MPSL ASSERT when debugging with an active IEEE 802.15.4 radio

[michael.feist.etc]

I've seen this discussed a few times before, but haven't seen a great answer on this. It seems to be commonly known that attaching a debugger while using the IEEE 802.15.4 radio causes an MPSL ASSERT due to strict timings. I may not have enough knowledge on the topic, but this seems like a very odd and very limiting restriction. With any other peripheral, if strict timings are required you would usually just let the device drop packets or something. Is there some hard limitation here? Is it possible to eventually change this so that it doesn't completely prevent you from using the debugger?

[Vidar Berg]

Hello,

Unfortunately, I don't have a better answer. This is a common limitation when working with protocol stacks that have real time requirements. Segger provides a solution for this called "monitor mode" debugging which basically let you single step and hit breakpoints without blocking the timing critical interrupts, but they have not ported this to the Cortex M33 yet.

It should not be a problem to place breakpoints, the limitation is that you may get an assert if you try to resume execution after having reached the breakpoint instead of restarting the FW.  

Best regards,

Vidar