Bricked AmebaD? any way to recover?

Technical Discussion Standard SDK
1

Hi.

I tried building the SDK and flashing an image with “make flash”. But something went wrong during the process, and now I cannot connect to the device using JLink anymore – each time I get errors (on both KM0 and KM4):

	JLinkGDBServer -device cortex-m23 -if SWD -scriptfile AP1_KM0.JLinkScript -port 2331
	SEGGER J-Link GDB Server V6.86g Command Line Version

	JLinkARM.dll V6.86g (DLL compiled Nov  6 2020 18:12:00)

	Command line: -device cortex-m23 -if SWD -scriptfile AP1_KM0.JLinkScript -port 2331
	-----GDB Server start settings-----
	GDBInit file:                  none
	GDB Server Listening port:     2331
	SWO raw output listening port: 2332
	Terminal I/O port:             2333
	Accept remote connection:      yes
	Generate logfile:              off
	Verify download:               off
	Init regs on start:            off
	Silent mode:                   off
	Single run mode:               off
	Target connection timeout:     0 ms
	------J-Link related settings------
	J-Link Host interface:         USB
	J-Link script:                 AP1_KM0.JLinkScript
	J-Link settings file:          none
	------Target related settings------
	Target device:                 cortex-m23
	Target interface:              SWD
	Target interface speed:        4000kHz
	Target endian:                 little

	Connecting to J-Link...
	J-Link is connected.
	Firmware: J-Link V11 compiled Dec 11 2020 15:39:51
	Hardware: V11.00
	S/N: XXXXXXXXXX
	Feature(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
	Checking target voltage...
	Target voltage: 3.45 V
	Listening on TCP/IP port 2331
	Connecting to target...
	ERROR: Could not connect to target.
	Target connection failed. GDBServer will be closed...Restoring target state and closing J-Link connection...
	Shutting down...
	Could not connect to target.
	Please check power, connection and settings.logjammin:jlink_script rob$

Since all the tools for flashing require the JLink to connect, I don’t know how to restore this board to a working condition.

2

Hi robthedude,

Have you tried using the image tool?
compile and build a basic image with “make all”, and upload the image using a USB cable with ImageTool.exe that can be found in the tools folder.
more information on how to use the image tool can be found in chapter 8 of the AN0400 Application note.

3

I had not tried image tool, mostly because I don’t use Windows. So this morning, I downloaded and installed a Windows VM this morning, and used ImageTool – but it is not working, either.

I get messages that the COM port was opened, the UART download was started and that the COM port was closed.

But there is no progress bar movement – and it seems to happen way too fast for it to have actually downloaded and flashed the images.

COM3 is open successfully!
Uart download server has started...
COM3 is closed successfully!

I let it sit for awhile, but nothing seems to happen (save for the LED blinking about every 2s).

I’ve tried to repeat the process, but it never works. It looks like the device exits UART download mode without really doing anything.

COM3 is open successfully!
Uart download server has started...
COM3 is closed successfully!
COM3 is open successfully!
Uart download server has started...
COM3 is closed successfully!
COM3 is open successfully!
Uart download server has started...
COM3 is closed successfully!

In the meantime, I was able to get JLink to connect to my system, but it looks like the flash on my device has been completely wiped out:

J-Link>mem 8000000 20
08000000 = FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF  ................
08000010 = 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF  FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00  ................
...
J-Link>mem 81000E0 20
081000E0 = FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF  ................
081000F0 = 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF  FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00  ................

I did a JLink “savebin 8000000 200000” and it looks like this patter is repeated across the entire flash.

Anything else to try?

Rob

4

I suspect that the image tool might not have sent any image over, this is what I get in the image tool on a normal image upload

COM9 is open successfully!
Uart download server has started…
Erase addr: 0x8000000, size:8KB
Erase addr: 0x8004000, size:8KB
Erase addr: 0x8006000, size:784KB
IMG1 image is being sent…
IMG1 image has been sent successfully!
IMG3 image is being sent…
IMG3 image has been sent successfully!
IMG4 image is being sent…
IMG4 image has been sent successfully!
All images are sent successfully!
COM9 is closed successfully!

just to verify, did you hold down the UART_DOWNLOAD button while pressing and releasing the RESET button? this should put the board in UART_DOWNLOAD mode to allow the image tool to send it over.
After the image tool is done, press and release the RESET button only to exit UART_DOWNLOAD mode and start running the image.

On the other hand, seeing that JLink managed to connect to the device, does that mean your original issue has been resolved? or are there still other issues with the board?

5

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

Yes, I did exactly those steps. I was not able to get ImageTool to work.

However, the process of putting the device into UART download mode (holding UART_DOWNLOAD button, pressing reset button) allowed the JLink to connect to the device. Once that worked, I’ve been able to use GDB scripts to get working images flashed onto the device.

I don’t know why ImageTool would not load the images (I am wondering if there’s some documentation I missed about using a different USB connector on the board maybe?), but in the end, I’m somewhat glad that I failed, as I’ve now been able to get the other tools working.

6

Hi
I was encounter this situation in the past.
By a mistake - I programmed the KM0 with KM4 code…
Thus, my solution was to reprogram the KM0 bootloader, and after, everything became as it should be
I hope that helps!

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