How to create a custom board file for the nRF9160

[Jeff Seaman]

I am trying to create a custom board file in the ncs/zepher/boards directory for our nRF9160.

If I copy the nrf9160_pca10090 directory to a new nam eg. nrf9160_newboard it will compile and run just fine.

Then when i change the name of the files to nrf9160_newboard and change the references in each of the files to correspond to the new file names.

I was able to get the hello world example to compile and run as a nrf9160_newboard, but when I tried to compile as nrf9160_newboardns I get the following errors in spm.c

1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:129:2: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:129:2: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:160:3: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:207:3: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:224:21: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:262:3: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:293:24: error: 'NRF_UARTE2' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_UARTE0'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:93:23: note: in definition of macro 'NRFX_PERIPHERAL_ID_GET'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:293:3: note: in expansion of macro 'PERIPH'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:301:22: error: 'NRF_PWM1' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_PWM0'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:93:23: note: in definition of macro 'NRFX_PERIPHERAL_ID_GET'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:301:3: note: in expansion of macro 'PERIPH'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:302:22: error: 'NRF_PWM2' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_PWM1'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:93:23: note: in definition of macro 'NRFX_PERIPHERAL_ID_GET'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:302:3: note: in expansion of macro 'PERIPH'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:303:22: error: 'NRF_PWM3' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_PWM2'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:93:23: note: in definition of macro 'NRFX_PERIPHERAL_ID_GET'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:303:3: note: in expansion of macro 'PERIPH'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:321:3: error: 'NRF_SPU' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'NRF_SPU_S'?
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:321:10: error: 'const struct periph_cfg' has no member named 'GPIOPORT'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:321:23: error: 'const struct periph_cfg' has no member named 'PERM'
1> C:/ncs/nrf/subsys/spm/spm.c:321:3: warning: statement with no effect [-Wunused-value]
Build failed

i tried this using a grep replace function for 10090 on the new directory since I though I may have missed a line somewhere.

Is there a tutorial or set of directions on how to create new boards other than the one in Zephyr.

(Note: I did this before the introduction of the secure and non-secure versions of the board for section placement)

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Have you remembered to set the Secure Partition Manager to your custom board too? It seems that the SPM example is still using the regular board. I would try opening the SPM example with that custom board, building & then go back to your example & trying that again.

[Jeff Seaman]

On your advice I tried programming the SPM sample.

When I first tried Programming SPM with the board set to nrf9160_newboard I did get the PWM and UART errors.

Then I edited the device tree configuration, using the device tree tool, and changed that status of the peripherals that were giving me the errors.  The SPM sample then compiled.

When I moved back to my hello world test I needed to edit the device tree for that project.  However the changes made in the device tree did not affect the errors when compiling.

[Jeff Seaman]

The tool is from the menu bar  Project->Edit Device Tree.  A word of warning the Configure nRF Connect SDK Project settings are lost if you load the project with a clean build directory, I do not Know about the

settings in the Edit Device Tree.

[jbrzozoski]

I tend to live on the command line unless I'm using the debugger specifically.  That'd be why I couldn't find it. 

If you care, my alternative method is persistent and works for both the command line and SES.

[Jeff Seaman]

Yes I do not trust these tools yet, and do not like how things are scattered about the system.  I have more tweeking to do before I am happy with the way projects are set up.

[Yusuke]

Hi, jbrzozozski and Jeff,

I'm also stuck on the same issue. I'm attempting to build hello_world program on nrf9160_pca20190 custom board file.

How did you fix DTS?

Thank you in advance.

[Jeff Seaman]

See the above note I copied it here since I had trouble finding it in this thread

• Placed the folder nrf9160_pca20190 into <..>/ncs/zephyr/boards/arm with all the files you provided
• Added the following lines of code into <..>\ncs\zephyr\cmake\app\boilerplate.cmake:

if(FIRST_BOILERPLATE_EXECUTION)
.
.
else() # NOT FIRST_BOILERPLATE_EXECUTION
.
.
    set(BOARD nrf9160_pca20035)
    message("Changed board to secure nrf9160_pca20035 (NOT NS)")
  endif()
  
    if(${BOARD} STREQUAL nrf9160_pca20190ns)                     //Added this
    set(BOARD nrf9160_pca20190)                                  //Added this
    message("Changed board to secure nrf9160_pca20035 (NOT NS)") //Added this
  endif()                                                        //Added this
  
  unset(${IMAGE}DTC_OVERLAY_FILE)...
  .
  .
  .

• Built and flashed the hello world sample by running the commands  "west build -b nrf9160_pca20190ns" and "west flash"

This should solve your problem

[Yusuke]

Ok, I made it!

Over in the nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm directory, make a copy of nrf9160_pca10090.overlay renamed to match the new board name.

This is required.

Thank you so much, jbrzozoski!

[Jeff Seaman]

Thanks 

I need to get all this written in our documentation

[Yusuke]

Will you sum up the above practice in user manual in the near future? If so, I appreciate it!