Thingy91 is useless without working samples and SDK

[Georgi Valkov]

Thingy91 is useless without working samples and SDK

Out of the box it cannot associate with any NB-IoT cells here in Bulgaria. I tied using the provided SIM card from iBasis, I tried using an EMnify card and I tried using a prepaid card from a local carrier that is known to support NB-IoT. I also tried switching to NB-IoT as described here:
developer.nordicsemi.com/.../ug_nrf9160.html

The LTE Link Monitor is completely useless since it doesn't provide any human readable status and interface. I assume that people who wish to learn how to use this tool are not AT command experts. The default example that comes preinstalled on the board keeps crashing and restarting every few minutes. Have you considered postponing the release of products and SDK until they become somewhat usable?

Next the SDK that is installed by default v1.2.0 lacks the board directories to support Thingy91.
Trying v1.3.0-rc1 now I struggle with SEGGER Embedded Studio. It keeps asking me for a license every time I start it, even though I have both jLink and jTrace attached, and I also activated the nordic license more than 20 times. At this point I wish to throw that software in the bin and use a better alternative. According to the First build steps, I tried opening a project, but it spits tons of errors on both macOS Catalina and Windows 10. For example:
The project file '/opt/nordic/ncs/v1.3.0-rc1/zephyr/samples/basic/blinky/build_thingy91_nrf9160ns/blinky.emProject' is invalid. The reported error is 'solution load command failed (1)'

git-cmd.cmd on Windows is also bad. Line 3 should include /d, because otherwise we end up in the temp directory where it cannot find .west\config:

CD /d "%ZEPHYR_BASE%\.."

I'm very disappointed from the first experience I'm getting from Nordic Semiconductors.

[Maciej Michna]

Regarding BT debugging

Please let us know what's your hardware setup. Are you trying to use nRF9160-DK JLINK or other JLINK to program Thingy:91?

Generally yes, nRF52840 is used as a board controller (please refer to Thingy:91 manual) and programmed with USB UART possibility. If you program there "any application" which does not provide this functionality you will not see the COM ports anymore. 

Good start working with BLE on Thingy:91 is to use this example: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/applications/connectivity_bridge/README.html

it's a part of Asset Tracker example file for Thingy:91 where you replace the USB Bridge with the Connectivity Bridge and then you can use Nordic UART Service :https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/include/bluetooth/services/nus.html#nus-service-readme

[Maciej Michna]

As for macOS and SEGGER Embedded Studio

we need to wait for a tip from the support team (Bjørn Kvaale ?) as I'm not experienced with MacOS. 

[Georgi Valkov]

Setup:

• Segger jTrace connected via the 10 pin SWD to Thingy91.
• Computer connected via USB to Thingy91.

Since Thingy91 is advertised with a BLE chip, as a developer I expect to be able to program, debug and view debug messages. Even if we integrate an USB to UART bride in software, the UART messages will likely get interrupted as soon as a breakpoint is hit. This is a good example of a bad design. I will look into the example from you link. Thank you!

How do I enable debug build with symbols in the SEGGER Embedded Studio projects?

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Hi Georgi, sorry for the delayed response. Have been testing our modem FW all of last week. Just finished testing on a mac book pro. Had some issues that west was not updated successfully and needed to change environment variables so that python and pip point to python 3 and not python 2.

These are the steps I took:

Ran the toolchain manager first.

Went through this blog post to set python via pyenv.

Updated NCS to point to rc3 candidate and not rc1. change directory to nrf and then run:

git checkout v1.3.0-rc3
west update

If you cannot run the west command because it was not installed automatically by the toolchain manager, run

pip3 install west

You can use the pip command too if that points to python 3.

I then get a very similar error to what you are seeing.

I have opened an internal ticket and will get back to you once I know more.

Remember, this is still experimental, so that might explain the issues so far...

[Georgi Valkov]

Hi Bjørn!

Following the advice from Maciej Michna, I installed thingy91_nrf52_connectivity_bridge_2020-04-29_bc7ade8b.hex

I noticed the following problems that need to be addressed by your team:

• While the first COM port still receives boot and modem messages, I can no longer send AT commands.
• As soon as I open the second COM port, the nrf52840 chip reboots and the two COM ports disappear for a few seconds. Then the COM port gets reopened automatically by KiTTY and the chip keeps rebooting repeatedly. This indicates a serious bug.
• Next with both COM ports closed, I edited Config.txt from the ZEPHYR USB drive and set BLE_ENABLED=1. Then I developed an iPhone application that discovers and connects to Thingy over BLE. I observed that the BLE channel links directly to the modem, exactly the same way as the USB-UART bridge did over the first COM port. So I learned the AT commands and implemented my own and much more advanced version of the LTE Link Monitor for iPhone. It is able to query modem statistics, display them and provide an interface for changing modem configuration. I also added a console for manual AT commands. Everything works fine as long as the modem has no connectivity.
• Meanwhile I received an NB-IoT SIM card from the local carrier (A1) and this morning they enabled support in the nearby cells. But as soon as the modem gets connected, it stops replaying to AT commands and reboots periodically. The LED blinks red now, unfortunately I am unable to run any AT commands to query the status.
• In the log from the link below, you can see that initially I am able to run some commands and receive replays, but as soon as the modem gets connected, it stops replaying to AT commands:
• https://pastebin.com/wUPTNrp6