nRF52833 (E73-2G4M08S1E) – BLE/Zigbee Firmware Flashes Successfully but Doesn't Work, Only Blink Works

[coxtor]

Hi all,
thanks for this project.

I'm running into some issues with hardware revision 1.2.0, using an Raspberry Pi with OpenOCD as flasher for the E73-2G4M08S1E (nRF52833).

After unlocking the chips, I successfully compiled and flashed the firmware in all variants (BLE, Zigbee, and Blink). However, I’m encountering strange issues and feel lost, as I’m not very familiar with this platform.

• The Blink sketch works fine.
• The BLE/Zigbee sketches flash successfully, but the devices do not show up in a mobile Bluetooth scan (nRF Connect app, Home Assistant) and are not detected in Zigbee2MQTT.

Even weirder:

One device initially reports correctly with either BLE or Zigbee firmware but never updates its data after being first detected. It then drains the battery within a day without ever changing the reported values.

I don't really know where to go from here.

My workflow:

• VS Code → Build merged.hex
• SCP the file to OpenOCD on the Raspberry Pi
• Program the firmware

I've read that not having a bootloader or using the wrong one could be an issue. I tried flashing a bootloader from this repository, but this was just a blind attempt—it flashes fine but doesn't improve the situation. The devices still do nothing and drain the battery quickly. Only Blink works.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[rbaron]

Hey @coxtor,

When only some boards work (and even then not very well), my initial thought is that it could be a hardware issue.

There's no need to flash any other code on the chip except the one that is compiled from this repo.

My first suggestion is to check the logs from the devices. I am away from my computer right now, but you can check older issues and try to check the RTT logs on the device with openocd. It's possible that some peripheral is failing to init and getting you stuck on a loop, quickly draining the battery before going to deep sleep.

Also double check that you are selecting the correct module (nRF52833 and not nRF52840) when compiling the samples.