Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

Øyvind — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 07:51:20 GMT

[quote][/quote]

I was able to get it successfully working like that and had two way communication with my terminal program.

Glad to hear you solved the issue.

[quote user="jlienau03"] I couldn't find P0.29 anywhere on the DK! [/quote]

Yes, it's not easy to find, but it's available on the front (P1) and on the back of the board (P30).

There seems to be a bug in the documentation, as D22 is not mentioned connected to P0.29

[quote user="jlienau03"]I think it would be REALLY nice if on the next revision of the DK, you guys put a physical switch so users could manually route P026, 27, 28, and 29 to the headers. I'm sure I'm not the only person looking to route two com ports to the headers.[/quote]

No, you are not. I will report this internally. I agree that this part of the board and documentation is somewhat confusing.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

jlienau03 — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 15:57:16 GMT

Adding the CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY_TRACE_ENABLED=n also did not work. But since I'm using the uart example from github, I don't believe it uses the BSD library anyway.

I did notice that there are two additional unused I/Os on the DK. P0.24 and P0.25 look like they go to pin headers on the DK and are not default routed through anything else. If I do not use RTS/CTS I can configure UART1 to use TX and RX pins only on P0.24 and P0.25. I was able to get it successfully working like that and had two way communication with my terminal program.

Alternatively, it looks like P0.26, P0.27, P0.28, P0.29 can be routed away from the virtual com port by the nRF91_UART_CTRL line. It's controlled by the nRF52 has to be driven high. Rather than reprogram the nRF52 I just drove that line high by jumping R69 to 3V 🙂 This way I didn't have to mess with programming it. However, I then discovered that only P0.26, P0.27, and P0.28 route to headers on the DK. I couldn't find P0.29 anywhere on the DK! So long story short I used P0.25 and substituted that in for P0.29 since I knew that was available.

Here's what my overlay and proj.conf files look like now.

/*Uart 0*/
&uart0 {
	current-speed = <115200>;
	status = "ok";
	tx-pin = <10>;
	rx-pin = <11>;
	rts-pin = <12>;
	cts-pin = <13>;
};
/*end of code added by Johnny Lienau on March 4*/

/* Uart 1 */
&uart1 {
	current-speed = <115200>;
	status = "ok";
	tx-pin = <25>; 
	rx-pin = <26>; 
	rts-pin = <27>;
	cts-pin = <28>;
};

CONFIG_SERIAL=y

CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_NONSECURE=y

CONFIG_UART_INTERRUPT_DRIVEN=y

CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_UART_0_NRF_UARTE=y
CONFIG_UART_1_NRF_UARTE=y

I think it would be REALLY nice if on the next revision of the DK, you guys put a physical switch so users could manually route P026, 27, 28, and 29 to the headers. I'm sure I'm not the only person looking to route two com ports to the headers.

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

Øyvind — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 14:04:57 GMT

Yes, I'm sorry, but I had to try as I did not see anything out of the ordinary in your setup.

One of the answers, where UART2 is used for modem tracing, threw me off a little. This is actually UART1

#ifdef CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY_TRACE_ENABLED
/* Use UARTE1 as a dedicated peripheral to print traces. */
static const nrfx_uarte_t uarte_inst = NRFX_UARTE_INSTANCE(1);
#endif

Can you please try to add the following to your config file:

CONFIG_BSD_LIBRARY_TRACE_ENABLED=n

[quote user="jlienau03"] I shouldn't need to reprogram or change the nRF52 or adjust the virtual com port settings because of that. Is that correct?[/quote]

Did you try with default pin configuration as stated in the Board Controller chapter and VCOM chapter? Have you ensured that you are connected correctly with the FTDI?

I am working on finding the correct answer my self, as the pin configuration is not very clear in the documentation.

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

jlienau03 — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 12:57:51 GMT

Hello, thanks for the reply. Adding that line still does not seem to make it work.

Reading the post you linked, it seems that they were using I/O pins that were not originally routed to headers on the DK. The ones I've chosen (P0.14, 15, 16, 20) should all be default routed to the header pins. I shouldn't need to reprogram or change the nRF52 or adjust the virtual com port settings because of that. Is that correct?

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

Øyvind — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 09:10:50 GMT

Hello,

Can you please try to add the following to your config file:

CONFIG_BOARD_PCA10090_UART1_ARDUINO=y

Ref. this guide from my colleague:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/45476/connecting-uart1-to-a-periph-on-nrf9160-dk/178988#178988

Let me know if that helps.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

RE: Configure second UART on nRF9160 DK

jlienau03 — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:54:59 GMT

Forgot my config file:

CONFIG_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_NONSECURE=y
CONFIG_UART_INTERRUPT_DRIVEN=y
CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_UART_0_NRF_UARTE=y
CONFIG_UART_1_NRF_UARTE=y