Some questions during the development of a DF project using the nRF52833DK

Question

Some questions during the development of a DF project using the nRF52833DK:

Will excessive serial output affect the performance of the microcontroller? For example, I am using Putty, and initially, the microcontroller seems to execute tasks normally. However, after some time, it becomes difficult to re-establish the connection. Could this be related to the Putty console getting stuck due to too much information being printed?

Does the performance of the microcontroller relate to the performance of the computer receiving the serial information? For example, will the microcontroller perform better when connected to a new computer compared to a seven-year-old unmaintained computer?

During the execution of the DF process, I found an issue: when setting antenna_patterns to antennas 1, 2, 3, 4 (with antenna 1 being the first antenna, that is, the communication antenna), the connection estiablishing is more efficient when antennas 1 and 2 form an acute angle with the direction of the signal source. Conversely, when antennas 1 and 2 form an obtuse angle with the direction of the of the signal source , establishing the connection costs a long time.

My entire workflow shouldn't have any major issues I think, since I can get seemingly correct AoA and AoD using the MUSIC algorithm. I am just puzzled by these three points as I am somewhat new to this. I hope to get some answers!

tesc · Accepted Answer

Hi, 
 Zihao said: So does the XCOM or Putty consume the data quickly enough? 
 Yes. Such applications should not have any issues with serial throughput. 
 Zihao said: Maybe this is out of the scope of Nordic, but I am really confused. If what I've said is naive I'm sorry, I am really new to embedded system. 
 No worries! Those are very resonable questions when new to the topic. 
 Zihao said: I don't know the reason why my Putty console is getting stuck. If Putty considers the issue of too much information being printed, then could it be a problem with my microcontroller code? I am just using the "printk" code in my nRF52833 now. Does this cause any trouble? 
 There is no such thing in PuTTY as "too much information". Some terminal emulators lets you manually toggle hardware flow control, which means you can manually block the serial connection on the PC side, but that would require manual operation (and would not happen automatically.) I am not sure if PuTTY have that functionality, though. However, this is sidetracking, and has nothing to do with the issues that you are seeing. 
 The issues you are seeing are most likely caused by the nRF not sending, and not by the PC side not properly receiving. It could be an issue with the code, yes. Use of printk should not be an issue in and of itself, there must be something else which is the problem. 
 From what I understand, you are able to connect over UART, and get normal logs in the beginning, but after some time you stop receiving more data over the UART connection, and the terminal (PyTTY in this case) seems to just hang? And the PyTTY application itself is not frozen, the menus are fully functional etc., but just no more data coming? And PyTTY does not report disconnection either? 
 Regards, Terje

Some questions during the development of a DF project using the nRF52833DK

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