Getting Error while connecting nRF9160DK module to nRF7002DK module with spi and use it for wifi locationing

[SemihAydin]

Dear Nordic Team,

I want to connect my nRF9160DK board to my nRF7002DK board and get a wi-fi location. I've followed samples/cellular/nrf_cloud_multi_service as sample and I made wiring as follows

Board	nRF9160-DK(P3 & P4)	nRF7002-DK (P24)
SPI CLK	P0.13	P0.17
SPI CS	P0.10	P0.18
SPI MOSI	P0.11	P0.13
SPI MISO	P0.12	P0.14
HOST-IRQ	P0.07	P0.23
IOVDD-CTR	P0.00	P0.31
BUCKEN	P0.01	P0.12

I soldered SB25 and SB20 on the nRF7002 board.



The problem is, whenever I'm trying to build samples/cellular/nrf_cloud_multi_service sample with using overlay-nrf7002ek-wifi-scan-only.conf as Extra Kconfig fragments and -DSHIELD="nrf7002ek" as Extra Cmake arguments.

After flashing the sample to the nrf9160DK board, I'm getting the error below:

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK 4040aa0bf581 ***
[00:00:00.257,720] <inf> main: nRF Cloud multi-service sample has started, version: 1.0.0, protocol: MQTT
[00:00:00.257,751] <inf> cloud_connection: Enabling connectivity...
[00:00:00.260,284] <inf> wifi_nrf_bus: SPIM spi@b000: freq = 8 MHz
[00:00:00.260,314] <inf> wifi_nrf_bus: SPIM spi@b000: latency = 0
[00:00:00.260,864] <err> wifi_nrf_bus: Error: RPU comms test: sig failed: expected 0x42000020, got 0xffffffff

[00:00:00.260,925] <err> wifi_nrf: zep_shim_bus_qspi_dev_add: RPU enable failed with error -1
[00:00:00.260,986] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_bus_qspi_dev_add: nrf_wifi_osal_bus_qspi_dev_add failed
[00:00:00.261,077] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_bal_dev_add: Bus dev_add failed
[00:00:00.261,169] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_hal_dev_add: nrf_wifi_bal_dev_add failed
[00:00:00.261,322] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_fmac_dev_add: nrf_wifi_hal_dev_add failed
[00:00:00.261,383] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_fmac_dev_add_zep: nrf_wifi_fmac_dev_add failed
[00:00:00.261,413] <err> wifi_nrf: nrf_wifi_if_start_zep: nrf_wifi_fmac_dev_add_zep failed
[00:00:00.537,200] <inf> cloud_connection: Setting up nRF Cloud library...
[00:00:00.539,093] <inf> cloud_connection: Waiting for network ready...
+CEREG: 2,"1644","00DB1564",9
+CSCON: 1
+CGEV: ME PDN ACT 0,0
+CNEC_ESM: 50,0
+CEREG: 5,"1644","00DB1564",9,,,"00010000","11100000"
%XTIME: "21","42118151436521","00"
+CSCON: 0

Then progress stops completely. The error changes when I disconnect any of the cables, so I thought the problem might be the configuration on the devicetree. and here how it looks like:

I tried to assign SPI WAKE to P0.07, the HOST-IRQ pin, but this time it started to give this error serially: ASSERTION FAIL @ WEST_TOPDIR/modules/hal/nordic/nrfx/drivers/src/nrfx_gpiote.c:486

I would be very grateful if you can help me solve this error, if there is any extra information that you think may be useful, I will be happy to share it.

Actually what I want to do is to get the wifi location in a simple way and monitor it on nrf cloud with REST protocol. Then I want to add A-GNSS and experience an effective indoor and outdoor location tracking example. I would be glad to hear your extra advice for that too.

Best wishes!

[dejans]

Hi,

I soldered SB25 and SB20 on the nRF7002 board.

nRF7002 companion IC documentation specifies that control signal are available on P24 while QSPI is not connected by default. Connection to P24 can be established by shorting solder bridges from SB20 to SB25, not just SB20 and SB25. This is also specified in the nRF7002-dk solder bridge documentation.

Best regards,
Dejan

[SemihAydin]

Hi Dejans,

Thanks for your help. I tried again after soldering as you said and I got this output and I think the error is fixed. However, after a while I kept getting the same error again. In this case, can we say that there is a problem with my cables? The only change I made during this process was to try to run the nrf7002 with a powerbank for once. When the LED5 kept blinking, I thought that there was not enough power for the device to work, so I started using the computer again. And even if I power supply from the computer I keep getting the “Error: RPU comms test: sig failed: expected 0x42000020, got 0xffffffffff” error.

 

Also, please excuse my inexperience, I have not done any processing or firmware installation since I received the nrf7002dk device. So I started using it as a shield for the nrf9160dk device as it came from the factory.

In case if I made a mistake to flashed the code to the nrf7002dk instead of nrf9160dk, I thought of cleaning the device with the “erase board” option on the nrf7002dk via VScode and running it again, but this time LED1 and LED2 stopped signaling. I tried to upload the .HEX file again but there was no change.



Could you please inform me about the points I should pay attention to at this stage? Thank you for your patience and support.