nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 14:51:20 GMT

Hi, yes, I got this working. Th trick was to make sure th overall file in the SPM was updated to route the RXD and TXD to the appropriate GPIO pins

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

ychen — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 04:04:35 GMT

Hi ROD,

can you tell me how to connect,Your problem solved?Are you sure target board connected to the PC, and SW1, nRF ONLY selected, I don't see any serial data over the USB connector.please attached picture.thank you

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Thu, 23 May 2019 13:16:03 GMT

Great, thanks!

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

Joakim Jakobsen — Mon, 13 May 2019 10:16:40 GMT

You can take a look at the GPIO interfaces in the DK specification.

Best regards.

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Thu, 09 May 2019 14:09:12 GMT

Thanks,

so is there a list of pins that are available on the DK for use as GPIO?

Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

Joakim Jakobsen — Thu, 09 May 2019 14:02:19 GMT

Hi.

As you can see here:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fug_nrf91_dk%2FUG%2Fnrf91_DK%2Fhw_buttons_leds.html&anchor=hw_buttons_leds

P0.08 and P0.09 are connected to Switch1/Switch2.

Regards,
Joakim

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Wed, 08 May 2019 11:31:21 GMT

Hi Joakim,

Thanks for this. I am still seeing problems accessing these pins. For example, in the link above, Pin Assignments , it suggested P0.08 and P0.09 are available as GPIO however, when I try to use these pins as a UART, I update my overlay file accordingly, they don't work. Its as if the DK is using these as something else and they are not free.

Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

Joakim Jakobsen — Wed, 08 May 2019 07:24:31 GMT

Hi Rod!

I'm glad you were able to make it work.

1. You can find the list of which I/O pins are free to use in the Pin Assignments in the nRF9160 PS.

2. When using nRF Only mode the UART are routed to VCOM 0,1,2. So if you want to to use the UART while in nRF Only mode, you can take a look at the suggestion from my colleague Martin in the thread below:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/45476/connecting-uart1-to-a-periph-on-nrf9160-dk

Best regards,
Joakim.

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Sun, 05 May 2019 10:04:03 GMT

Hi Joakim,

Ok, I now have this working, almost.

I followed this link

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/44114/continuous-wave-for-nrf9160

and I had to change the I/O pins used but this now seems to work.

I have a couple more quick questions and then I think we can close this

1. Please can you confirm what I/O pins are not used on the DK and are free? I recall seeing a list somewhere but I can't find it.

2. On my target board, where I am running in "nRF only mode", I assume that I should now be able to more or less use any I/O pin I want on the 9160? I have tried to use various pins for my UART Tx/Rx but only a handful seem to be usable, even in nRF Only mode. Do I need to program the nRF52840 first to free up I/O pins on the 9160?

Regards,

Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Fri, 03 May 2019 19:08:33 GMT

PPS

Followed this as well, no luck

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/44114/continuous-wave-for-nrf9160

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Fri, 03 May 2019 18:14:39 GMT

PS, I also noted in the UM that UART was routed too P0.28 & P0.29. I also tried connecting directly to these pins

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Fri, 03 May 2019 18:02:00 GMT

Hi Joakim,

I have had another look at this. I imagine the reason I am not seeing the terminal out put is due to the way the VCOM is being routed. As a quick and easy test, I tried to connect up directly to the UART port using a UART - USB adapter.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N4X3BJB?pf_rd_p=330fbd82-d4fe-42e5-9c16-d4b886747c64&pf_rd_r=BVBRX27PHHRS1DA3SM0N

Looking at the overlay file in the secure_boot application, I note that TXD and RXD are connected to pins 18 & 17.

/* needed to get the NRF_UARTE2 defined */
&uart2 {
	current-speed = <1000000>;
	status = "ok";
	tx-pin = <18>;
	rx-pin = <17>;
	rts-pin = <19>;
	cts-pin = <21>;
};

&spi3 {
	status = "ok";
	sck-pin = <10>;
	mosi-pin = <11>;
	miso-pin = <12>;
	ss-pin = <13>;
	spi-max-frequency = <4000000>;
};

Unfortunately, this did not work.

Any thoughts as to why I am not seeing thermal output when I switch the board to nRF Only mode?

Thanks,

Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 15:01:01 GMT

Hi Joakim,

I have now received my second board and have configured them as detailed above. This now allows me to program my target nRF9160DK from my debugger nRF9160 which is great.

I still am having problems seeing my serial output from the target board. When I have "nRF Only" switched to off on the target board, I see 3 possible serial terminals

Watts-MacBook-Pro:~ Watt$ ls /dev/cu*

/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port /dev/cu.usbmodem0009600405783

/dev/cu.usbmodem0009600405781 /dev/cu.usbmodem0009600405785

I can then see the serial output via the command

Watts-MacBook-Pro:~ Watt$ screen /dev/cu.usbmodem0009600405781 115200 -L

However, when I switch it to "nRF Only", all I see is

Watts-MacBook-Pro:~ Watt$ ls /dev/cu*

/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port

So my question is, where can I see the serial output on my target board when I switch it to "nRF Only"?

Regards,
Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

RodWatt — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:11:14 GMT

Hi Joakim,

Thank you for this. I have ordered a second nrf9160DK, I think it will take about a week to arrive so I will let you know how it goes.

With my current target board, I have programmed it using its own on-board debugger but when I switch to "nRF Only" mode, I don't see any output over the serial port. I have switched VDDIO to 3V as above. Any thought sas to why I am not seeing any serial data?

Regards,
Rod

RE: nRF9160 DK as a Debugger for a second nRF9160 DK

Joakim Jakobsen — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 11:57:52 GMT

Hi Rod.

I believe this should work.

Your connections looks to be correct. Could you also set the "VDD IO" to "3V" as shown in the picture below and see if that helps:

Regards,
Joakim Jakobsen