MMWAVEICBOOST: Unable to flash, COM connection fails

(originally posted as part of e2e.ti.com/.../3580826)

Hi,

It appears that I have a very similar situation at hands.  I have recently started working on combination of IWR6843ISK-ODS and MMWAVEICBOOST. Just like Yoon Jeongwon in his post (linked above), I have tried to flash the IWR6843ISK-ODS  EVM attached to the MMWAVEICBOOST  board but am unable to flash the device. I have followed instructions provided in the https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=AHUVfZLNUKWpA43MPJTM7Q__VLyFKFf__LATEST , Specifically the flashing instructions https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/content/mmwave_industrial_toolbox_4_5_1/labs/common/docs/hardware_setup/hw_setup_mmwaveicboost_mode_flashing.html 

I have checked my headers and switches multiple times and am pretty certain they are in correct positions. I supply power to the board through the barrel jack from a 5A capable lab PSU set to 5V and the device is connected to my PC via the supplied USB cable (Multiple USB ports tested, no difference). 

I have the following SW tool versions installed on my PC:

My MMWAVEICBOOST revision is PROC074B-001

Here is a picture of my setup:

As whit Yoon, I'm unable to flash using the MMWAVEICBOOST module but using only the IWR6843ISK-ODS EVM in standalone configuration works without issues, so the problem lies with the MMWAVEICBOOST  module. 

Upon connecting, two COM ports show up in device manager:

Starting UniFlash yields the following result:

MMWAVEICBOOST  is detected correctly but pressing start in the Detected Devices section doesn't do anything, however manually choosing IWR6843ISK (ODS version not available for selection?) works.

Next I set port to COM4 as per instructions:

And next I choose the FW file and try to program:

Now this is where things totally fail when following instructions. If I at this point follow the orders and press the physical reset button, subsequent programming would initially always fail.

The process would freeze at "Opening COM to COM4" and after a while display this error (or freeze permanently) 

However, after repeating this many times, I found out that it does work sometimes. Initially I got it working by skipping the reset press and just powering on the board and programming. To my surprise, it worked once. After further experimentation, I've been able to program the device multiple times in a row sometimes with reset press, sometimes not. However sometime it just fails. Flashing with this setup is not consistent and that makes using the devkit annoying in the least and impossible on the worst.

I suspect that there is some issue with this revision of the MMWAVEICBOOST module as my revisions matches Yoon's and we have similar issues produced by the same procedure. Either there is some issue with the reset/ boot sequence or the instructions provided are somehow inadequate.