Difficult to use nRF5x SDK from scratch!

[sgetz]

Whose idea was it to make creating a new project from scratch so difficult (if not impossible)????

I have created numerous projects using the nRF5x, but have always used an example project as the starting point.  However, when I want to do something that is in 2 different example projects, I have had a lot of trouble combining them.  And starting from scratch is impossible.  I am using it with IAR.

Why:

1. Mainly because of the sdk_config.h.  Trying to figure out what to enable or disable is very difficult.  Just for the UART/UARTE there are numerous enables.  All the color stuff makes no sense.  I never was able to make use of colors.

2. In order to move a project to a different directory either requires the entire sdk be brought with it, or redefining 1000's of includes paths in IAR's preprocessor options.  This is ridiculous.

3. There are a bunch of Define Symbols in IAR that don't make sense.  Having to recreate this for a scratch project is ridiculous.

4. TI does the above also, and I stopped using their sdk.

5. I have worked with numerous large software development companies that have written nRF5x projects.  They have all used example projects to get started because they say they can't figure it out either.

The API docs are OK, allowing me to do an include and start using the sdk calls, they are OK.  But having to read 25 documents and take 3 classes to create a scratch built project enviroment is not acceptable.

[sgetz]

Thanks Simon.  That is what I was attempting to do.  Had some problems and got frustrated.  I will check out the links you provided.  I appreciate your help.  I know the SDK can not be changed quickly, but please bring the concern to the right people in hopes an easier method is found in the future.  Thanks.

[Mojo]

Thanks for the link.  Another how-to I'd like to see is how to eliminate sdk_config.h completely please and all other config.h as well nrfx, mesh,..... 

[Simon]

sgetz said:

I know the SDK can not be changed quickly, but please bring the concern to the right people in hopes an easier method is found in the future.

Do you have any specific suggestions on how to improve the nRF5 SDK? If so, I would appreciate if you could share it with us.

Mojo said:

Another how-to I'd like to see is how to eliminate sdk_config.h completely please and all other config.h as well nrfx, mesh

I think configurations can be quite useful when developing an application. It enables the developer to pick and choose specific features and libraries, and to configure the pins and parameters of a particluar peripheral (e.g. baudrate and CTS pin of the UART peripheral). I might be wrong, and it may exist other ways of doing it. Do you have any suggestions?

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One of our newest products, the nRF9160, supports the nRF Connect SDK. This is a framework based on the Zephyr Project, and is quite different from the nRF5 SDK. Check out the nRF Connect SDK documentation for more information.

Best regards,

Simon

[RSA]

i Would say that thorough tutorials, about which elements need to be in a standard project, and when to change the cinfig.h (i know that the team is capable of this, since the BLE tutorials were pretty good.). IF i remember correctly it's rarely mentioned when you need to set a flag when reading in the infocenter. apart from that it's also often hard to figure out which headerfile to use when looking at functions. I always end up using Atom to search the directory.

After exploring the SDK for a while i notice alot of the things i spend time trying to figure out in the beginning, are written in the infocenter. Problem is that it's a labyrinth to navigate.

[Mojo]

It is not at all useful, instead it is a useless jungle.  The older SDK didn't have and it was super great and simple.  To configure a UART we just need to fill a config data structure with pins, baud rate and call init by passing it as parameter. The same for initializing the Softdevice, we can configure crystal/rc at will.  It was simple no mess and nothing was hardcoded. Since the introduction somewhere along the line of SDK10 I think, things got a lot messier with sdk_config.h, everything is hardcoded in it.  Due to that, it is not possible to compile the SDK into a lib and reuse in multiple projects. Now we have to add SDK source files to each project and every time we need to add one there is a min of 3  to 20 defines to add to the sdk_config.h.  The sdk_config.h ended up with over 300KB near 10000 lines of defines.  Isn't it ridiculous ? Thanks to the new scheme of the SDK I was able to teach the interns a great examples of what a bad programming practice is about.