How can i use 4 Serial peripheral interface on nrf9160

[duxinglang]

I created a project on nrf9160, which connects many peripherals, including SPI,I2C,UART. According to the specification, nrf9160 can use up to 4 sets of serial peripherals at the same time because of address sharing. However, the actual situation is that when I use SPI2,SPI3,I2C1 at the same time, I can't get the binding of SPI2, and when I use SPI2,SPI3,UART1 at the same time, they are all ok, why?

[Martin Lesund]

Hi duxinglang,

You may have some overlapping memory areas for the peripherals.

E.g. UART0,TWIM0,SPIS0,SPIM0 has the same address, so you could only use one of them at the same time.

I can't get the binding of SPI2, and when I use SPI2,SPI3,UART1 at the same time

 You should be able to get binding on SPI2, please verify in the application that you address the correct peripherals.

[duxinglang]

In fact, i just turned on different switches in the prj.conf file and didn't change to the address, It has failed to get the binding, and it has not reached the location where the address is set, like this:

void SPI_Flash_Init(void)
{
	spi_flash = device_get_binding(FLASH_DEVICE);
	if (!spi_flash) 
	{
		printk("Could not get %s device\n", FLASH_DEVICE);
		return;
	}

	spi_cfg.operation = SPI_OP_MODE_MASTER | SPI_WORD_SET(8);
	spi_cfg.frequency = 4000000;
	spi_cfg.slave = 0;
}

My prj.conf file:

#
# Copyright (c) 2019 Nordic Semiconductor ASA
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-BSD-5-Clause-Nordic
#

# General config
CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_NONSECURE=y
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC=y
CONFIG_ASSERT=y
CONFIG_REBOOT=y
CONFIG_GPIO=y
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_LOG_IMMEDIATE=y

# AT_CMD
CONFIG_AT_CMD=y
CONFIG_AT_NOTIF=y

# Network
CONFIG_NETWORKING=y
CONFIG_NET_NATIVE=n
CONFIG_NET_SOCKETS=y
CONFIG_NET_SOCKETS_OFFLOAD=y

# Modem info
CONFIG_MODEM_INFO=y

# BSD library
CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY=y
CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY_TRACE_ENABLED=n

# Library for buttons and LEDs
CONFIG_DK_LIBRARY=y
CONFIG_DK_LIBRARY_INVERT_LEDS=n

# Heap and stacks
CONFIG_HEAP_MEM_POOL_SIZE=16384
CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=8192
CONFIG_SYSTEM_WORKQUEUE_STACK_SIZE=2048
CONFIG_HW_STACK_PROTECTION=y

# MCUBOOT
CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
CONFIG_IMG_MANAGER=y
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMG_MANAGER=y

# SPI
CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_SPI_NRFX=y
CONFIG_SPI_2=y
CONFIG_SPI_2_NRF_SPIM=y
CONFIG_SPI_3=y
CONFIG_SPI_3_NRF_SPIM=y

# I2C
CONFIG_I2C=y
CONFIG_I2C_NRFX=y
CONFIG_I2C_1=y
CONFIG_I2C_1_NRF_TWIM=y
CONFIG_I2C_INIT_PRIORITY=60

# Flash
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_IMG_ERASE_PROGRESSIVELY=y

# NVS
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y
CONFIG_NVS=y
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_NVS_LOG_LEVEL_DBG=y
CONFIG_REBOOT=y
CONFIG_MPU_ALLOW_FLASH_WRITE=y

# UART
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_UART_INTERRUPT_DRIVEN=y
CONFIG_UART_LINE_CTRL=y
#CONFIG_UART_0_NRF_UARTE=y
#CONFIG_UART_0_NRF_FLOW_CONTROL=n
CONFIG_UART_1_NRF_UARTE=y
CONFIG_UART_1_NRF_FLOW_CONTROL=n

# Use smaller buffers for net_buf as CANBUS packets are quite small.
CONFIG_NET_BUF_DATA_SIZE=64
CONFIG_NET_BUF_USER_DATA_SIZE=1

[Martin Lesund]

Which NCS version are you using?

You do not need to enable the:

CONFIG_I2C_NRFX=y

CONFIG_SPI_NRFX=y

Since you are not using the nrfxlib directly.

So you can remove those lines. (you also have some configs repeated several time.(e.g. config_flash))

In this prj.conf file I see that you have enabled SPI2,SPI3,I2C1,UART1 so that won't work per my statement.

[duxinglang]

I'm using ncs v1.2.0, when I was testing, I did not turn on I2C1 and UART1 at the same time. As I said, when I turn on SPI2\SPI3\UART1, they are all ok.When I turn on SPI2\SPI3\I2C1, I find that my SPI2 does not work.it can't get the binding of SPI2.

[duxinglang]

I did find I2C_1 and I2C_2 enabled in the autoconf.h file, but in fact I only enabled I2C_1, not I2C_2. Who started I2C_2 automatically?

[Martin Lesund]

Hi duxinglang,

Maybe you have earlier configured some board files?

anyway, try to set 

CONFIG_I2C_2=n
CONFIG_I2C_2_NRF_TWIM=n