app_ble_uart example not initializing BLE on nRF52DK PCA10040 SDKv16 and S132 soft device

[SChary]

Hi

I am trying to get the ble_app_uart to run on my nRF52DK with the nRF52832 on board. I am using SDK version 16 and SoftDevice version 132.

When compile and download the program, i do not see it advertising as it is not visible in the scanned device list on the nRF Connect app on my iPad.

Upon debugging, I find that during initialization in main(), the program seems to run into an error and goes to the app_error_weak() function and stays there.

The call stack shows that it arrived there from the following function - APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code) after bsp_init() funct

<code>

static void buttons_leds_init(bool * p_erase_bonds)
{
    bsp_event_t startup_event;

    uint32_t err_code = bsp_init(BSP_INIT_LEDS | BSP_INIT_BUTTONS, bsp_event_handler);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    err_code = bsp_btn_ble_init(NULL, &startup_event);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    *p_erase_bonds = (startup_event == BSP_EVENT_CLEAR_BONDING_DATA);
}
</code>

Since there were no logging calls in place in the code until this point, there was no information on the Debug terminal.  I will put in some logging calls to indicate the status of the execution and post it here soon.

PS: To confirm if the hardware is ok, I downloaded the LED_blinky example and it works fine - i am able to see the blinky device on the nRF LED_Blinky app on my iPad and communicate with it.

So it appears the problem is happening only with this example, which sounds strange. I haven't made any changes yet, just using the default example code. 

Regards

Sreenivasa Chary

[SChary]

I also erased the kit and reloaded the software - both the soft device and the app, but still the same issue is seen.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Sreenivasa, 

After loading images, did you press  again to run? What is the log you see in the Debug Terminal window? Did you see LED1 blinking  (BSP_INDICATE_CONNECTED)? If not, Could you flash the image with nRF Connect Programmer or Command Line Tools with the following commands:

nrfjprog --family NRF52 --program s132_nrf52_7.0.1_softdevice.hex --chiperase --verify
C:\Users\amhs\Downloads\nRF5_SDK_16.0.0_98a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_uart\hex
nrfjprog --family NRF52 --program ble_app_uart_pca10040_s132.hex --sectorerase --verify
nrfjprog -r

Did you see LED1 blinking (BSP_INDICATE_CONNECTED)?

-Amanda H.

[SChary]

Hi Amanda

I am just not able to figure out how to get the debug output on the RTT and use the UART normally...:(, can you help me out ?

I need this functionality to debug the code while using the UART to communicate with my peripheral .

Regards

Chary BS

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Chary, 

Please check this post. 

Did you clean, rebuild the project, and download the image again?

-Amanda H. 

[SChary]

Hi Amanda,

Sorry for the late response...

I did as you instructed - clean and rebuild the project, i made the changes as mentioned in the post you shared. I now see a small difference in behaviour - earlier, the Debug terminal seemed to have no activity. But now i see that when a log is printed, there's no text in the terminal window but the cursor moves down to the next line.

I am still unable to get this debug log thing to work

Regards

Chary BS

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Chary, 

Are you using deferred logging ( #define NRF_LOG_DEFERRED 1 )?
In that case, you will need to call NRF_LOG_PROCESS() at a place in your code where you would like log processing to take place - please see the "Deferred logging" section of the logger module documentation for further information about this. Does change the setting NRF_LOG_DEFERRED = 0 help?

I want to check that did you try to set NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED 0 in sdk_config.h?

-Amanda H.

[SChary]

Hi Amanda,

I set the flag

NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED 0, as instructed but it did not have any impact on the output.

And now i have also changed the deferred log flag,

NRF_LOG_DEFERRED 1 to 0

 Still no change.... :(

Looks like i am doing something wrong but unable to determine the reason for this problem ...

Regards

Chary BS

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Chary, 

Can you check what you have set NRF_SDH_CLOCK_LF_SRC to in sdk_config.h?

If there is no external 32kHz clock source it may be that you should use:

#define NRF_SDH_CLOCK_LF_SRC 0
#define NRF_SDH_CLOCK_LF_RC_CTIV 16
#define NRF_SDH_CLOCK_LF_RC_TEMP_CTIV 2
#define NRF_SDH_CLOCK_LF_ACCURACY 1

-Amanda H.