RE: I2C frequency in NCS V3.2.0 nrf52833

hmolesworth — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:12:10 GMT

One issue which can cause slower than expected clock rates with i2c is the nRF52833 mistakenly thinking the i2c slave is requesting clock stretching; this can occur by using too-soft drive levels on SCL and SDA (S0D1) particularly at 400kHz. Fix - advisable in any case for i2c at 400kHz - by forcing high-drive (H0D1) and ensuring the pull-up resistance to VDD is low enough, perhaps 4k7 or less. If the i2c slave is on a single bus and never requests a clock stretch, H0H1 can be used.

The trace waveforms captured are very misleading as they are on a digital logic analyser; using an oscilloscope would show that SCL in particular is very soggy with a slow rise- and fall-time; it is this slow rise & fall which makes the nRF52833 think the clock is being externally held low for a time (which is interpreted as a clock stretch) and sharpening up those clock edges can provide a solution. The longer the i2c SCL connection the worse the problem due to parasitic capacitance.

/* 重新定义 i2c0_default 和 i2c0_sleep 以覆盖默认引脚 */
&pinctrl {
	/* 覆盖默认的 i2c0_default */
	i2c0_default: i2c0_default {
		group1 {
			psels = <NRF_PSEL(TWIM_SDA, 0, 17)>,    /* P0.26 SDA */
					<NRF_PSEL(TWIM_SCL, 0, 15)>;    /* P0.27 SCL */
			nordic,drive-mode = <NRF_DRIVE_H0D1>;  // <== add something like this
		};
	};

	/* 覆盖默认的 i2c0_sleep */
	i2c0_sleep: i2c0_sleep {
		group1 {
			psels = <NRF_PSEL(TWIM_SDA, 0, 17)>,
					<NRF_PSEL(TWIM_SCL, 0, 15)>;
			nordic,drive-mode = <NRF_DRIVE_H0D1>;  // <== add something like this
			low-power-enable;
		};
	};
};

Worth checking with a debugger that zephyr stuff doesn't defeat this high-drive setting, and if using 10k pull-ups reduce that to 4k7 or less ..

RE: I2C frequency in NCS V3.2.0 nrf52833

mjguo — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:08:45 GMT

you can download code: github.com/.../ncs_example.git

RE: I2C frequency in NCS V3.2.0 nrf52833

Priyanka — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:13:12 GMT

You could maybe attach your code (do let me know in case I need to make the case private for this) and I can take a look at it.

-Priyanka

RE: I2C frequency in NCS V3.2.0 nrf52833

Priyanka — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:12:21 GMT

Hi,
Could you check in you application code, whether you are maybe using the I2C_BITRATE_STANDARD or whether some snippet in the code is actually calling the standard rate ?

This can override the dts setting.

-Priyanka

RE: I2C frequency in NCS V3.2.0 nrf52833

mjguo — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 04:11:48 GMT

This is the waveform I captured.