Can I use RTC1?

RE: Can I use RTC1?

RK — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:45:44 GMT

I have no idea what that is, is that some piece of Keil crud or something or part of an analysis from an app project which chooses to use the library code? Perhaps Nordic specified some package dependencies in Keil, if they did, that's a bug and it's wrong.

Either way, the softdevice does not require ble_conn_params, using the softdevice does not require ble_conn_params and it doesn't require Nordic's timer implementation. I have just grepped all includers of ble_conn_params.h, they are

the ble_conn_params.c file
the dfu bootloader (which is an app)
various example code which uses the library because most of Nordic's example code uses its libraries, of course.

RE: Can I use RTC1?

ImQ009 — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:37:35 GMT

http://i.imgur.com/gGyNOgN.png

RE: Can I use RTC1?

RK — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:35:59 GMT

Where is ble_common required by the S110? It's not, I know it's not because I don't use it and I do use S110, I don't use Nordic's timers at all.

I just grepped the softdevice headers and none of them import ble_conn_params.h, only application code imports that, by choice.

RE: Can I use RTC1?

ImQ009 — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:31:28 GMT

ble_conn_params is required by ble_common and ble_common is required by S110

RE: Can I use RTC1?

RK — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:29:57 GMT

ble_conn_params is not the softdevice, it's a piece of library code written by Nordic which you can use if you like for managing connection parameters. You can also not use it if you don't want to. Many of Nordic's libraries use timers, but they're not part of the softdevice.

Also ble_conn_params is different from ble_gap_conn_params_t which is a structure sent in a ble connection update event and that structure does not use the timer either.

RE: Can I use RTC1?

ImQ009 — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:18:49 GMT

You said that Softdevice doesn't depend on app_timer. Are you sure? Because Keil says it needs it for ble_conn_params

RE: Can I use RTC1?

Nick — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 11:31:16 GMT

Thanks, this answer has been helpful. I will try to use the COMPARE registers that aren't used by RTC1.

RE: Can I use RTC1?

RK — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 09:23:05 GMT

You can use RTC1 if you want, app_timer isn't a required module, don't include it and don't use it. However note that some other libraries (like the button debounce one) use app_timer, but not very many. If you use none of those, you can do whatever you like with RTC1. The softdevice doesn't use it at all, the softdevice doesn't depend on any of that user-space code.

There's other options too. The app_timer code only uses one of the COMPARE registers on RTC1, the other ones are available for you to use if you want. So if you did need app_timer for say button debounce, you could still write your own code to use another of the compare registers. One point to note there is that the app_timer code will stop RTC1 running if it has no timers, so you'd need to keep one timer running. Or change app_timer.c to add your requirements, it's not particularly complicated code and you are free to modify it in any way you like, or write your own drop-in replacement.

Most likely case sounds like you don't need app_timer, it's fairly unlikely you are using other modules which do need it so you can just leave it out and use RTC1 for whatever you like. I do, I don't use any of the library code, I have my own routines for buttons, timers, UART, SPI etc.