RAK4630 WisDuo module+ RAK19026 WisMesh BaseBoard bootloader

I apologize in advance if this the wrong forum/Topic area. This is about a bootloader for the RAK4630 WisDuo module. I can’t seem to locate one that works with this module.

Background: I recently purchased two WisMesh Pocket radios from Rokland, they have a RAK4630 WisDuo module+ RAK19026 WisMesh BaseBoard, preprogrammed with Meshtastic firmware (2.5.20.4c97351). I used Platform IO to recompile Meshtastic, selected a target as Rak4631, flashed the firmware via the Web interface with the UF2 file, and then the device serial port would no longer appear when connected via USB.

I purchased a nanoDap and then tried uploading new bootloader, I tried the wiscore_rak4631_board_bootloader-0.4.3 file found on the RakWireless github repo. This did not restore serial port on USB connection. I tried other various bootloader files I found via web searches and no success.

I finally used the nanoDap to dump the memory of the working radio, then flashed this into the bricked radio, and it worked. I can continue doing this if I kill the serial port soft-device again, but I would like to just have a bootloader bin file that has the bootloader + serial port + UF2 interface if possible.

Or else, I would just like to understand why my previous effort using the wiscore_rak4631_board_bootloader-0.4.3 did not work. I assume this is the wrong bootloader and I need one for this particular module, but I could not find it. I am new to this and am just trying to learn.

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum @Bobcat

All RAK4631 are using the same bootloader/softdevice.
You can find the .UF2 file to flash the bootloader/softdevice in our WisBlock Repo

Important is that both bootloader and softdevice are required to boot and provide USB interface.
The HEX file with the bootloader only is not sufficient if the bootloader and softdevice are damaged.

The HEX file for the softdevice are as well in our WisBlock Repo.

Many thanks for the pointer to the soft device file, I completely missed that. I am beginning to understand the relationship between bootloader, soft device, application.

Thanks again for your help!