Radio Test nRF52833

RE: Radio Test nRF52833

andychess — Thu, 01 May 2025 09:19:51 GMT

In the meantime, I have resolved the problem and am now able to build the radio test on the nrf52833dk.

I'll explain the difficulties that I had for the benefit of any mac users with similar problems.

I started using the nrf sdk at version 2.8.0. in late 2024. At that time there was a guide to setting up a West workspace on the command line which somehow resulted in me installing the zephyr-sdk-0.17.0 in my home directory. This was working, apparently, without problems until I recently received compilation errors when trying to use the nrf sample radio_test.

As Simon correctly pointed out, the problem was due to using the Zephyr sdk rather than the Nordic toolchain. The only hint to this is in the build log where the path to the toolchain is shown.

Knowing this, it still took me four hours and several attempts to get a properly working environment set up. The problem is that the required information is spread over several documents and some of the information is contradictory and occasionally incorrect. For instance, the description of nrfutil states that the installation directory for the sdk (and by inference) the toolchain can be freely chosen. Elsewhere, under the toolchain manager, it is correctly stated that the use of /opt/nordic/ncs is mandatory for the toolchain (although not for the sdk itself).

Eventually, I found the instructions to show the environment variables from the toolchain and exporting these proved the key to getting West to use the Nordic toolchain.

So here is my working setup with the key points.

a. Toolchain installed to /opt/nordic/ncs with the command: nrfutil toolchain-manager install --ncs-version v3.0.1

b. A python venv created and West installed with pip.

c. Sdk 3.0.0 installed to ~/nordic/ncs/v3.0.0 using: west init -m github.com/.../sdk-nrf --mr v3.0.0 v3.0.0

d. West updated from within v3.0.0 directory using: west update.

e. Also from within v3.0.0 directory: source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

f. View or export environment settings from toolchain with: nrfutil toolchain-manager env --as-script

g. Export these lines:

export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=zephyr

export ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR=/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/ef4fc6722e/opt/zephyr-sdk

h. I have all of my projects within the ~/nordic/ncs directory and can now successfully build my own work and the samples, which had previously not been working.

If you are working with the sdk installation guide, be sure to read the nrfutil documentation in full, as well as the toolchain manager guide in order to get the whole picture.

Also, note that you do not need to use the toolchain python environment if you already have a python environment which meets the requirements for the Nordic sdk, which can be found in another document on the site, together with links to the requirements.txt files.

I hope this is helpful to someone.

RE: Radio Test nRF52833

andychess — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:29:33 GMT

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the quick response. I realised that there is a mismatch between the toolchain and nrf version in my west workspace.

I updated the nrf folder to SDK 3.0.0. but still get the error. I've been working with a west workspace (~/nordic/ncs) under macos. The v3.0.0 toolchain is installed in /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains and the sdk itself under /opt/nordic/ncs/v3.0.0.

I have several projects in the workspace and they generally build without problems, although I have noticed today that they are using the zephyr-sdk-0.17.0 toolchain in ~.

There was a guide to setting up a west workspace for non-vscode users like myself, but I couldn't find it today. Could you let me have a link please, assuming the document still exists?

Also, what is the recommended directory structure for the macos with a third party IDE? Do I need to use a workspace at all?

Many thanks in advance.

Andy

RE: Radio Test nRF52833

Simonr — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 11:08:45 GMT

I just did a quick test on my end and did not have trouble with building either for nRF52833 nor for the nRF54L15DK. The nRF52833 isn't specifically tested with the radio_test sample, but it should work just fine as it is very similar to the nRF52840 for almost all intents and purposes.

Regarding the build error you're seeing for the nRF54L15 DK, please make sure the Toolchain also matches the nRF Connect SDK version, and that you choose the correct board target (nRF54L15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp).

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Radio Test nRF52833

andychess — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 07:01:24 GMT

Just a quick update: I also tried to compile the radio test for the nrf54l15dk but get an error:

/Users/xxx/nordic/ncs/nrf/samples/peripheral/radio_test/src/radio_test.h:12:10: fatal error: fem_al/fem_al.h: No such file or directory
12 | #include <fem_al/fem_al.h>

Could someone please take a look at this?