nrf9160 feather to nrf9151 help

RichSurprenant

I was using the nrf9160 and am now using the nrf9151 feathter. I was programming the nrf9160 using netmgr

newtmgr -c %COMPORT% image upload build/zephyr/app_update.bin

I tried putting the nrf9151 is bootloader mode to do the same thing. Is this possible? If not, how can I program these new boards. My team said they were firmware compatible. Is that true?

AchimKraus

RichSurprenant how can I program these new boards.

I use “probe-rs”,

probe-rs download --chip nRF9151_xxAA --binary-format hex <merged.hex>

pyocd is also possible (but in my experience, it erased the chip in a couple of cases).

RichSurprenant My team said they were firmware compatible. Is that true?

Not that I know, at least not the binaries. What is possible, depending on your app, is to compile the app for the other board (“circuitdojo_feather_nrf9151/nrf9151/ns”). That may show, if some additional changes are required.

In my experience, the npm1300/xx and the RP2040 requires some logic, otherwise the quiescent current will be increased by the RP2040.

jaredwolff

@AchimKraus hit the nail on the head.

RP2040 is programmed with CMSIS-DAP firmware so you can flash directly without a bootloader. The bootloader that came with the 9160 Feather used the default key (not secure). That’s why I always recommended securing it.

The binaries are not drop-in compatible as the nRF9151 has more features than the 9160. And the feature sets on the boards are different (like @AchimKraus mentioned the nPM1300, AUX GPS pin routing, etc)

You can, however, add a bootloader to your application fairly easily. This is useful for OTA updates, etc.

You’ll need a sysbuild.conf next to your prj.conf:

SB_CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
SB_CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_KEY_FILE="\${APPLICATION_CONFIG_DIR}/your_cert.pem"

Then in <your project root>/sysbuild/mcuboot.conf

# Disable Zephyr console
CONFIG_CONSOLE=n

# Multithreading
CONFIG_MULTITHREADING=y

# MCUBoot settings
CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256

Hope that helps @RichSurprenant. If you need anything else let me know.