Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Nguyen Hoan Hoang — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 16:01:05 GMT

That works, thanks.

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Carl Richard — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 07:19:24 GMT

Hi, Hoang!

Have you tried to uncheck the "Auto device/port filter" in the lower right corner of the LTE Link Monitor? If that doesn't help, please open a new case on the issue so that the discussion wont clutter this one.

Best regards,
Carl Richard

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Nguyen Hoan Hoang — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 18:15:07 GMT

The LTE Link Monitor only finds DK or Thingy91 UART. It does not see any non Nordic UART. Is there are away to make this work with external UART such as a FTDI USB-UART bridge? The AT commands does respond when manually using a Terminal program such as PUTTY or CoolTerm but LTE Link does not see it why ?

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Carl Richard — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 14:14:58 GMT

Great! Yes, you can expose I/O to use UART and in turn use the LTE link monitor. Take a look at this case.

The LTE link monitor looks for nRF9160 devices, and will show "No devices available" if none are connected.

My pleasure.

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 14:03:51 GMT

Hi carl,

ok i will choose Jlink EDU mini, but for LTE monitor, if i expose some IO,i can use UART on any of those pins right. .

I opened the LTE monitor app, but though i have many comports on PC, its not showing any comports for selection...why is it?

Thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Carl Richard — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 12:29:59 GMT

Hi!

The J-Link EDU mini should be adequate. Though you will not be able to use the LTE link monitor through the J-Link as this requires UART. You will be able to use RTT, however.

Hope this helps!

BR,
Carl Richard

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 10:52:18 GMT

Hi carl,

Thank you for your reply. just in case if i use external standalone jlink like "Jlink EDU mini" can it support?

if i use stand alone Jlink edu mini , then can i use " LTE link monitor". from our custom board how can i connect to LTE link monitor?

Thank you

with regards

Dr.N.chandra Sekhar,M.Tech,phd

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Carl Richard — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 10:48:12 GMT

Hello again, Chandra!

Good to hear that you've finished assembling your nRF9160 pcb!

The nRF52 J-Link chip can unfortunately not be used for programming the nRF9160 SiP. This requires an nRF9160 DK. Alternatively you can look into the standalone Segger J-Link debug probes that are available.

Best regards,
Carl Richard

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 20:02:37 GMT

Hello Heidi,

we finished assembling our first pcb with nrf9160. right now i am trying to upload the "asset tracker"firmware. we dont have nrf9160 dk. we are using a SIP custom board. i have few NRF52DK. i am trying to connect it via the Jlink of nrf52dk. but i am getting error that " the connected Jlink does not support Arm v8 arhchitecture and can not be debugged"

how can i program the nrf9160 device with the help of jlink which comes with nrf52dk. but i see that, it detects the NRF9160 .please help me over it.thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Fri, 29 May 2020 17:30:04 GMT

Hi,

Thank you, yes files shared for review in another ticket.

now its turn to start work on firmware.

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Heidi — Fri, 29 May 2020 15:28:31 GMT

Great! Just make another ticket on DevZone for the hardware review, and make sure to make it private.

Best regards,

Heidi

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Fri, 29 May 2020 14:12:01 GMT

Hi Heidi,

Thanks for your kind support till date. i had completed Hardware sch & layout. how can i submit it for review privately. thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Heidi — Fri, 29 May 2020 10:16:47 GMT

Hi!

Yes, you need to get the eSIM from your network provider.

The COEX0 is a part of the LTE modem coexistence interface, which is a three-pin interface for RF interference avoidance towards a companion radio device while MAGPIO0 is part of the LTE modem RF control external interface, a digital interface for controlling external RF applications.

So the COEX0 is an input to the LTE modem from an external device, and when active high, indicates that the external device transceiver is turned on. If you're using the internal GPS, COEX0 can be used as active high to control for the external LNA component.

The MAGPIO pins allow the modem to control external circuitry, and specifically, the MAGPIO0 is used to enable the GPS LNA.

So, you should use the MAGPIO0 to control the GPS LNA.

Best regards,

Heidi

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Wed, 27 May 2020 14:26:37 GMT

Hi Heidi,

Thanks for your reply. but still i am confused about using esim and whether to get esim from network operator or buy from mouser.

with respect to using active antenna, from the whitepaper https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fug_nrf91_dk%2FUG%2Fnrf91_DK%2Fsim_esim.html

it mentions Coex0 can be used to switch GPS LNA or GPS load switch for active antenna. but Datasheet say MAGPIO0 can be used to switch GPS. need clarity about which pin to be used. Thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Heidi — Wed, 27 May 2020 12:53:17 GMT

Regarding eSIM: This ticket has a lot of info regarding this. Also this SIM and eSIM page regarding eSIM support on the nRF9160 DK.

Note: be aware that there is a lot of misunderstanding and misuse of terms. This article explains this. Could you clarify that you mean eSIM and not iSIM?

Regarding BLE chip: It doesn't matter that much what you use. If you choose UART you can get away with only using two pins. With SPI, you would need 3-4, but it's also faster so more suitable if you're sending a lot of data.

Best regards,

Heidi

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Wed, 27 May 2020 10:43:25 GMT

Hi sir,

'How are you? Any update about esim.i am waiting for information about. how to integrate it. i mean, many manufacturers are offering Esim IC. simply can i use it, or do i need to get it from network operators. if i use a blank esim chip some company like infineon or ST, then how to load network credentials? awating for this information.

based on your suggestion to use Nordic chip for BLE, i am planning to use mbn52832 sip module from murrate.. which connections i need to make from this BLE chip to NRF9160.

with regards

Dr.N.Chandra sekhar,phd

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Heidi — Thu, 21 May 2020 11:07:11 GMT

Hi!

The reason I suggest using nRF9160 as the main MCU and handle BLE over UART is that there are a lot of sample projects in NCS for exactly this setup.

With regard to eSim, I suggest asking your network provider about how this is provided. I will try to find someone tomorrow who has knowledge about how eSIM's work, as today is a Norwegian holiday. Since the Nordic modules (DK and Thingy) don't support this I don't have much experience with it.

For a blank NCS project, you need the following file structure

-src
-main.c
-prj.conf
-CMakeLists.txt

where prj.conf is for all your configurations, and CMakeLists.txt looks something like this

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.8.2)

include($ENV{ZEPHYR_BASE}/../nrf/cmake/boilerplate.cmake)
include($ENV{ZEPHYR_BASE}/cmake/app/boilerplate.cmake NO_POLICY_SCOPE)
project(NONE)

# NORDIC SDK APP START
target_sources(app PRIVATE src/main.c)
# NORDIC SDK APP END

If you go to ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160 you'll find a lot of sample applications. We usually recommend newcomers start by editing an application that resembles theirs, instead of creating a blank project. This git-repo, from a colleague, also has a few basic samples, such as UART and SPI to show how to set up these things.

As for your request to guide you in every aspect, the way we handle technical support on DevZone is generally to make a new ticket if your follow-up questions are not related to the original ticket. This is first and foremost so that other users can easily find tickets similar to their own and to make the website searchable. And secondly, to make sure your questions end up with the Nordic engineer who has experience with what you're asking about.

Lastly, so you're aware, we do offer hardware review of your design and antenna tuning for free, when you have gotten that far in your development process. :)

Best regards,

Heidi

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Thu, 21 May 2020 10:28:41 GMT

HELLO heidi.

thanks for reply, i do consider MR.carls inputs. thanks for both. i am starting with antenova gps active antenna for GPS, and molex felxstrip for LTE,

this is the first time i am handling nrf9160,and we are already running late, so i need some support privately and guide me in every aspect, so we can take this to production in less than 3 months.as we already got screwed bcz of corona.

with respect to BLE , we are planning to use other vendor module with AT commands , will it be easier to do all BLE stuff from the nrf9160 via uart, or do you recommend to use nordic module only. ?

we are planning to use Esim. but we dont know how to proceed. dont know where to start, Does netwrok operators provide esim? or do we need to use any balnk esim modules and then load with imei or how,this works can you guide me on this?

i had tried installing NCS and followed step by step getting started guide, but still unable to get a clear idea about , how to create a empty project, or any empty or template project to start with. like in BLE empty

Thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Heidi — Wed, 20 May 2020 10:06:32 GMT

Hi! Carl Richard is actually a previous and coming Nordic employee so please consider his response as well.

1. what is the best suitable antenna for NRF9160 for both LTE & GPS, we don't have hardcore RF expertise, so we need help on this , we have some flex antennas

a.https://www.molex.com/molex/products/part-detail/antennas/2072350100

b.https://www.molex.com/molex/products/part-detail/antennas/2065600100

can above antennas be used by just connecting via UFL connector with out any matching components etc , or any smaller chip antenna available

The first antenna you linked (2072350100) does not cover the correct frequency for GPS as we use 1257 MHz, so the other one is the most suitable. And yes, they can be used by just connecting via the UFL connector.

2.what is the smallest size PCB we can have when NRF9160 with including antennas . remaining BLE & power circuits we can manage

This depends on the antenna you're using, and how good performance you want. The antenna requires a minimum size on a ground plane, and the larger the ground plane, the better performance - generally speaking.

3. we are not interested in 2 firmware for 9160 separately and ble separately. so we are planning to choose BLE processor as main MCU , and NRF9160 will be used with out any custom firmware, so AT command based. so any suggestions on this

I agree with Carl Richard - the nRF9160 should be used as the main MCU. If you take a look at the hardware for our nRF9160 module, the nRF9160 development kit, the nRF9160 is used as the main MCU while the nRF52840 (our BLE chip) is running the HCI UART FW, to expose the Zephyr BLE controller over UART.

4. our goal will be to extract the GPS from 9160 to BLE main mcu, and then send it via MQTT. does NRF9160 supports MQTT, any code examples via AT. with out implementing MQTT protocol on BLE main mCU, does NRF9160 supports any quick command. as of now, only publishing, in future might need subscribe also.

Yes, nRF9160 supports MQTT. We have this Simple MQTT sample, available in NCS, which connects the nRF9160 to an MQTT broker.

We also have the Serial LTE Modem sample, which has support for MQTT Client proprietary AT commands, so a step simpler than the simple MQTT sample. The serial LTE modem sample is a demonstration on how to send AT commands between a host (nRF9160) and a client device, which sounds relevant to your application description.

5. Does NRF9160 modules selling in online have embedded sim enabled, if so how to activate it with carrier.

The nRF9160 DK and Thingy:91, which are the nRF9160 modules sold by Nordic, do not have support for an embedded SIM. As for other modules sold, you would have to ask the producer. I found this module for instance which has support for eSim installation at production time.

6. lets say, if LTE is connected to carrier, then with out disconnecting from carrier, can we get GPS information, if so how? any examples.

Yes, this is possible and the nRF9160 Pathfinder project that Carl Richard and a few other summer students worked on last summer demonstrates this. By putting the modem in power saving mode, you can operate the GPS and don't have to completely deactivate the modem.

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Chandra2sekhar — Tue, 19 May 2020 16:55:07 GMT

yesterday , i received a mail, that a nordic engineer has been assgined.no reply or message from any one.

thank you

RE: Need help on NRF9160 Development of Hardware & firmware

Carl Richard — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:48:41 GMT

Hey, Chandra!

I'm no Nordic employee, but I can try to answer some of your questions.

1. I have no experience with this, but Nordic does have a guideline for the antenna interface here: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/pdf/nwp_033.pdf. Look at page 8 for recommended antennas.

2. Again, not sure, but looking at this I belive you can achieve quite small PCBs.

3. I would actually recommend the opposite. From my experience this will make the cellular operations easier, and the nRF9160 MCU has good BLE support. We did a project last year using GPS, BLE and MQTT on the nRF9160 :) Take a look here: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/nordic-blog/b/blog/posts/nrf9160-pathfinder

4. See the point above. I don't know anything about the MQTT support on the BLE MCU, but I guess it will be easier on the nRF9160 MCU.

5. There are no embedded sim included. The DKs are sold with a SIM-card and the module has support for eSIMs aswell, but as an additional component on the PCB.

6. This is possible! By using PSM it should be no problem to achieve this. We did it in the project referenced in point 3. I recommend taking a look at that!

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Carl Richard