Which SDK11 gcc examples work with nRF51822?

[Roger Clark]

I think similar issues have been posted before and not resolved

If I flash the hex precompiled hex files for virtually any project by using the pca10028 S130 version it works fine

e.g. examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\hex\ble_app_hrs_s130_pca10028.hex

But if I try to compile using gcc 4.9.3 the resultant binary doesn't work.

(I have the S130 SDK11 installed), I just flash the code into 0x1b000

The only example that does compile and run is

examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_beacon\pca20006\s130\armgcc

i.e This targets the pca20006 board.

The pca20006 is a nRF51822 where as the pca10028 is a nRF51422 - so I don't know if that's the problem.

I'm now downloading keil to see if this is a gcc issue (I'm using gcc 4.9.3 as recommended here devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ )

But the gcc toolchain must be working as the beacon for pca20006 will compile, upload and run without any problems

[Einar Thorsrud]

I suspect you have a device with 16 kB RAM (which is the case for the pca20006 board). Then you must modify your linker script appropriately. Taking the HRS example in SDK 11, this is <SDK>examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\pca10028\s130\armgcc\ble_app_hrs_gcc_nrf51.ld. There you need to take the RAM LENGTH and subtract 0x4000, as the existing value is for a 32 kB RAM part.

That means that you should change line 9 from this:

  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20001870, LENGTH = 0x6790

to this:

  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20001870, LENGTH = 0x2790

The reason this (coincidently) works with Keil and not with GCC is differences in the memory allocations, which is entirely up to the compiler.

[Roger Clark]

OK.

I tried the nRF51822 QFAC board, and it does work with the existing pca10028

But changing the RAM settings in the linker file didnt make it work for the AF AA (16k device)

Looking at the RAM settings for ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\pca10028 (SDK11)

  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20002080, LENGTH = 0x5f80

Both the RAM origin and also the LENGTH are different from the ble beacon example

  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20001870, LENGTH = 0x2790

So I tried using the RAM settings for the pca10028 but deducted 16k from the LENGTH

  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x20002080, LENGTH = 0x1f80

It looks like the SD has been allocated more RAM in pca10026 than the SD for the Beacon, but they are both using S130 SD, so I'm not sure why this is different.

However this didn't work either :-(

Perhaps the hrs will not run in 16k RAM.