NDT outside of Zephyr (specifically arduino)

RE: NDT outside of Zephyr (specifically arduino)

Simonr — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 06:51:17 GMT

Hi Juan

I don't think there should be any additional files that need to be linked here.

Best of luck,

Simon

RE: NDT outside of Zephyr (specifically arduino)

jbozzo — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 16:55:38 GMT

Hi Simon,

Thank you for your response. I am aware that this project won't be straightforward nor I will have Nordic support in developing it. Thank you for taking your time to look into the feasibility of it!

Yes, we plan on using the nrf52480. As understood I need to meet the following conditions:

- Make sure I support or implement IPC in the meshtastic stack.

- Implementing RPC for the distance measurement functionality (thus porting/re-implementing the dm_rpc module)

- Make sure to link the NDT static library.

Only with the last condition I am still a bit confused. Is it enough to link the softdevice library from the SDK [1]? (for example ./components/softdevice/s132/hex/s132_nrf52_7.2.0_softdevice.hex)
Or does the NDT funcionality comes on a separated hex or bin file that has to be linked in addition to softdevice?

[1] https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-software/nrf5-sdk/download

Best regards,
Juan Andrés

RE: NDT outside of Zephyr (specifically arduino)

Simonr — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 14:28:41 GMT

Okay, so they got back to me pretty quickly, and here are some additional thoughts/details on this.

The NDT nrfxlib library is static and does not have any dependencies in Zephyr, correct. There should be no problems porting that as long as you're using a supported nRF SoC (seems like you're using the nRF52840, so no problem there).

However, the Distance measurement subsystem is a different story, and was written specifically for use in NCS. Worst case, you would have to rewrite the entire subsystem, but the functionality to do ranging on a device does not necessarily need the full subsystem depending on the use-case you're gunning for. It might be sufficient to write your own software to integrate nrf_dm with Meshtastic. So it does not sound as grim as I initially thought, but the statement still stands, that we won't be able to support you with the implementation, as we're not familiar with the Meshtastic stack, and strive to focus on the NCS solution.

Let me know if you have any specific questions though, and I'll do what I can to answer.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: NDT outside of Zephyr (specifically arduino)

Simonr — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 13:51:53 GMT

Hi Juan

I'm afraid there are more steps here, since you say Meshtastic use the SoftDevice, while the NDT was built with NCS features in mind I'm not so sure these will be 1-to-1 compatible. I have asked the NDT devs internally if they see this as a viable way to do NDT on an Arduino stack but I wouldn't have my hopes up. The NDT was specifically made for the nRF Connect SDK, and has not been planned to move outside of the Zephyr environment.

Either way I'm afraid this is not something we will be able to support you in implementing, but I will get back to you regarding the feasibility of the project as a whole when I hear some thoughts on the matter from the developers. Thank you for taking interest in it. It does sound like an interesting project.

Best regards,

Simon