Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Dongle (nRF52840) LED problem

[Thierry]

Hello!

I managed to flash my Raytac dongle with debugging going using the SWD on a nrf52 DK.
I am mainly working with SEGGER Embedded Studio and nRF Connect on Mac.
However, it seems any function from simple_hal simply won't work...

I created a new header file in SDK/components/boards/ which defines the only LED of the Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Dongle:

...
// LED definitions for MDBT50Q-RX
#define LEDS_NUMBER    1

#define LED_1          NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(1,13)

#define LED_START      LED_1
#define LED_STOP       LED_1

#define LEDS_LIST { LED_1 }
...

Sadly, my application (using the mesh SDK) just won't light up with the Raytac dongle, while working perfectly with the nRF52840 DK (PCA10056) and the nordic nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059)

Until I included these 2 lines in my main.c:

nrf_gpio_cfg_output(LED_1);
nrf_gpio_pin_write(LED_1, value);

I could reproduce this on both the light_switch server & client.

If anyone could enlighten me.. ^^

Thank you!

PS: if this is truly impossible, could someone guide me onto how to write an async blink?
This is blocking the process quite a bit:

for(int i=0; i<10; i++) {
  nrf_gpio_pin_write(LED_1, i%2);
  nrf_delay_ms(500);
}

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

I'm not sure why it's not working. The pin assignment seems to be correct since nrf_gpio_pin_write() works. Can you try to debug the app and check whether bsp_board_led_on() calls nrf_gpio_pin_write() with the correct parameters? Also, try to program hex file attached below to see if it works. It's using BSP to toggle the LED @ 1 s intervals. 

bsp_pca10056.hex

[Thierry]

So we have the pin (1,13) for this LED, which with the function NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(1,13) translates to 45.

Then, in simple_hal.c in the function hal_leds_init :

NRF_GPIO->OUTSET = 1UL << i;

Which becomes 00000000000000000000000000000001 << 45;
This would exceed the capacity and become 0. Am I right?


So the LED is never "initialized"?

[Thierry]

My application is derived from a bunch of them. Mainly the light switch.

I have found a little work around.
In SDK_15.3.0/modules/mdk/nrf51_to_nrf52840.h line 144 : 

/* GPIO */
/* GPIO port was renamed to P0. */
#ifndef NRF_GPIO
    #define NRF_GPIO        NRF_P0
#endif
#ifndef NRF_GPIO_BASE
    #define NRF_GPIO_BASE   NRF_P0_BASE
#endif

If I change p0 to p1,
and also change my pin definition (1,13) to 

NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,13)

Everything seems to work.

[Vidar Berg]

This workaround may be problematic if you want to use port 0. I would suggest to go over the project setup and compare it to a 52840 SDK project to find out why the wrong header files are being included. 

[Thierry]

Hello Vidar !

I'm fully aware of that. That was a simple workaround not a solution.
I ended up discarding that workaround's changes and instead changing the code in simple_hal.c. Everywhere it had NRF_GPIO, I changed it to something like:

#if LED_1<=32
  NRF_GPIO->OUT ^= m_blink_mask;
#else
  NRF_P1->OUT ^= m_blink_mask;
#endif

and readjust the pin in functions like the hal_leds_init function to:

for (uint32_t i = LED_START; i <= LED_STOP; ++i)
{
  #if LED_1<=32
    NRF_GPIO->PIN_CNF[i] = LED_PIN_CONFIG;
    NRF_GPIO->OUTSET = 1UL << i;
  #else
    NRF_P1->PIN_CNF[i-32] = LED_PIN_CONFIG;
    NRF_P1->OUTSET = 1UL << i-32;
  #endif
}

It is not perfect but, I believe, more appropriate. (It would cause problems again if we had a LED on each port, the init function also seem to take for granted that the ports are not apart but one after the other...)
and then boards.h functions like LEDS_OFF(BSP_LED_0_MASK); or LEDS_ON(BSP_LED_0_MASK); still use NRF_GPIO and won't work. Although applying the same treatment should solve this too.

I feel like there is still something to be done to make this better, now that I'm looking at boards.h's

#define PIN_MASK(_pin) (1u << (uint32_t)((_pin) & (~P0_PIN_NUM)))

where (uint32_t)((_pin) & (~P0_PIN_NUM)) returns 13 for the pin 45 (1,13). Basically what I was doing with the -32. I still don't fully grasp the masks..

I will keep looking at this when I have the time but for now this solved my problem.

Thank you for your support!

[Thierry]

As I was saying, the current simple_hal.c is incompatible with the LED pins on the PCA10059.

#define LED1_G         NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,6)
#define LED2_R         NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,8)
#define LED2_G         NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(1,9)
#define LED2_B         NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,12)

#define LED_1          LED1_G
#define LED_2          LED2_R
#define LED_3          LED2_G
#define LED_4          LED2_B

#define LED_START      LED_1
#define LED_STOP       LED_4

More exactly, the 3rd one won't work.

[awneil]

Thierry said:

simple_hal.c

Is that a Nordic SDK thing?

EDIT

Oh - it's a Mesh SDK thing.

[Thierry]

yes. nrf5SDKforMeshv310src/examples/common/src/simple_hal.c