SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Reza papi — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 18:53:23 GMT

Hi Ander, I hope you are doing great. I am currently working on a project that involve reading a sensor data with SPI and send it by nRF52 device through BLE. I see your post here and I am wondering if you can share your information with me. Thank you

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 07:57:44 GMT

Hi Vijay, you must edit your Makefile for this project. If you just copied the folder of the example, you must go to:

...\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_beacon\pca10040\s132\armgcc

Then, you must add the line: $(SDK_ROOT)/components/drivers_nrf/spi_master/nrf_drv_spi.c \

To the list "# Source files common to all targets"

And the line: $(SDK_ROOT)/components/drivers_nrf/spi_master \

To the list "# Include folders common to all targets"

Then save everything and rebuild the project. Those errors should dissapear.

Hope this works for you!

AGB

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

vijay7000 — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 09:34:26 GMT

Hi,

I am facing same problem. SPI is not working with ble_app_beacon example. I am using Segger Embedded Studio, Nrf52832 DK and Windows10. I have unzipped the nrf52 SDK 14.2.xx in the default Document folder. where should I add these two lines in my working setup to get ride of these errors.

Thanks in advance for the help,

--vijay

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 04:53:51 GMT

yes it could be. If you have some special need to do error checking then only do that..

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 07:46:25 GMT

Any other idea? I found a nasty solution that solves that and the only remaining issue: deleting the APP_ERROR_CHECK() function that throws the error... I know, I know, that is not a solution, but for some reason the BLE advertising beacon is working and sending the data that I need it to send, so it can be a temporary solution.

The other one was that I needed it to send at least 10 samples/second, for some reason, after erasing de error check now it works at full speed. Before, it was like stuck, it would be sending 3 readings per second and I could do nothing to change that.

So, what are your feelings about this? Do you thing that the error could cause a corruption of the MCU or something worse?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:10:22 GMT

I added the function and structure and changed the main() like this:

int main(void)
{
    // Initialize.
    log_init();
    timers_init();
    leds_init();
    ble_stack_init();
    advertising_init();

    bsp_board_leds_init();

	nrf_drv_spi_config_t spi_config = NRF_DRV_SPI_DEFAULT_CONFIG;
	spi_config.ss_pin   = SPI_SS_PIN;
	spi_config.miso_pin = SPI_MISO_PIN;
	spi_config.mosi_pin = SPI_MOSI_PIN;
	spi_config.sck_pin  = SPI_SCK_PIN;
	APP_ERROR_CHECK(nrf_drv_spi_init(&spi, &spi_config, spi_event_handler, NULL));

	while (1)
	{
		// Reset rx buffer and transfer done flag
		memset(m_rx_buf, 0, m_length);
		spi_xfer_done = false;

		APP_ERROR_CHECK(nrf_drv_spi_transfer(&spi, NULL, 0, m_rx_buf, m_length));

		NRF_LOG_FLUSH();

		bsp_board_led_invert(BSP_BOARD_LED_0);

		nrf_delay_ms(10);

        adv_update();
        advertising_start();

        if (NRF_LOG_PROCESS() == false)
        {
            //power_manage();

            NRF_LOG_INFO("Something sent.\r\n");

        }
    }
}

Sadly, I keep getting the same ERROR:FATAL in the LOG.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:49:55 GMT

ok so try this.

1. make one function adv_update(). and call this function when ever you are getting spi data or whenever you wish to advertise your spi data into beacon info.

2. structure for this adv_update is

uint8_t m_update[] =
{
APP_DEVICE_TYPE, // Manufacturer specific information. Specifies the device type in this // implementation.
APP_ADV_DATA_LENGTH, // Manufacturer specific information. Specifies the length of the
APP_BEACON_UUID, // 128 bit UUID value.
APP_MAJOR_VALUE,
APP_MINOR_VALUE, // Major arbitrary value that can be used to distinguish between Beacons.
APP_MEASURED_RSSI // Manufacturer specific information. The Beacon's measured TX power in
};

3. rest of the adv_update function is same as your advertising_init function. just replace manuf_specific_data.data.p_data = (uint8_t *) m_beacon_info; with

manuf_specific_data.data.p_data = (uint8_t *) m_update;

where m_update parameters are listed below.

m_update[16] = rx_buffer[0];
m_update[17] = rx_buffer[1];

m_update[18] = rx_buffer[2];

m_update[19] = rx_buffer[3];

4. Set these vales as 0x00 initially

#define APP_MAJOR_VALUE 0x00,0x00
#define APP_MINOR_VALUE 0x00, 0x00

5. After changes you will be able to get your spi data(4 bytes) stored in rx_buffer as mjor and minor number field.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:38:19 GMT

Four bytes

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:37:21 GMT

How many bytes you are receiving in rx buffer??

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:28:11 GMT

Here. It's a bit messy yet, Im sorry for that.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:18:36 GMT

yes please it would be more easier for me to detect errors.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:16:49 GMT

I send the m_rx_buf (sensor data) like this:

manuf_specific_data.data.p_data = (uint8_t *) m_rx_buf;

Yes, I am advertising them as a beacon in the Manufacturer Specific Data field. I am using nRF connect to check the content of the advertising packet and it actually is the sensor data. Thats was I was talking about when I said that they are being sent properly.

This is what I talked about. The LOG is registering som ERROR:FATAL issue.

I noticed a weird thing:

APP_ERROR_CHECK(nrf_drv_spi_transfer(&spi, NULL, 0, m_rx_buf, m_length));

NRF_LOG_FLUSH();

bsp_board_led_invert(BSP_BOARD_LED_0);

nrf_delay_ms(10);

advertising_init();
advertising_start();

When I change this delay to 5 instead of 10, I get this other "error":

Do you want me to post the whole main.c file? You will probably detect the mistakes very easy.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:04:14 GMT

What do you mean by readings are send properly?? how you are sending your spi data??

Are you advertising it into beacon?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 09:47:52 GMT

I am almost done. I fully integrated both projects together and now the readings are being send properly. I just have a few matters that I would like to solve:

The LOG is printing an ERROR:FATAL somewhere in my code. After debugging I found out that it is this:

err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_start(&m_adv_params, BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG_DEFAULT);

In the debug I got err_code = 7, which according to the documentation is NRF_ERROR_INVALID_PARAM. My m_adv_params are:

m_adv_params.type        = BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_ADV_NONCONN_IND;
m_adv_params.p_peer_addr = NULL;
m_adv_params.fp          = BLE_GAP_ADV_FP_ANY;
m_adv_params.interval    = NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL;
m_adv_params.timeout     = APP_CFG_NON_CONN_ADV_TIMEOUT;

They are the default ones of the ble_app_beacon example and they had no errors before.

Any idea?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:00:34 GMT

I got rid of the problem with "undefined reference to 'nrf_drv_spi_init' " and "undefined reference to 'nrf_drv_spi_transfer' ". Turns out that I hadn't added the lines:

$(SDK_ROOT)/components/drivers_nrf/spi_master \

$(SDK_ROOT)/components/drivers_nrf/spi_master/nrf_drv_spi.c \

To the Makefile. Now it compiles perfectly, I just need to fill the advdata info with the readings from the spi and that should be it.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:08:59 GMT

Everytime that I create a new project i follow the steps of the Devzone Tutorial (Propierties > C/C++ General > Preprocessor Include paths, Macros, etc and change the CDT GCC Build Outparser and CDT GCC Built-in Compiler Settings Cross ARM). I am not an expert, so I may be wrong but I think that is for avoiding erros in includes, isn't it?

And yes, I have added the spi's includes to the main.c file of the ble_app_beacon.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 10:53:36 GMT

Yes you can add you #defines for spi in you sdk_config file for ble_app_beacon example. It is normal. Try to setup same files and libraries which you are using for simple spi example into your beacon example. And make sure you have added path to all your libraries and files.

have you included all required files for spi into main.c?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 10:46:00 GMT

I am now trying to merge both main.c (the one from the "ble_app_beacon" example and the other from "spi") files into just one project. I soon started to get errors, so my first approach was going to the sdk_config.h file to enable the spi. And then some errors like "SPI_SS_PIN is not declared " started to pop up.

These defines are normally placed in the sdk_config.h file as well, but they are not. I thought that the sdk_config.h file was a macro equal for all the projects and examples and you could configure it, but the ble_app_beacon's sdk_config.h file does not have the declarations of SPI_SS_PIN, SPI_SCK_PIN,... Is that normal?

I started to define all of them by hand. And now I only have 2 errors: undefined reference to 'nrf_drv_spi_init' and undefined reference to 'nrf_drv_spi_transfer'. Both of this functions are declared in nrf_drv_spi.h which, by the way, is included in my project. Why does Eclipse not recognise them? Or what is the problem?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 08:07:16 GMT

It depends upon your sensor value.. You can use any field from advertisement packet e.g major number.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:51:45 GMT

Thank you for your early reply. That's what I tried, but it did change nothing in the advertising packet. I found the issue, instead of linking the main.c file of my local repository folder I linked to the project the main.c file of the examples folder by mistake. Sorry for the trouble.

If I want to programatically change one BLE field to send the data from my SPi sensor, what field would you advise me to use?

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 05:28:04 GMT

Hi Ander,

for changing major and minor value change the following #define in main.c

#define APP_MAJOR_VALUE 0x01,0x02 /**< Major value used to identify Beacons. */
#define APP_MINOR_VALUE 0x03, 0x04 /**< Minor value used to identify Beacons. */

same for all the values which u need to change. UUID and company field.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 14:02:28 GMT

I have compiled and uploaded the "ble_app_beacon" example in the Nordic nRF52 DK and it seemed to work fine, but then, I changed some data in the beacon to check if the changes had effect and they did not.

After the changes, I obviously saved, cleaned the project, compiled again and uploaded the new file to the board. I also refreshed the app, restarted the board,... I changed the "major" and "minor" fields, but it keeps displaying the default ones.

Does anyone know why is this happening?

I do not post the code here because is the original one, the only change was "major" and "minor" fields.

PS: I also tried changing the company field, the UUID,... nothing changes in the advertising packet.

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 10:12:37 GMT

I am gonna check it out right now, thank you!

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

norin saiyed — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 10:11:00 GMT

yes ble_app_beacon example for broadcasting received spi data

RE: SPI communication and BLE advertising data with nRF52 DK

Ander GB — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 10:09:54 GMT

By "beaconing example" you mean the "ble_app_beacon" example? Thank you for replying!