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Timers not working when using C++?

So. After countless hours of messing around, reading SDK, examples and stuff I'm begginning to feel kind of frustrated. I want a microsecond timer. For that I tried a number of different approaches: app_timer, timer driver API and accessing the timers directly. So far app_timer seems to be the only one that worked, but it lacks in resolution I need.

Approach 1:

nrf_drv_timer_t timerThing = NRF_DRV_TIMER_INSTANCE(1);

void timerHandler(nrf_timer_events_t event)
{
	if(event == NRF_TIMER_EVENTS_COMPARE0) log("time!\r\n");
}

void main()
{
	log("init\r\n");
	uint32_t ticks, ms = 2000;
	
	nrf_drv_timer_init(&timerThing, NULL, timerHandler);
	ticks = nrf_drv_timer_ms_to_ticks(&timerThing, ms);
	nrf_drv_timer_extended_compare(&timerThing, NRF_TIMER_CC_CHANNEL0, ticks, NRF_TIMER_SHORTS_COMPARE0_CLEAR_MASK, true);
	nrf_drv_timer_enable(&timerThing);
	
	while(1);
	return 0;
}

I looked into 'examples/peripheral/timer', basically copied the code just to get it running. Well.. The handler IS called just fine, the problem however is the fact that it's being called constantly. It doesn't matter what value I set for 'ms' variable. I checked the value returned by ms to ticks conversion function and it appears to be correct.

So I started to look around the devzone and I noticed that people were usually using these timers directly (if what I'm saying makes any sense).

volatile bool foobar = false;

void TIMER1_IRQHandler()
{
    if(NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[0])
    {
        NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[0] = 0;
        foobar = true;
    }
}

void uartEventHandler(app_uart_evt_t *event) {}

int main()
{
    uint32_t errorCode;
    
    app_uart_comm_params_t uartParams =
    {
        RX_PIN_NUMBER,
        TX_PIN_NUMBER,
        RTS_PIN_NUMBER,
        CTS_PIN_NUMBER,
        APP_UART_FLOW_CONTROL_DISABLED,
        false,
        UART_BAUDRATE_BAUDRATE_Baud115200 // 57600 // 115200
    };

    APP_UART_FIFO_INIT(&uartParams, 32, 256, uartEventHandler, APP_IRQ_PRIORITY_LOW, errorCode);
    
    debugOut("Hello World!\r\n");
    
    NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[0] = 0;
    NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[1] = 0;
    NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[2] = 0;
    NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[3] = 0;
    
    NRF_TIMER1->TASKS_STOP  = 1;
    NRF_TIMER1->MODE        = TIMER_MODE_MODE_Timer << TIMER_MODE_MODE_Pos;
    NRF_TIMER1->BITMODE     = TIMER_BITMODE_BITMODE_16Bit << TIMER_BITMODE_BITMODE_Pos;
    NRF_TIMER1->PRESCALER   = 9;
    NRF_TIMER1->TASKS_CLEAR = 1;
    NRF_TIMER1->CC[0] = 31250;
    NRF_TIMER1->INTENSET    = TIMER_INTENSET_COMPARE0_Enabled << TIMER_INTENSET_COMPARE0_Pos;
    NRF_TIMER1->SHORTS      = TIMER_SHORTS_COMPARE0_CLEAR_Enabled << TIMER_SHORTS_COMPARE0_CLEAR_Pos;
    NVIC_EnableIRQ(TIMER1_IRQn);
    NRF_TIMER1->TASKS_START = 1;
    
    while(1)
    {
        if(foobar)
        {
            debugOut("foo\r\n");
            foobar = false;
        }
        else debugOut("no\r\n");
    }
    
    return 0;
}

This at first wasn't working. It appeared as if it got stuck inside the interrupt or something. After compiling it with Keil it worked at first but then I did something that made it stop. Now I can't get it to work again:

image description

I'm obviously doing something very wrong, I'm just unable to find out what exactly it is. What am I missing here? Please forgive me if it's something rather silly, I'm still trying to learn the way everything works here.

EDIT:

I found something interesting. This is the code that orginally worked: http://pastebin.com/CGGxRLhs

It's C. After putting in in a .cpp file (compiling as C++) it doesn't work. Putting in in a .c file makes it work just fine...

  • Holy cow. After 4 days of screwing around I've found a solution! The problem was the timer1 interrupt handler in C++. Stupid name mangling :P The solution: I simply put the interrupt handler inside extern "C"

    extern "C"
    {
        void TIMER1_IRQHandler(void)
        {
            if(NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[0])
            {
                NRF_TIMER1->EVENTS_COMPARE[0] = 0;
                timeout = true;
            }
        }
    }
    
  • Well that's interesting. The xPSR register is 0x01000019 and you're in handler mode. The '19' means you're in the interrupt handler for IRQ 9 which is TIMER1 so you're where you want to be, however that's not your TIMER1_IRQHandler, that's the default handler which just loops forever.

    So your TIMER1_IRQHandler hasn't been linked into the final binary which it should have been. That usually happens when you misspell the name of the IRQ handler, but I don't see that with yours, unless there's a funny character in there or I'm just not seeing it, or when people compile C++ by mistake and the name gets mangled.

    That however seems to be your problem - your handler isn't there - so as soon as the timer goes off you loop forever because you go right to the default do-nothing handler.

    Take a look at your build and see if you can figure out why.

  • Had you mentioned it was C++ at the start, we could have saved an awful lot of time! I see you eventually changed the title of the issue.

  • Omg - Thanks so much for your answer. I just spent a whole day debugging this myself and nothing worked except your solution!

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