RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

umer — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 11:15:03 GMT

You are a life saver!

Yes, I confirm that P1.00 and P1.01 were being forwarded automatically for use with the networking core. I was able to have BLE run successfully after disabling gpio forwarding:

&gpio_fwd {
    status = "disabled";
};

RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

Turbo J — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 06:57:49 GMT

Check the final zephyr.dts in build/zephyr folder.

P1.00 and P1.01 are forwarded by default for NR5430 DK boards (look for "gpio_fwd" or "nrf-gpio-forwarder" entry).

RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

umer — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 17:38:03 GMT

Thanks again for the reply.

I am not really assigning any pins to the network core--not deliberately anyways. Here is my overlay file:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2021 Nordic Semiconductor ASA
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 */
 &clock {
	
	status = "okay";
};


&pinctrl {
	

	i2s0_default_alt: i2s0_default_alt {
		group1 {
			psels = <NRF_PSEL(I2S_SCK_M, 0, 26)>,
				<NRF_PSEL(I2S_LRCK_M, 0, 6)>,  // MODIFIED from 0.07 since that is taken by CS pin
				<NRF_PSEL(I2S_SDOUT, 1, 13)>,
				<NRF_PSEL(I2S_SDIN, 0, 25)>;
		};
	};
};


&clock {
	hfclkaudio-frequency = <11289600>;
};

i2s_rxtx: &i2s0 {
	status = "okay";
	pinctrl-0 = <&i2s0_default_alt>;
	pinctrl-names = "default";
	clock-source = "ACLK";
};




&spi1 {
    compatible = "nordic,nrf-spim";
	status = "okay";
	pinctrl-0 = <&spi1_default>;
	pinctrl-1 = <&spi1_sleep>;
	pinctrl-names = "default", "sleep";
	cs-gpios = <&gpio0 7 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>; //CS for SD
	

    sdhc0: sdhc@0 {
        compatible = "zephyr,sdhc-spi-slot";
        reg = <0>;
        status = "okay";
        label = "SDHC0";
        spi-max-frequency = <24000000>;
		mmc {
			compatible = "zephyr,sdmmc-disk";
			status = "okay";
		};
    };
};

&pinctrl {
	spi1_default: spi1_default {
		
		group1 {
			psels = <NRF_PSEL(SPIM_SCK, 1, 0)>,
						<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MOSI, 1, 1)>,
						<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MISO, 0, 10)>;
		};
	};

	spi1_sleep: spi1_sleep {
		group1 {
			// psels = <NRF_PSEL(SPIM_SCK, 0, 8)>,
			// 			<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MOSI, 0, 9)>,
			// 			<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MISO, 0, 10)>;
				// low-power-enable;
					psels = <NRF_PSEL(SPIM_SCK, 1, 0)>,
						<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MOSI, 1, 1)>,
						<NRF_PSEL(SPIM_MISO, 0, 10)>;
				low-power-enable;
		};
	};
};

&gpio1 {
    status = "okay";
};
/ {
    aliases {
        button5 = &button5;
        button6 = &button6;
        button7 = &button7;
        button8 = &button8;
    };
};

/ {
    buttons {
        compatible = "gpio-keys";

        button5: button_5 {
            gpios = <&gpio1 6 (GPIO_PULL_UP | GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW)>;
            label = "Button 5";
        };
        button6: button_6 {
            gpios = <&gpio1 7 (GPIO_PULL_UP | GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW)>;
            label = "Button 6";
        };
        button7: button_7 {
            gpios = <&gpio1 8 (GPIO_PULL_UP | GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW)>;
            label = "POWER Button";
        };
        button8: button_8 {
            gpios = <&gpio1 9 (GPIO_PULL_UP | GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW)>;
            label = "Button 7";
        };
    };
};

Here is the application code--reading from an SD card:

#include <zephyr/kernel.h>
#include <zephyr/device.h>
#include <zephyr/drivers/spi.h>
#include <zephyr/drivers/gpio.h>
#include <zephyr/sys/printk.h>

#include <zephyr/fs/fs.h>
#include <zephyr/storage/disk_access.h>
#include <ff.h>
#include <zephyr/logging/log.h>
#include "SD_card.h"
#define SPI_DEVICE_NODE DT_NODELABEL(spi1)

void button_pressed(const struct device *dev, struct gpio_callback *cb, uint32_t pins);

//////////////////
K_FIFO_DEFINE(i2s_block_fifo);
bool opened_file = false;
bool mounted_card = false;

bool recoding_init = false;

LOG_MODULE_REGISTER(Main, LOG_LEVEL_INF);

// Define memory structures

K_SEM_DEFINE(enable_recording, 0, 1);
K_SEM_DEFINE(data_ready, 0, 1);



/* SD Card Reading Operations*/

// once initiatied, the SD card is repeatedly read from and the data read is displayed on the UART terminal

void sd_reading(void) {
        LOG_INF("SD Card Reading Function\n");
    
        k_sem_take(&data_ready, K_FOREVER);
        if (sd_file_open() != 0) {
            LOG_ERR("Failed to open file\n");
            return;
        } else {
            opened_file = true;
            LOG_INF("File Opened Successfully\n");
        }
        // List all the files in the SD card

        
        while (1) {
            LOG_INF("Reading from SD card...\n");
            // Call the function to read from the SD card
            if (sd_file_read_line() != 0) {
                LOG_ERR("Failed to read from SD card");
                break;
            }
            
            k_sleep(K_MSEC(10)); // Sleep for 10 milli second before next read
        }
        
}

// Main Function
int main(void) {
        LOG_INF("Starting main thread");
        
        // LOG_INF("Assuming a data file with binary data in the SD card, the program will be reading from it and displaying the data on ther UART terminal \n");

        if (init_button_led() != 0) {
            LOG_ERR("Failed to initialize button");
            return -1;
        }

        // initialize the SPI and SD card           

        if (spi_init() != 0) {
            LOG_ERR("Failed to initialize SPI");
            return -1;
        }
        
        // List all the files in the SD card

        list_files_on_sd();
        
        sd_reading();


        while (1) {
            k_sleep(K_FOREVER);
        }
        return 0;
    
    }

The application code uses a custom SD_card.h library that successfully carries out read/write operations, that is, until CONFIG_BT=y is assigned in prj.conf. I am not including that here for brevity.

My build configuration is also for the application core not the network core.

Do you see any issues in the way I have written the overlay?

RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

Turbo J — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 16:27:41 GMT

The example code assigned a few pins to the network core for UART debug output. That might get only pulled in when network core is in use (i.e. CONFIG_BT=yes).

Pins assigned to the other core cannot be used by the application core at all.

You can fix this in the dts overlay - just don't assign pins to the network core.

RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

umer — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 11:00:35 GMT

Thanks for your reply.

But there has to be a link between the two as I have confirmed this point by repeatedly compiling an SD card application. It only does not compile as soon as I enable BLE in the prj.conf file:

CONFIG_BT=y

in the prj.conf file, the application throws the run time error I provided earlier:

[00:00:00.594,146] <27>[1;31m<err> spi_nrfx_spim: Timeout waiting for transfer complete<27>[0m<\r><\n>
[00:00:00.594,604] <27>[1;31m<err> sdhc_spi: Card SCLK init sequence failed<27>[0m<\r><\n>
[00:00:00.594,635] <27>[1;31m<err> sd: Could not disable card power via SDHC<27>[0m<\r><\n>
disk_access_init failed. Error code: -5 ()<\r><\n>

RE: Use of SD Card with SPI+EasyDMA and BLE

Turbo J — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 17:28:45 GMT

ChatGPT is bullshitting you as usual.

Check your DTS and your pin config. Logic analyser might also be a good idea.