Best serial interface to use with nrf9160

[sboudaud]

Hello 

I studying the nrf9160 , is it better to use the UART interface versus the SPI  and do I need to use the flow control ?

Thanks a lot 

Stephane Boudaud

  

[Edvin]

Hello,

Which one is better totally depends on the use case. Some sensors only support SPI, while others only support UART. They have different pros and cons. Some of them are:

SPI is usually faster, but requires at least 4 pins.

UART is slower, but you can manage with 2 pins in some cases (without flow control).

SPI expands well, meaning you can use several devices on the same SPI bus. One extra device on the bus only requires 1 extra gpio (Slave/Chip Select).

What are you going to communicate with, and what is the throughput you need? And how about error detection? Is it crucial if you from time to time get a bit flipped?

You also have TWI (the same as I2C), which can attach a lot more devices using only 2 gpios. 

Best regards,

Edvin

[sboudaud]

Thanks Edvin

I have a LP UART interface and to prevent receiver buffer overuns and associated data corruption, I will try to get  the flow control added.  (data rate is 9600bd)