Receiving data from UART via a peripheral device

[Thomas]

Hi

I am working with a Nordic nrf52840dk using segge and sdk 16.

I am using the nordic UART example in examples/peripheral/uart.

The issue I am having is that my data being sent to this device can not be read from the nordic board.

Below is an example of the code going into my Putty terminal from my UART peripheral device.

1,1183,1,1169
1,1183,1,1169
1,1183,1,1169
1,1183,1,1169
1,1183,1,1169
1,1183,1,1169

This device has 4 wire connections RX,TX,CTS and RTS. My connections are listed below:

Note this is the default.

#define RX_PIN_NUMBER  8
#define TX_PIN_NUMBER  6
#define CTS_PIN_NUMBER 7
#define RTS_PIN_NUMBER 5

The first thing i tried was running the code with no change to see if app_uart_get(&cr) would pull this data. Unfortunately it did not. It does however, pull data that i type into the terminal.

What I want to do is to take this data from the UART(Sensor data) and store it as a variable for handling later on.

I which to know how I can pull this data from the serial connection.

Side note when the device (UART) is plugged in printing from putty does not run. If I unplug the device then printing works fine.  Below is my main code (from example).

int main(void)
{
    uint32_t err_code;

    bsp_board_init(BSP_INIT_LEDS);

    const app_uart_comm_params_t comm_params =
      {
          RX_PIN_NUMBER,
          TX_PIN_NUMBER,
          RTS_PIN_NUMBER,
          CTS_PIN_NUMBER,
          UART_HWFC,
          false,
#if defined (UARTE_PRESENT)
          NRF_UARTE_BAUDRATE_115200
#else
          NRF_UARTE_BAUDRATE_115200
#endif
/*
#if defined (UART_PRESENT)
          NRF_UART_BAUDRATE_115200
#else
          NRF_UARTE_BAUDRATE_115200
#endif
*/
      };

    APP_UART_FIFO_INIT(&comm_params,
                         UART_RX_BUF_SIZE,
                         UART_TX_BUF_SIZE,
                         uart_error_handle,
                         APP_IRQ_PRIORITY_HIGH,
                         //APP_IRQ_PRIORITY_LOWEST,
                         err_code);

    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

#ifndef ENABLE_LOOPBACK_TEST
    printf("\r\nUART example started.\r\n");

    while (true)
    {
        uint8_t cr;
        while (app_uart_get(&cr) != NRF_SUCCESS);
        while (app_uart_put(cr) != NRF_SUCCESS);

        if (cr == 'q' || cr == 'Q')
        {
            printf(" \r\nExit!\r\n");

            while (true)
            {
                // Do nothing.
            }
        }
    }
#else

    // This part of the example is just for testing the loopback .
    while (true)
    {
        uart_loopback_test();
    }
#endif
}

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

It is not entirely clear to me, but the serial terminal on the PC is via the onboard debugger, right (USB connector on the left of the board)? If you are using that (or have the debugger enabled in general so that IF OFF is not asserted, then you should use different pins for the external UART device. In other words, connect the UART pins between the nRF and another device to some available GPIO pins, and update the pin number defines.

[Thomas]

Thanks for your response, I am using the onboard usb connector (the one in the top-middle of the board). This is where my putty serial terminal connects to. Jlink CDC UART PORT(COM5)

I have tried redefining the pinouts to:

#define RX_PIN_NUMBER  NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,3)//8
#define TX_PIN_NUMBER  NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,28)//6
#define CTS_PIN_NUMBER NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,4)//7
#define RTS_PIN_NUMBER NRF_GPIO_PIN_MAP(0,29)//5

I have then connected my device to those pinout.

However, I now no longer see that information (from the uart device) to putty, nor can I use a printf command and see the result.

When I  run this through the dubugger after running the APP_UART_FIFO_INIT and checking the error code it goes to NRF_BREAKPOINT_COND;

I then get this in the call stack area of the debugger.

What other details do you need to help resolve this issue?

[Thomas]

ble_app_beacon_not_working_rtt.zip

That is the code I am using inside the ble_peripheral folder

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I checked your application, and the problem is that you don't process logs in your main loop, so, therefore, you should set NRF_LOG_DEFERRED to 0 in your projects sdk_config.h. With that in place, the RTT log is output correctly.

(I also noticed that you added include paths for specific files rather than for the whole project. Instead of modifying the options for app_uart_fifo.c and main.c, you should instead have added it to the project-wide include path (from Project -> Options...). Not that it really matters, but that is cleaner and easier than adding it for specific files, and is what is done in all our example projects.)

[Thomas]

Ok thanks, that seemed to work. Now I'll try merging my ble_Advert code with it

[Thomas]

Ok I've merged them and get a fatal error. Here is my RTT+ beacon code(main) This works when i remove the line advertising_mod:

int main(void)
{
    uint32_t err_code;
    char string[MAX_TEST_DATA_BYTES];
    char c;
    int pos;
    
    T1_data_1 = 0;T1_data_2 = 0;T2_data_1 = 0;T2_data_2 = 0;T3_data_1 = 0;
    T3_data_2 = 0;P1_data_1 = 0;P1_data_2 = 0;P2_data_1 = 0;P2_data_2 = 0;
    // Initialize.
    timers_init();
    leds_init();
    power_management_init();
    ble_stack_init();
    advertising_init();
    //hfxo_enable();

    log_init();

    NRF_LOG_INFO("UART example started.");

    bsp_board_init(BSP_INIT_LEDS);

    const app_uart_comm_params_t comm_params =
      {
          RX_PIN_NUMBER,
          TX_PIN_NUMBER,
          RTS_PIN_NUMBER,
          CTS_PIN_NUMBER,
          UART_HWFC,
          false,
#if defined (UART_PRESENT)
          NRF_UART_BAUDRATE_115200
#else
          NRF_UARTE_BAUDRATE_115200
#endif
      };
    APP_UART_FIFO_INIT(&comm_params,
                         UART_RX_BUF_SIZE,
                         UART_TX_BUF_SIZE,
                         uart_error_handle,
                         APP_IRQ_PRIORITY_LOWEST,
                         err_code);

    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
    pos = 0;
    //UART get code RTT RX code
    while (true)
    {
        // Get next gyte from FIFO
        while (app_uart_get(&c) != NRF_SUCCESS);
        string[pos] = c;
        // Assume that all strings end with \n. If end, print and start over.
        if (string[pos] == '\n')
        {
            string[pos+1] = '\0';
            NRF_LOG_INFO("Received string: \"%s\"", string);
            pos = 0;
        }
        else
        {
            pos++;
        }
       
        //nrf_delay_ms(1000);//Delay 1 second
        counter++;
        idle_state_handle();
        data_changed = true;
        if(data_changed==true)
        {
          advertising_mod(counter,T1_data_1,T1_data_2,T2_data_1,T2_data_2,00,00,70,80,70,80);//Only have two temperature sensors
          data_changed = false;
        }
    }
}

Here is my other beacon code. This outputs a ble_advert and increments a counter. This can be seen using nrf connect.

int main(void)
{
   
    bool erase_bonds;

    T1_data_1 = 0;T1_data_2 = 0;T2_data_1 = 0;T2_data_2 = 0;T3_data_1 = 0;
    T3_data_2 = 0;P1_data_1 = 0;P1_data_2 = 0;P2_data_1 = 0;P2_data_2 = 0;
    
    // Initialize.
    uart_init();
    log_init();
    timers_init();
    buttons_leds_init(&erase_bonds);
    power_management_init();
    ble_stack_init();
    gap_params_init();
    gatt_init();
    services_init();
    advertising_init();
    conn_params_init();
    bsp_board_led_invert(2);
    // Start execution.
    //printf("\r\nUART started.\r\n");
    
    NRF_LOG_INFO("Debug logging for UART over RTT started.");
    advertising_start();
    advertising_mod(counter,00,00,00,00,00,00,70,80,70,80);//Only have two temperature sensors
    // Enter main loop.
    for (;;)
    {
        nrf_delay_ms(1000);
        //printf("Test\n\r");//Works if the uart board is disconnected
        //printf("Test");//Works if the uart board is disconnecte
        counter ++;
        idle_state_handle();
        data_changed = true;
        if(data_changed==true)
        {
          printf("data changed value is: %d\r\n",data_changed);
          advertising_mod(counter,T1_data_1,T1_data_2,T2_data_1,T2_data_2,00,00,70,80,70,80);//Only have two temperature sensors
          data_changed = false;
          printf("data changed value is: %d\r\n",data_changed);
        }
    }
}

I need to figure a way to merge them and have them both run.

[Einar Thorsrud]

I see. Generally, you need to debug and see what the fatal error is. If you enable debug builds (Select Debug instead of release from the build target configuration dropdown) and have RTT logging enabled, you will get the error code and location printed in the log. Most of the times this will imediately tell you what the problem is.

[Thomas]

I get NRF_FAULT_ID_SDK_ERROR 0x0000000000004001.

This comes from NRF_DRV_UART_EVT_TX_DONE: within the app_uart_fifo.c.

When it runs the m_event_handler

This runs from the line of code:

err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

[Thomas]

FIXED IT

I forgot to start the add before moding it.

[Thomas]

I do have another issue. After a short while I do get Fatal error. Was after 27 seconds of reading fine. Any idea what could cause this? Or how to implement a restart feature

[Thomas]

It runs from

 

err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_stop(m_adv_handle);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

and sometimes from :

err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_start(m_adv_handle, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

Both of which are within my ad mod code.

[Einar Thorsrud]

What was the error code? That usually tells you what the problem was.