PA / LNA support in S140

[Hamid]

Would you please provide an example of using PA/LNA with nRF52840 (Softdevice S140) on SDK 15.0 or higher?

Unfortunately, I could't manage the code you've provided for the other softdevice to work properly with S140:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/b/blog/posts/pa-lna-support-in-s132

As soon as I initial PA/LNA the softdevice stops working.

I'm wondering If you can provide a sample code like what you did before but this time on S140.

 Thanks

[bjorn-spockeli]

Hi Hamid, 

I tested the PA/LNA code you referred to on a nRF52840 DK running the ble_app_blinky example and I did not see any issues. I called the pa_lna_assist function with the following parameters after conn_params_init in main()

pa_lna_assist(NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,28),NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,29));

Here is the function I copied from the DevZone post

static void pa_lna_assist(uint32_t gpio_pa_pin, uint32_t gpio_lna_pin)
{
    ret_code_t err_code;

    static const uint32_t gpio_toggle_ch = 0;
    static const uint32_t ppi_set_ch = 0;
    static const uint32_t ppi_clr_ch = 1;
    
    // Configure SoftDevice PA/LNA assist
    ble_opt_t opt;
    memset(&opt, 0, sizeof(ble_opt_t));
    // Common PA/LNA config
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.gpiote_ch_id  = gpio_toggle_ch;        // GPIOTE channel
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.ppi_ch_id_clr = ppi_clr_ch;            // PPI channel for pin clearing
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.ppi_ch_id_set = ppi_set_ch;            // PPI channel for pin setting
    // PA config
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.active_high = 1;                // Set the pin to be active high
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.enable      = 1;                // Enable toggling
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.gpio_pin    = gpio_pa_pin;      // The GPIO pin to toggle
  
    // LNA config
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.active_high  = 1;              // Set the pin to be active high
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.enable       = 1;              // Enable toggling
    opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.gpio_pin     = gpio_lna_pin;   // The GPIO pin to toggle

    err_code = sd_ble_opt_set(BLE_COMMON_OPT_PA_LNA, &opt);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

[Hamid]

Could you please post your modified version of "ble_app_blinky" example?

[bjorn-spockeli]

You'll find the modified example below. NOte: It should be extracted into the nRF5_SDK_15.0.0_a53641a\examples\ble_peripheral folder

ble_app_blinky_pa_lna.zip

 

[Hamid]

Thanks for the posted code. By using your code I've figured out the source of the problem. It seems any time I assign PA or LNA controls to any pin in PORT1 (P1) the softdevice stops working but it works very well with PORT0 !

Could you please check this behavior and confirm?

[bjorn-spockeli]

Hi Hamid, 

the S140 v6.0.0 only supports the GPIO port 0 pins for PA/LNA on the nRF52840. 

The S140 v6.1.0 supports the use of GPIO port 1 pins (P1.00 to P1.15) for PA/LNA on the nRF52840, please refer to the S140 v6.1.0 release notes. 

Best regards

Bjørn