How to debug nrf24le1 devices on keil?

[ashokraj]

Hi, I am a beginner to nrf24le1. My company has products made of nef24le1. I would like to debug nrf24le1 devices but couldnt able to , I would like to know the answers for following questions, Please educate me: 

1. I recently purchased ulink2, Can i use ulink2 to debug my company products? If yes, what is the hardware connection? These products have a 10 female pin slots to program via ISP. I could able to flash new software onto these products using nrfgo studio and connecting via ISP from nrfgo mother board.  can i use these pins for debugging? 
2. I have seen tutorials and debugged a few projects by integrating nrfgo motherboard(nRF6310 with  nrf2722 modules). I also used nrfprobe debugger app in keil. 
3. Instead of using the real hardware is there any other way of debugging software without the need of real hardware? Like dumping the software into some custom device and performing debugging? after connecting nrf2722 module to nrfgo motherboard, I could able to load the software( company's) into the motherboard and perform debugging, not sure if it is the right approach but the speed is extremely slow!!!   

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

 

I recently purchased ulink2, Can i use ulink2 to debug my company products? If yes, what is the hardware connection? These products have a 10 female pin slots to program via ISP. I could able to flash new software onto these products using nrfgo studio and connecting via ISP from nrfgo mother board.  can i use these pins for debugging? 

 You can debug the nRF5-series devices (ARM Cortex based) with it, but not the nRF24L-series devices, which are Intel 8051 based.

Here's a list of the supported targets for ulink2: http://www.keil.com/arm/ulink2/chips.asp

The nRF24L-series SoC devices from us uses a JTAG interface, which not many devices support. The nRFgo motherboard platform has support for debugging and programming.

I have seen tutorials and debugged a few projects by integrating nrfgo motherboard(nRF6310 with  nrf2722 modules). I also used nrfprobe debugger app in keil. 

This is the debugging / development platform that we support. I am not aware of any other debug probes available for a reasonable price for the nRF24LE1/nRF24LU1+ devices, unfortunately.

Instead of using the real hardware is there any other way of debugging software without the need of real hardware? Like dumping the software into some custom device and performing debugging? after connecting nrf2722 module to nrfgo motherboard, I could able to load the software( company's) into the motherboard and perform debugging, not sure if it is the right approach but the speed is extremely slow!!!   

 Are you thinking of a simulator? I am not aware of a solution like that.

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[ashokraj]

I am thinking of emulators. ??? 

[Håkon Alseth]

You could search for "8051 emulator", but not sure how accurate this would be for the nRF24LE1 target, especially if you use peripherals like timers, ADC, radio, etc.

[ashokraj]

Hi Hakon, I trying to understand the concept of debugging nrf24le1, could you please educate me in the following: 

1. I currently have the software of my company product built on nrf24le1, I would like to gain a better understanding of software through debugging. The hardware of that product has support of ISP but not JTAG. How can I debug ? 
2. I am with an impression that if I combine nrfgo mother board +nrf2722 i could download any program with target nrf24le1 and start debugging . Is my impression wrong? Because I could able to download program on to module but  keil IDE hangs as soon as I start debugging session. 

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

ashokraj said:

I currently have the software of my company product built on nrf24le1, I would like to gain a better understanding of software through debugging. The hardware of that product has support of ISP but not JTAG. How can I debug ? 

If the hardware does not have the JTAG pins routed out, you cannot enter debug mode. Then you have to use UART or similar (set/clear unused GPIOs) to trace where you are in the code, unfortunately.

 

ashokraj said:

I am with an impression that if I combine nrfgo mother board +nrf2722 i could download any program with target nrf24le1 and start debugging . Is my impression wrong? Because I could able to download program on to module but  keil IDE hangs as soon as I start debugging session. 

This is correct. With the nRF2722 module, the JTAG is routed directly to the chip itself, so that you can enter debug mode.

Note that you have to enable the debug bit in order to do this:

After this is set, flash the device once, then enter debug mode.

In this mode, it will await a connection over JTAG, and will not run before you attach the debugger. If you want to return back to "normal mode", uncheck the debug section above, then flash again.

Kind regards,

Håkon