New Nano BLE Sense, Windows does not see it

I have changed the USB port to several that I have and I know are working with other devices, but Windows does not see the New Nano BLE Sense. Thanks for the help!

Yes, I installed the cores and libraries.

gurthang99:
Windows does not see the New Nano BLE Sense.

Please provide a detailed description of what you mean by "Windows does not see".

gurthang99:
Yes, I installed the cores and libraries.

Which one?

My Arduino Uno, for instance, is seen my Windows on COM 5. I hear the sound when I connect the USB cable, which is on a USB 2 port.

This is NOT true for the Nano BLE Sense. There is no sound and I do not see at on any COM port in the Windows Device Manager. It is not listed anywhere in there at all. The amber light blinks. I have hit the reset once and twice.

Libraries installed are: WiniNINA

Under Board Manager, I installed: Arduino AVR Boards and Arduino nRF528x Boards.

I also uninstalled and reinstalled the Arduino IDE.

gurthang99:
The amber light blinks. I have hit the reset once and twice.

When you press the reset button twice quickly, does the LED start pulsing?

Yes

Make sure the USB cable is completely plugged into both the Arduino board and the PC.

You may have a damaged/defective or charge-only USB cable. Try a different cable.

Yes, I checked that. Tried it on another computer, same issue. Tried a different brand new cable, same issue. Thanks for the help!

okay, so let us assume that it needs something like a new bootloader or firmware or something. I have LOTS of stuff, including UNOs and Programmers.

How should I proceed? Thanks again for all of the help.

You'll need:

ARM CMSIS-DAP compatible programmer/debugger.
Here's a reasonably priced one that's all open source: https://www.tindie.com/products/ataradov/cmsis-dap-compliant-swd-debugger.
In addition to allowing you to recover bricked boards, this programmer can be used for ICE debugging. I've used it with the Arduino SAMD boards and the Arduino Pro IDE and it works great.
There is a cool library that allows you to turn a spare Arduino board into a DAP programmer, but I haven't figured out whether it's possible to use it with the Nano 33 BLE.

Adapter to allow you to easily connect to the 0.05" pitch header on the debugger: SWD (2x5 1.27mm) Cable Breakout Board : ID 2743 : $2.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

Pogo adapter to allow you to make the connections to the SWD test pads on the Nano 33 BLE:

Even with this adapter, it's a bit challenging to get the pogo pins aligned with the small test pads on the Nano 33 BLE, but if you keep at it you'll get it eventually. Better would be to have a jig like this, but if you're not going to be doing this regularly then that's probably overkill.
Some people have managed to use a regular 0.1" pitch 2x3 male header pressed down on the test pads to make the connections. I think that would be a bit more challenging, but it's cheap enough and something you might already have on hand.
You also have the option of just soldering wires to the test points.


Process:

Start the Arduino IDE.

Tools > Board > Arduino Nano 33 BLE

Tools > Programmer > ARM CMSIS-DAP Compatible

Make the connections between the debugger/programmer and the Nano 33 BLE:

| Programmer | | Target |
| - | - |
| ----------- | |------- |
| VCC | | +3V3 |
| ----------- | |------- |
| SWDIO | | SWDIO |
| ----------- | |------- |
| SWCLK | | SWCLK |
| ----------- | |------- |
| GND | | GND |
| ----------- | |------- |
| RESET | | RESETN |
| ----------- | |------- |

Here's the pinout of the test pads on the Nano 33 BLE:

Nano-33-BLE-SWD.jpg

Connect the USB cable of the programmer to your computer.

Power the Nano 33 BLE (you can do this via the USB connector on the board). The debugger doesn't power the board.

Tools > Burn Bootloader

Thank you! Always good to know how to revive a bricked board.

1 Like

You're welcome. It's not an experience I seek out, but at least I know how to do it reliably now. I need to do some more work to make it easy to make the necessary connections to the test pads. When I brick an AVR board, it literally takes me less than a minute to fix because I always have my trusty USBasp on hand, but I haven't reached that level of convenience with the Nano 33 boards yet.

I am a man that readily admits when he is wrong. It turned out that I was using the wrong type of cable. Everything is working now! I am still happy to know how to unbrick a board.

I'm glad to hear you got it working. Those charge-only cables have caused so many people headaches.

Enjoy!
Per