Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Wed, 18 May 2016 08:40:08 GMT

@hung bui: Hiya, I'm trying to verify the SPI/ACI connectivity using ble_aci_transport_layer_verification main.c file. I have noticed that setup function I have to tell the ACI library, the MCU to nRF8001 pin connections. All the pins are declared using 0 to 5 numbers so I'm confused as to how I need to change this according to Renesas microcontroller. Could you tell me what those numbers mean? Thank you in advance!

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Thu, 12 May 2016 12:29:00 GMT

Hi David, it did work with pack settings. Could you tell me how I would use those functions in acilib.c? Also, I have noticed that there are two serial communications (CSI and UART) in cg_serial file, can you explain the reason behind this as I need to change them according to RX113. Thank you so much for your help!

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

David Edwin — Wed, 11 May 2016 07:19:17 GMT

Does it work with the pack settings ? that would be a good start to see if that worked. You will need to use the encode and decode the messages using the acil_* interfaces for encode and decode. See acilib.cpp/acilib.c

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Tue, 10 May 2016 14:15:33 GMT

Hi David, I've used an option in CPU settings to pack structures, unions and classes but I have been advised that it is not the safest way. Could you tell me how to achieve this without packing?

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

David Edwin — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:29:44 GMT

The error is due to packing. The driver likes to be packed at a 1 byte boundary so if your compiler supports that, you need to ensure that it works for the RX113, which is a 32 bit cpu. It is also possible to do this without packing but the code path is longer and a bit more work is needed.

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:15:58 GMT

Hi David, in the example you've provided, the MCU used is RL78 and IDE used is IAR. For my implementation, I'm using RX113 and e2studio IDE (Eclipse based Renesas IDE). I've managed to port all the files from IAR to my e2studio project but I am getting a few errors. The main error I'm facing is with ACI_ASSERT_SIZE(x,y) defined in aci.h file and it is used to compare the size of the first parameter to the integer value of the second parameter. There are multiple instances where this has been used such as in aci_cmds.h, aci_evts.h etc .. and the error is "The size of an array must be greater than zero". Could you please help me out to fix this error?

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Wed, 04 May 2016 12:38:05 GMT

@hung Bui: Thank you for providing the above information! It will be very useful while I use the link David Edwin provided as an answer :)

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Wed, 04 May 2016 11:20:43 GMT

Thank you for the help! I've connected the RESET pin as you adviced and also found the following document which is very helpful in porting the library: github.com/.../nRF8001-Porting-ACI-Library.md It specifies how to implement my mcu spi and settings etc.

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

Hung Bui — Wed, 04 May 2016 11:12:51 GMT

@Keerthi: Besides the Arduino SDK, there are some other material you can have a look at:

nRF8001 Product Specification (where the interface and protocol with MCU are defined)
nRF8001 SDK, there are some example project showing how to interface with nRF8001 from a Nordic's test MCU. But the principles are the same for any MCU.

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

David Edwin — Wed, 04 May 2016 11:08:19 GMT

Renesas port for nRF8001 is available in on github . This is for the RL78.

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

Wojtek — Tue, 03 May 2016 15:46:22 GMT

Ok, now i remember more (did that ~2 years ago, could not be correct) - it is not the same library I was using actually. I think I used examples for nrf6310 motherboard which had some other uc there (51-series something?). Here the files are .cpp, and I think i used .c. But if you will be able to compile it, it should also work. In the library from your linkthere is a file hal_aci_tl.cpp, it calls some functions from SPI.h which is Arduino SPI library. You should prepare similar library for renesas uc and just use it there instead.

I think you should also connect RESET pin of nrf8001 somewhere, probably to hi-logic :)

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

keerthi — Tue, 03 May 2016 15:35:35 GMT

Hi Wojtek, thank you so much for such a quick response! Is this the Arduino library you're referring to: github.com/.../ble-sdk-arduino If yes, could you please tell me which file do I need to change? Also, have you used Renesas microcontroller aswell? I've connected SCK, MOSI, MISO, REQ, GND and VIN pins as those are the only pins I could configure on Renesas microcontroller, do you think that would be enough? Sorry about all the questions, its really hard to find help on integrating nrf8001 with another microcontroller other than Arduino. Thank you in advance!

RE: Integrating nrf8001 with Renesas microcontroller

Wojtek — Tue, 03 May 2016 15:28:05 GMT

You can use Arduino library, but you only have to change SPI driver so it works with Renesas microcontroller and still be compatible with HAL. I did that some time ago... Library works like charm, just connect the module properly and make SPI work.