BLE not starting on original STM32WB55

[IlliaGx]

Hello,

Recently, I’ve been asking several questions about STM32WB55 BLE behavior, and the respected @FilipKremen  has provided me with great support.
It turns out that all this time I was actually working with fake Chinese chips. I suspect that some of the strange issues I faced were due to that.

So, I’ve now bought original STM32WB55RGV6 chips and replaced them in my devices.
However, with exactly the same firmware (which worked fine on the fake chips), the BLE does not start at all.

Here’s what I tried:

Regenerated the project using CubeMX and CubeIDE
Created a fresh new BLE project following this official tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKYWy7LKL68&list=PLnMKNibPkDnG9JRe2fbOOpVpWY7E4WbJ-&index=16
Tested on two different custom boards — same result
On both boards, other functions seem fine (e.g. I can toggle LEDs on button press, and I can hit the button interrupt in debug)
(I flash the chips via J-Link)

However, when I set a breakpoint at void APP_BLE_Init(void), the program never reaches that point.
Interestingly, the same kind of project works fine on a NUCLEO board, and I can see the device in the BLE scanner.

Has anyone encountered something like this?
Could you please suggest how to troubleshoot it - maybe something specific to check in debug?
If needed, I can share my test project.

It’s quite strange that genuine chips behave like this.
Thank you very much for any help!

[FilipKremen · Accepted solution]

Hello,

probably the FUS firmware is running instead of BLE stack.

Please connect the board to STM32CubeProgrammer and click on the "Start wireless stack" button, then flash the application again.

Please let me know if it helped, thank you.

Best regards,

Filip Kremen

[IlliaGx]

I got this on both boards

[IlliaGx]

Hi

Just a quick update and a follow-up question. A huge thanks to you, your hint was spot on. As always, you're the best on this!

I managed to get the BLE running on one of my boards. I flashed it with stm32wb5x_BLE_Stack_full_fw.bin v1.13.0.5, and it worked. The newer v1.22 and v1.23 stacks wouldn't flash.

My question is, should I be worried about using this older stack? It would probably be good to have a newer version, right?

Do I have to update my FUS to use them? If I understood correctly, there's a warning about FUS v2.0 forcing updates over USB. What's the latest version I can safely upgrade to and still be able to flash everything with my J-Link?

Thanks for any advice!

[FilipKremen]

Hello,

I apologize for late reply, I'm glad it works now.

Regarding the stack version, for getting new v1.22 and higher, the FUS needs to be updated.

Please update STM32CubeProgrammer to the latest version as it removes the previous limitation.

For more information, please open this folder with releases notes.

STM32Cube/Repository/STM32Cube_FW_WB_V1.23.0/Projects/STM32WB_Copro_Wireless_Binaries/STM32WB5x/Release_Notes.html

For more information about FUS.

STM32WB Firmware Upgrade Service - stm32mcu

Best regards,

Filip Kremen

[IlliaGx]

Hello
Yes, now everything is clear.
Thank you!