Error while writing flash memory - Arduino Nano 33 IoT

[tessi]

Hi :)

I just received an original Arduino nano 33 IoT and wanted to test the wifi. The firmware check told me I need to update, and I followed the instructions to update the firmware. Instead of the nice success-message, I received the following

Used versions:

• Arduino GUI: 1.8.13
• WiFiNINA: 1.8.0
• WiFi101-FirmwareUpdater-Plugin: the bundled version and version 0.10.12
• macOS catalina (10.15.7)

The flashing failed multiple times even after restarting, reconnecting, re-flashing things multiple times.
The firmware-check now reports that it can't connect to the wifi module (it used to work before):

14:36:58.459 -> WiFiNINA firmware check.
14:36:58.459 -> 
14:36:59.172 -> Communication with WiFi module failed!

I am at a loss on how to continue debugging this. Do you have any hints?
How could I resolve this issue and is it even something I should report here?

Note: I would be happy to ignore this issue, but now I can't use wifi from normal sketches anymore, which is a little frustrating.

[Damiasroca]

Hello,

Same behaviour here. Brand new NANO 33 IoT

Arduino IDE 1.8.13
WiFiNINA 1.8.0
Wifi101 Updater Plugin
Windows 10 20H2 and Ubuntu 20.04

Tried the Arduino IDE 1.8.14 Hourly Build 2020/12/15 11:33 as it comes with the WiFiNINA 1.4.1 firmware with no luck, just in case it was caused by the older firmwares. Same error "Error while writing flash memory"

I've also tried the Arduino FirmwareUpdater with no luck:
$ ./FirmwareUploader -flasher firmwares/NINA/FirmwareUpdater.mkrwifi1010.ino.bin -firmware firmwares/NINA/1.4.1/NINA_W102.bin -port /dev/ttyACM0 -address arduino.cc:443 -restore_binary /tmp/arduino_build_619137/WiFiSSLClient.ino.bin -programmer {runtime.tools.bossac}/bossac

2020/12/16 22:34:50 Flashing firmware uploader nina
2020/12/16 22:34:50 Entering board into bootloader mode
2020/12/16 22:34:51 Flashing firmwares/NINA/FirmwareUpdater.mkrwifi1010.ino.bin
2020/12/16 22:35:01 Board is back online /dev/ttyACM0
2020/12/16 22:35:02 Connecting to programmer
2020/12/16 22:35:02 Opened the serial port with baud rate 115200
2020/12/16 22:35:04 Sync with programmer
2020/12/16 22:35:34 Programmer is not responding

[facchinm]

Hi @tessi and @Damiasroca ,
it looks like the issue has been caused by samd core 1.8.10 release. I'm moving the issue on that repo to ease keeping track of it. In the meantime, please revert to samd core 1.8.9 if you need to update the firmware. Will keep you posted as soon as the issue is solved 🙂

[Damiasroca]

Hi @tessi and @Damiasroca ,
it looks like the issue has been caused by samd core 1.8.10 release. I'm moving the issue on that repo to ease keeping track of it. In the meantime, please revert to samd core 1.8.9 if you need to update the firmware. Will keep you posted as soon as the issue is solved 🙂

Downgrading indeed did the trick, Up and running again. Thank you

[tessi]

Downgrading indeed worked, thank you for the super helpful and quick response @facchinm and the fix in progress @aentinger ❤️