Arduino Nano 33 BLE Cannot Upload

Hardware Nano Family Nano 33 BLE
1

Hi all,

I have an Arduino Nano 33 BLE board that I've been using without problems for a while now. Today, when I tried to upload a new sketch I found that my computer could not find the board. It does not appear as a tty device anywhere, and the Arduino IDE cannot detect it.

I have put it into bootloader mode to upload the sketch, and the board successfully enters some bootloader, as the LED flashes indicating it is in a bootloader (I always use the bootloader to upload as well).

What is odd, is the last program I uploaded still works (it has serial output that I can read still). However, when I put it into a bootloader mode, the board starts to get pretty warm (noticeably warmer than when in normal mode).

The only notable thing I did today, was to hook up the board to an external power source (DC wall adapter, 12v, to Vin). I don't think I fried anything, no "magic smoke" smell and the board still seems to operate well.

Any thoughts on how to debug and diagnose further?

Thanks in advance

2

Does it flash, or does it pulse? The bootloader pulses the LED on the Nano 33 BLE. A flashing LED has a different significance (e.g., Mbed OS crash).

3

It pulses, sorry for the confusion. I wish it was a mbed crash :frowning: that seems easier to deal with!

4

Hi,

I had a similar issue today.
What I did was

#include <ArduinoBLE.h>

**BLEDevice central = BLE.central();**
BLEService transmitService(UUID);
BLEIntCharacteristic transmitCharacteristic(UUID, BLERead | BLENotify);

void setup() {
...
}

void loop() {
...
}

Which always resulted in losing connection, despite the sketch compiling just fine. I had to reset to bootloader, then I found my mistake:

#include <ArduinoBLE.h>

BLEService transmitService(UUID);
BLEIntCharacteristic transmitCharacteristic(UUID, BLERead | BLENotify);

void setup() {
...
}

void loop() {
**BLEDevice central = BLE.central();**
...
}

Maybe you misplaced the initialization of e.g. the BLEdevice outside of the methods?

5

Hi, thanks for the reply

How did you reset the bootloader? For me, I cannot even see the board connected to the computer.

6

There's a tiny white round button centered on the PCB close to the USB port.
Press twice while powered up.
The second green LED should start flashing and the board reconnecting using another Port

7

Yup, I have tried this as well, and with the LED pulsing (in bootloader mode) it still does not show on any port :frowning:

My theory is that somehow the bootloader(s) got messed up somehow and needs to be repaired, even though my actual program is okay

8

Adding some info to this thread.

I re-programmed the entire Nano 33 BLE Bootloader from here via a Raspberry Pi and OpenOCD.

This successfully programmed, as my program is no longer present and the nano only pulses now on any reset.

I'm assuming some part of the Nano 33 BLE is fried or broken, I'm just curious as to what now, and if there's any way to confirm that or diagnose it further.

9

Just arrived in the same situation, bricked two Nano 33 BLE's. Do you have a pointer on how to connect the Nano to the Pi?
My sketch was nothing special, just LED-blink and Serial output, but the boards stopped responding very reliable.

Greetings & thank you,
Fred Jan

10

Are you able to use the bootloader still (double pressing the reset button)? and your computer doesn't see the Nano at all? What caused the brick?

I followed this guide for the pi.

But used some guidance from this post because I used a Pi Zero W.

And just to be clear, re-flashing the bootloader did not fix my problem.

11

Thank you for the response. The double click resulted in a visible port, but it does not work.
Compiling and linking is ok, but then:

No device found on ttyACM0
An error occurred while uploading the sketch

The program was really nothing special (just LED-blink and Serial output), so I assume there is a problem somewhere else in the chain. And I don't want to risk more Nano 33 BLEs, they aren't that cheap! An old style Nano programs ok.

Greetings,
Fred Jan

12

I think more verbose output would be needed. I think you can choose verbose output in preferences.

13

There might be some more output but that is for another thread, I think. My response was intended to get information on how to fix the Nano 33 BLEs, not as a bug report.

Addendum: With the IDE 2.0 RC (and another Linux instance) I managed to flash the blink sketch to the Nano 33 BLE, which now acts normal again. I'll try out more combinations and variations, but there could be a problem with IDE 1.8.19 and Nano 33 BLE.

14

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