Getting started with nRF91

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 18:54:54 GMT

I have got both my nRF9160-DK board working.

What I have done is:

On "My account" page, Reset the device, even if the device does not actually appear in the account
Generate new certificates on "My account" page
Manually erase all certificates in memory via AT%CMNG=3,16842753,0, AT%CMNG=3,16842753,1, AT%CMNG=3,16842753,2
Load the new certificates using the Certificate manager.

After this I had to power cycle and reset the devices (sometimes it seems that cycling power does not reset properly).

One additional note: each time the IDE is restarted, it overwrites the line:

#define CONFIG_AT_CMD_RESPONSE_MAX_LEN 4000

With 256; then the certificates would not load.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 09:37:13 GMT

Hi,

Based on the last log, the application seems to be running with nrf9160dk_asset_tracker_09-10-2019_c9c833b1.hex, and its able to connect to the network (RSRP is a bit low, 37, -140 + 37 = -103 dBm.), but the certificates are not OK, which is indicated by the -111 connection error.

If you have overwritten the certificates that were already present on the DK (you mentioned that you put in the same certificates as on your thingy:91?), you have to follow the guide here to generate a new certificate for you nRF9160-DK, with a pin number that you generate (123456 for instance), then load that file you get back from nrfcloud.com via "Certificate manager" in LTE Link Monitor, as described here:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/cellular-iot-guides/b/getting-started-cellular/posts/nrf-cloud-certificate-update

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 16:08:47 GMT

I have received the second unit; I guess it is old (pcb 400389/0069TORS).

I have tried everything I could think of (see attachment), but by the end it is back to square 1.

The THINGY:91 works, so TIM SIMs are fine

Asset_tracker recompiled by me seems to work up to the LTE connection

I wonder if tdevzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF9160-Experience.txthe problem is just with the nrfcloud link.

Any suggestion?

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 08:44:42 GMT

I have already done that: it is in the posts above.

I have ordered a second unit from DigiKey, to verify if the problem is with the unit I have: I must give an answer by the end of next week if we are able to start development on this platform.

I would be wonderful to have a firmware image verified to work with NB-IOT to exclude problems in the build chain; if this is not possible, I will try with the image I have generated.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 07:42:00 GMT

Hi,

If you recompile the asset_tracker with this option set:

https://github.com/NordicPlayground/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/blob/master/drivers/lte_link_control/Kconfig#L143

ie: prj.conf includes CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_NBIOT=y

then you should have NB1 enabled instead of M1.

nRF Programmer app has a limitation, where it sets the device as unknown until it has read the whole flash. Its a purely graphical thing, and should not have any impact on the programming procedure. This is notified back to the developers.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 13:20:52 GMT

I have loaded the certificates; nothing changes with my application.

I have downloaded and installed nrf9160dk_asset_tracker_09-10-2019_c9c833b1.hex but LTE and PDN do not turn green in LTE Link monitor.

So I suspect that the image only works with LTE-M which is not supported in Italy. Do you have an hex image supposed to work with NB-IOT?

By the way, nRFConnect-Programmer always complains that the Device type is unknown; is this normal?

RE: Getting started with nRF91

Håkon Alseth — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 11:23:30 GMT

[quote user="cmag"]I have updated the certificates with the same certificates I used in the THINGY:91[/quote]

The DK already has certificates, but since that has been done now, you have probably overwritten those. You should create your own certificates for the DK, similar to how you did this with the thingy:91. By following this guide, you should be able to generate new certificates (and a chosen pin) and add the device:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/cellular-iot-guides/b/getting-started-cellular/posts/nrf-cloud-certificate-update

Could you try to repeat this procedure for your DK, and see if it works with that one as well?

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:32:11 GMT

I have updated the certificates with the same certificates I used in the THINGY:91 (I had to change CONFIG_AT_CMD_RESPONSE_MAX_LEN to 4096 in autoconf.h first).

Now the nRF9160DK connects to the network (UART Modem UICC LTE and PDN turn green and network registration data look fine).

Anyway only LED 3 keeps blinking (no LED 4 blink) and the device is not connectable in the WEB page.

My device does not have a PIN and the network instructs to switch Switch 1 and Switch2 to pair.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 12:53:51 GMT

Glad to hear that it worked on the thingy:91.

Are you still having compiler issues when trying asset_tracker on the nRF9160-DK?

If yes, can you please post the latest log?

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 14:59:41 GMT

One problem solved: I ordered a Thingy:91; after updating the applications (install GO...), which was needed to load the certificates, it still fails to connect when using the iBasis SIM, but it connects and sends data to nrfCloud using a TIM/Olivetti SIM. Still the tracking application does not work on the nRF9160-DK.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 12:55:25 GMT

If the application fails to load in the IDE, try re-importing the project with a different build folder (or delete the one already present in the application folder)

The former logs that you have shows the CEREG output to be registered to the network successfully, but the latest log gives this output:

+CEREG: 2,0,"8901","07AA6E50",9OK

This indicates that you are not connected to the network, as shown in the CEREG documentation:

https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/ref_at_commands/REF/at_commands/nw_service/cereg_read.html?cp=2_1_6_8_1

Where 0 is:

0 – Not registered. User Equipment (UE) is not currently searching for an operator to register to.

As mentioned; previous logs show that you have been successfully associated with the network.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 21:47:23 GMT

I have tried install everything on my Linux PC at home; I can rebuild and get some life out of the unit:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ASSET_5F00_MANAGER_5F00_DUMP.txt

I am sure I recompiled, because I modified the start string "ASSET-TRACKER Application started"

Anyway I still fail to connect to the network after recompiling. Also the other sample application (/home/cmag/projects/ncs/nrf/applications/nrf_desktop/CMakeLists.txt) fails to load in the IDE:

CMake Error at /home/cmag/projects/ncs/nrf/cmake/boilerplate.cmake:17 (message):

board nrf9160_pca10090ns is not supported

Call Stack (most recent call first):

CMakeLists.txt:28 (include)

RE: Getting started with nRF91

MJD093 — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:47:21 GMT

Yes, all applications will built for the non-secure region, I don't use the SES at all (I'm a command line user) but as the version of the SES IDE is a Nordic modded version, it will expect that you are building for non-secure versions of the nrf9160. You should not build this application for anything other than non-secure. The secure application will be built in the build folder along with the non-secure application before being merged into a single .hex file. All the user must do is specify that the application is being built for the non-secure region of flash and the secure region of flash will be made along side the non-secure application.

From the experience I have had with Zephyr, whitelisting is not advised when using someone else's firmware. However from that error it would appear that the custom configuration variable FLIP_INPUT isn't assigned. Looking at it's definition in the Kconfig file, it uses the board designation to assign a value to FLIP_INPUT. It needs the board to be configured as nrf9160_pca10090ns or nrf9160_pca20035ns (Thingy:91). It would appear that trying to use the secure board designation has caused this error.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:35:25 GMT

If I select Board name: nrf9160_pca10090 (without NS) I get:

I can only generate the project for the NS version.

The error message seems to be:

Error: Aborting due to non-whitelisted Kconfig warning 'warning: the value '' is invalid for
FLIP_INPUT (defined at C:/Projects/ncs/nrf/applications/asset_tracker/Kconfig:116), which has type
int -- assignment ignored'. Note: If this warning doesn't point to an actual problem, you can add it
to the whitelist at the top of C:/Projects/ncs/zephyr/scripts/kconfig/kconfig.py.

If I whitelist the warning, the projects is generated, but does not compile.

Later today a new blank PC will arrive to us; I will try installing the toolchain there to check if there is some incompatible software on my PC (I already cleaned all Python libraries before installing).

RE: Getting started with nRF91

MJD093 — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:22:28 GMT

You do not need to build only a non-secure application. When erasing the nRF9160, you will erase both the secure and non-secure applications. The secure and non-secure applications are merged and flashed together as merged.hex.

If you wish to see the non-secure .hex file, this one will be found in at build/zephyr/zephyr.hex whereas the secure application .hex file is located at build/spm/zephyr/zephyr.hex.

I would not recommend flashing the non-secure on it's own as the secure application is the secure partition manager that configures the device from flash partitions to peripherals. I haven't tried to do this nor would I do this so I have no idea what that would do but most likely result in error.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:06:53 GMT

Maybe I am making a mistake in building the application: I am just building the NS version; on Zephyr site (docs.zephyrproject.org/.../index.html) the options are:

Building Secure/Non-Secure Zephyr applications
Building a Secure only application

There is no option for building a NS application only.

Am I missing something?

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:17:17 GMT

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../at_5F00_client.txt devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../asset_5F00_tracker.txt

at_client ended in a correct connection (at least to TIM base station).

I uploaded both files using the Programmer app of nRF Connect.

The asset tracker file is the merged.hex file found in C:\Projects\ncs\nrf\applications\asset_tracker\build_nrf9160_pca10090ns\zephyr after compiling

TIM SIMs should not be restricted as Vodafone are. Anyway, if you have a working hex file for NB-IOT I would like to check it out to exclude the problem is with the SIM.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

MJD093 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 15:08:43 GMT

Can you provide some output from the LTE Link Monitor to show us what's going on with the device?

Question, does your SIM provider "TIM/Olivetti" offer dynamic IPs over their network. Connection to the nRF Cloud occurs through dynamic MQTT to AWS and this means the endpoint of the connection could be any of a huge list of IP addresses.

Vodafone NB-IoT Evaluation SIMs do not provide this and require whitelisted IPs so it's good to check as this has caught me out in early development but as it was only for this sample application, it was easy to get around.

The fact that the Asset Tracker is using: static const char network_mode[] = "AT%XSYSTEMMODE=0,1,0,0"; is a good sign that everything should be set to the NB-IoT version.

RE: Getting started with nRF91

cmag — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 13:59:31 GMT

I had already added:

# Added for NBIOT as suggested by
# devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../203734
CONFIG_LTE_LEGACY_PCO_MODE=y
CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_NBIOT=y

Which activated the line:

static const char network_mode[] = "AT%XSYSTEMMODE=0,1,0,0";

RE: Getting started with nRF91

MJD093 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 13:40:28 GMT

Hi,

Could you try adding CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_NBIOT=y to the prj.conf file?

That should set the asset tracked to utilise NB-IoT.