can set PRN value to 1 and the DFU update is complete. (I guess it slows the transfer).

How would one set this value from a React native application?

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/IOS-DFU-Library/blob/f73213f2de57c8c53700725ee2cff6cd35ef66fe/iOSDFULibrary/Classes/Implementation/SecureDFU/Characteristics/SecureDFUPacket.swift#L118

[p4bl1t0]

hey @SaltedBlowfish do you find a way to get it work? Any fix I could do right now instead of waiting to this to be implemented?

[giobauermeister]

Hey @p4bl1t0 our app developer found the Package Receipt Notification value inside Nordic's iOS DFU Library. It's hardcoded as 12. It's too fast for Nordic chip to process the update.

Please have a look at:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/IOS-DFU-Library/blob/42b13e8b84404fd38eb50ae75c46559032706ce6/iOSDFULibrary/Classes/Implementation/DFUServiceInitiator.swift#L115

Our app developer changed that to 1 and now it's working good. He did a patch to change that file, changing the value to 1.

[SaltedBlowfish]

Hello @p4bl1t0. I'm sorry for the delay.

I was able to get it to work by building a custom secure boot loader (from the Adafruit one I was using). If you don't have that option, changing that value to 6 should be sufficient. I'm glad @giobauermeister mentioned that their developer changed the value to 1 but that's overkill. I tested thoroughly and like I mentioned in my original post, 6 was working consistently for me.

I deployed my product and had no issues with OTA updates with this react-native-nordic-dfu library since. Many thanks to @Looveh et. al. for the amazing work here.

If you're reading this looking for a quick resolution

Read the comment from @giobauermeister about the specific place to change the 12 to a 6 here in the NordicSemiconductor library file. You'll want to make it a patch using patch-package until this library supports changing the setting dynamically from JavaScript.

[p4bl1t0]

Well getting the same error trying to doing DFU on Android 10 (moto g 7)

LOG Starting DFU /data/user/0/com.evolutiondevices.ewalk/files/RNFetchBlobTmp_ig0uq3zpynnwpiqscg237.zip
LOG DFU state: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG DFU state: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG DFU state: ENABLING_DFU_MODE
LOG DFU state: ENABLING_DFU_MODE
LOG DFU state: CONNECTING
LOG DFU state: CONNECTING
LOG DFU state: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG DFU state: DFU_PROCESS_STARTING
LOG DFU progress: 0
LOG DFU progress: 0
LOG DFU state: DEVICE_DISCONNECTING
LOG DFU state: DEVICE_DISCONNECTING
LOG DFU state: DFU_FAILED
LOG DFU state: DFU_FAILED
LOG NordicDFU.startDFU [Error: OPERATION FAILED]

I have try setting a low MTU or numberOfRetries (viewing some forks) but not get working.

[p4bl1t0]

Well same on android ... if anyone get to here i have found that

.setPacketsReceiptNotificationsEnabled(true)
.setPacketsReceiptNotificationsValue(1)

[askkerr]

Well same on android ... if anyone get to here i have found that

.setPacketsReceiptNotificationsEnabled(true)
.setPacketsReceiptNotificationsValue(1)

What location did you make this change?

[p4bl1t0]

On src/main/java/com/pilloxa/dfu/RNNordicDfuModule.java file