External Flash using SPI on nRF5340 DK

RE: External Flash using SPI on nRF5340 DK

Håkon Alseth — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:37:09 GMT

Hi,

In addition to the application-wise setup, you need to setup sysbuild.conf with specific entries, in this case:

SB_CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
SB_CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=n
SB_CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK=y

and specify the partition in a pm_static.yml:

littlefs_storage:
  address: 0x0
  device: mx25r6435f
  end_address: 0x800000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x800000

Since the nrf5340dk has the flash on the qspi peripheral, you need to delete it first:

/delete-node/ &mx25r64;
/delete-node/ &storage_partition;

..rest of file

Here's an example for your convenience:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../littlefs_5F00_ext_5F00_flash_5F00_sysbuild_5F00_nrf5340dk.zip

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: External Flash using SPI on nRF5340 DK

lcj — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 05:55:17 GMT

Is this the same in nrfConnect 2.9 using sysbuild? Starting from scratch I use the Zephyr Hello World example and created a build configuration for the nrf5340 cpu app using SDK 2.9 and toolchain 2.9 and selecting sysbuild.

I added:

CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_SPI=y

Which built and flashed fine. I added:

CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y

and created an overlay with this:

/ {
	chosen {
		nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25r64;
	};
};

when building I got this warning:

warning: SPI_NOR (defined at soc/gaisler/gr716a/Kconfig.defconfig:18, drivers/flash/Kconfig.nor:6)
was assigned the value 'y' but got the value 'n'. Check these unsatisfied dependencies: ((FLASH &&
SOC_GR716A) || (DT_HAS_JEDEC_SPI_NOR_ENABLED && FLASH)) (=n). See
docs.zephyrproject.org/.../kconfig.html and/or look up SPI_NOR in the
menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development Primer, Setting Configuration Values,
and Kconfig - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual might be helpful too.

I see in this post that:

The external flash on the nRF52840 is by default configured to use QSPI and not SPI.

Which is the same for the nRF5340 DK.

&qspi {
	status = "okay";
	pinctrl-0 = <&qspi_default>;
	pinctrl-1 = <&qspi_sleep>;
	pinctrl-names = "default", "sleep";
	mx25r64: mx25r6435f@0 {
		compatible = "nordic,qspi-nor";
		reg = <0>;
		/* MX25R64 supports only pp and pp4io */
		writeoc = "pp4io";
		/* MX25R64 supports all readoc options */
		readoc = "read4io";
		sck-frequency = <8000000>;
		jedec-id = [c2 28 17];
		sfdp-bfp = [
			e5 20 f1 ff  ff ff ff 03  44 eb 08 6b  08 3b 04 bb
			ee ff ff ff  ff ff 00 ff  ff ff 00 ff  0c 20 0f 52
			10 d8 00 ff  23 72 f5 00  82 ed 04 cc  44 83 68 44
			30 b0 30 b0  f7 c4 d5 5c  00 be 29 ff  f0 d0 ff ff
		];
		size = <67108864>;
		has-dpd;
		t-enter-dpd = <10000>;
		t-exit-dpd = <35000>;
	};
};

I read this post on "ncs external flash ota change qspi to spi" using the nRF52840dk which had sample code in the solution with this in the overlay:

/ {
	chosen {
		nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25r64test;
	};
};
&qspi {
	status = "disabled";
};

&spi3 {
	status = "okay";
	sck-pin = <19>;
	mosi-pin = <20>;
	miso-pin = <21>;
	cs-gpios = <&gpio0 17 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
	mx25r64test: mx25r6435ftest@0 {
		compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";
		reg = <0>;
		spi-max-frequency = <8000000>;
		label = "MX25R64TEST";
		jedec-id = [c2 28 17];
		sfdp-bfp = [
			e5 20 f1 ff  ff ff ff 03  44 eb 08 6b  08 3b 04 bb
			ee ff ff ff  ff ff 00 ff  ff ff 00 ff  0c 20 0f 52
			10 d8 00 ff  23 72 f5 00  82 ed 04 cc  44 83 68 44
			30 b0 30 b0  f7 c4 d5 5c  00 be 29 ff  f0 d0 ff ff
		];
		size = <67108864>;
		has-dpd;
		t-enter-dpd = <10000>;
		t-exit-dpd = <35000>;
	};
};

But it didn't work for nRF5340dk. How do I make it SPI? Is this done in the overlay? I see that it supports SPI:

The nRF5340 DK has a 64 megabit external flash memory. The memory is a multi-I/O memory supporting both Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and Quad Serial Peripheral Interface (QSPI).

RE: External Flash using SPI on nRF5340 DK

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 11:25:13 GMT

Hi,

Have you followed the guide explained here?

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/scripts/partition_manager/partition_manager.html#external_flash_memory_partitions

You will need to add a pm_static.yml file with the following (change sizes etc. to your liking):

littlefs_storage:
  address: 0x0
  device: mx25r6435f
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x400000
external_flash:
  address: 0x400000
  device: mx25r6435f
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x400000

Then add your overlay:

/delete-node/ &storage_partition;

/ {
	chosen {
		nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25r64;
	};
};

&mx25r64 {
    status = "okay";
	partitions {
		compatible = "fixed-partitions";
		#address-cells = <1>;
		#size-cells = <1>;

		storage_partition: partition@0 {
			label = "storage";
			reg = <0x00000000 0x00010000>;
		};
	};
};

And the corresponding config:

CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y
CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK=y
CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_REGION_LITTLEFS_EXTERNAL=y

Then it should run towards ext flash:

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK v2.8.0-a2386bfc8401 ***
*** Using Zephyr OS v3.7.99-0bc3393fb112 ***
Sample program to r/w files on littlefs
Area 0 at 0x0 on mx25r6435f@1 for 4194304 bytes
I: LittleFS version 2.9, disk version 2.1
I: FS at mx25r6435f@1:0x0 is 1024 0x1000-byte blocks with 512 cycle
I: sizes: rd 16 ; pr 16 ; ca 64 ; la 32
E: WEST_TOPDIR/modules/fs/littlefs/lfs.c:1374: Corrupted dir pair at {0x1, 0x0}
W: can't mount (LFS -84); formatting
I: /lfs mounted
/lfs mount: 0
/lfs: bsize = 16 ; frsize = 4096 ; blocks = 1024 ; bfree = 1022

Listing dir /lfs ...
/lfs/boot_count read count:0 (bytes: 0)
/lfs/boot_count write new boot count 1: [wr:1]
I: Test file: /lfs/pattern.bin not found, create one!
...

Kind regards,

Håkon