The issue is;
1) The NVDS (nonvolatile data storage) is no longer working. Programs running can no longer read or write NVDS 'tags' (i.e. small pieces of data) - when reading the error code is NVDS_TAG_NOT_DEFINED and when attempting to write the error code is "NVDS_FAIL" .
1a) This means the chip cannot be programming with a unique MAC address; there are other problems resulting as well, but this is the most serious that I cannot work around.
2) The same code used to work, I am using the standard library functions.
3) Performing a full chip erase via SWD or bootloader does not fix the issue. Normal application code (app size = ~50kbytes) programs and runs ok.
4) The NXP "QBlue NVDS Configurator" with a serial connection reports "Dump NVDS data from target is fail!" when it tries to connect.
5) The "QBlue ISP Studio" when used to "Download Configuration File" with "Verify" (writing test .nvds file with default settings) shows
5a) The ISP studio can program the application corrrectly over the same serial link, also SWD using JLink works.
5b) Performing a full chip erase via SWD reports OK, but does not fix the problem.
6) Digging deeper, running code and using the "read_flash" function to read the 0 - 0x1000 area in flash shows that it is properly erased to 0xff after a full chip erase. Writing test values (all 0xaa or 0x00 or 0xaa55 etc) to that area with the "write_flash" works, and reads back correct values.
6a) However! Doing same operation with the 0x1f000-0x1ffff range (second copy of the NVDS data at end of flash) shows a garbage data pattern stored (semi-random bytes). After a full chip erase this is not 0xff.
7) Performing these operations on a previously unused board work fine.
8) Looking at the serialflash.c library file and docs, it is obvious that the QN9021 incorporates a standard SPI flash device (either as a separate die in the package or integrated on the same silicon). e.g. from "serialflash.c"
uint8_t g_flash_cmd[MAX_FLASH_CMD_NUM]=
{
0x05, /*!< Read Status Register */
0x06, /*!< Write Enable */
0x20, /*!< Sector Erase */
0x52, /*!< Block Erase */
0x60, /*!< Chip Erase */
0xB9, /*!< Deep Power Down */
0xAB, /*!< Release form Deep Power Down */
0x01, /*!< reserved, the value is not 0x00 and 0xFF */
};
These are all standard SPI flash programming commands.
The JEDEC ID reported for the SPI flash is 0x001120c2
10) My guess is that this on-chip SPI flash supports a write protect feature that I have somehow accidentally triggered (I did until a couple of days ago have a stack-overrun bug that crashed the CPU).
11) If (10) is the case, which is my current belief, my request from NXP is that they give a little more detail on the actual SPI die used within the QN9021 - if it is a commercially available part I would like the datasheet - and help me understand how to reset the flash write-protection bits if that is possible.
I've also had this problem, was there ever a resolution? Even attempting to write a value to a tag after a chip erase fails. How can the NVDS backup area be restored?