nRF9160 and SD card example

[Giannis Anastasopoulos]

Dear All,

I want to create a simple example, where the nRF9160 will create a file in an SD card, read it, write to it etc.

I found an example in ncs/zephyr/samples/subsys/fs/fat_fs. In this example the device will mount the SD card and read out the files in it, so it seems to be the perfect starting point for me.

In the Zephyr documentation (here) it is suggested that I need to implement an overlay. But when I make that overlay file the project won't be loaded on the SES, giving me this error:

My overlay file looks like this:

CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_SPI_1=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS_SDHC=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS_SPI_SDHC=y
CONFIG_DISK_SDHC_VOLUME_NAME="SD"
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_FILE_SYSTEM=y
CONFIG_FAT_FILESYSTEM_ELM=y
CONFIG_PRINTK=y

From what I understand the overlay file is somehow messing the project up, but I don't see how that happens.

If I do not add the overlay file, the project loads normally, but I am getting this error when I try to compile:

Building ‘zephyr/drivers/spi/libdrivers__spi.a’ from solution ‘build’ in configuration ‘Common’
1> Archiving ‘libdrivers__gpio.a’
2> Compiling ‘spi_nrfx_spim.c’
2> In file included from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/arch/arm/arch.h:26:0,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/arch/cpu.h:17,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/kernel_includes.h:34,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/kernel.h:17,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/device.h:11,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/drivers/spi.h:24,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:7:
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:374:8: error: 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_1_IRQ_0_PRIORITY' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_3_IRQ_0_PRIORITY'?
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/include/arch/arm/irq.h:82:32: note: in definition of macro 'Z_ARCH_IRQ_CONNECT'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:373:3: note: in expansion of macro 'IRQ_CONNECT'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:374:8: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/include/arch/arm/irq.h:82:32: note: in definition of macro 'Z_ARCH_IRQ_CONNECT'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:373:3: note: in expansion of macro 'IRQ_CONNECT'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:387:17: error: 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_1_SCK_PIN' undeclared here (not in a function); did you mean 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_3_SCK_PIN'?
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:388:17: error: 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_1_MOSI_PIN' undeclared here (not in a function); did you mean 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_3_MOSI_PIN'?
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:389:17: error: 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_1_MISO_PIN' undeclared here (not in a function); did you mean 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_3_MISO_PIN'?
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
2> In file included from C:/ncs/zephyr/include/drivers/spi.h:24:0,
2>                  from C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:7:
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:399:9: error: 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_1_LABEL' undeclared here (not in a function); did you mean 'DT_NORDIC_NRF_SPIM_SPI_3_LABEL'?
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/include/device.h:107:11: note: in definition of macro 'DEVICE_AND_API_INIT'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:398:2: note: in expansion of macro 'DEVICE_DEFINE'
2> C:/ncs/zephyr/drivers/spi/spi_nrfx_spim.c:412:1: note: in expansion of macro 'SPI_NRFX_SPIM_DEVICE'
Build failed

which obviously comes from the fact that spi1 is not correctly initialized.

So what is the proper form of the overlay file?

[Giannis Anastasopoulos]

At the moment I can get my code loaded and compiled in SES, but I still cannot read data from the SD card.

So what I have now looks like this:

&spi3 {
        status = "okay";
        cs-gpios = <&gpio0 16 0>;        
        sdhc0: sdhc@0 {
                compatible = "mmc-spi-slot";
                reg = <0>;
                status = "okay";
                label = "SDHC0";
                spi-max-frequency = <24000000>;
        };
};

My device has the following pinout:
ss: 16
miso:17
mosi:18
sck:19

The prj.conf file I am using looks like this:

CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_SPI_3=y
CONFIG_SPI_NRFX=y
CONFIG_SPI_3_NRF_SPIM=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS_SDHC=y
CONFIG_DISK_ACCESS_SPI_SDHC=y
CONFIG_DISK_SDHC_VOLUME_NAME="SD"
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_FILE_SYSTEM=y
CONFIG_FAT_FILESYSTEM_ELM=y
CONFIG_PRINTK=y# CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC=y
# CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY=y
# CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY_TRACE_ENABLED=n
# CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_NONSECURE=y
# CONFIG_NET_BUF_USER_DATA_SIZE=1024CONFIG_GPIO=y

I am pretty sure that I am missing something in the overlay file, but I don't know what.When I run the code I get the following output:

12:19:44.143 -> ***** Booting Zephyr OS build v2.0.99-ncs1-4-g52160ca9a102 *****
12:19:44.177 -> Error mounting disk.
12:19:44.177 -> [00:00:00.007,751] [1;31m<err> main: Storage init ERROR![0m
12:19:44.177 -> [00:00:00.007,781] [1;31m<err> fs: fs mount error (-5)[0m

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[Hakon]

Hey,

are you on the master branch?

[Hakon]

You can try to run it on the DK and see if you get the same error there.

[Jagruti]

Hello,

I am trying the same program and I am also getting the same error on nRF9160DK. Did you solve the problem? If yes, please help me with it.

[Giannis Anastasopoulos]

Jagruti
I didn't get the opportunity to run the example on the DK, but since you did it, perhaps you can  share your configuration and perhaps Hakon can help both of us out on this one.

[Hakon]

There have been some updates to the Zephyr repo, here and here. You can try to apply these changes and see if it works for you. I can unfortunately not test this myself at the moment because I'm out of office.

[Jagruti]

Hello Hakon,

I am trying to do the same thing as Giannis. The files you have shown are olimexino_stm32.dts and nrf52840_blip.overlay. But we are working on nrf9160dk and not on nrf52840 blip board. So I will need to add nrf9160_pca10090ns.overlay file and do changes what you have told for nrf52840_blip.overlay file. But instead of olimexino_stm32.dts file, which file I should edit?

[Hakon]

You shouldn't edit the .dts file at all as far as I know. That's what the .overlay file is for. If you're asking which file the nrf9160_pca10090ns.overlay file is overriding, that would be nrf9160_pca10090_common.dts.

[Jagruti]

Thank you for the reply. I did the changes in files from zephyr which you showed, but it shows error. Now I am working on ncs tag v1.2.0 and zephyr v2.1.99 branch. still no progress. I always get the error CS control inhibited (no GPIO device).

[Hakon]

I have been told you should use the littlefs sample instead of fat_fs. Try that and see how it works out for you.