Compatibility issues between zephyr drivers and nordic modules requiring NRFX gpio driver

[moose]

Hello, we are developing a zephyr application on top of nrf52 soc. We can use the built-in zephyr drivers for most modules (ex: I2C, UART, nvm, etc.); however, for some modules (ex: input capture and counters), we had to use the nrfx hal drivers instead. See this link for reference.

Most of these implementations require disabling the zephyr GPIO driver and using the nrfx gpio driver with the PPI hardware. Although it is not ideal, this workaround has been working. The issue we are facing now is some of the zephyr drivers rely on the zephyr GPIO driver, and it won't work if we disable it. For example, many I2C sensors use a GPIO line to trigger an interrupt line. Any idea on how we could address this compatibility issue? Thx!

[Jeff4BLE]

Corrected and merged to the Zephyr main branch on 12/21/2021. See:  drivers: gpio: nrfx: Use mask to determine if sense is used

[LChesterID]

Hi, I am facing a similar issue when trying to implement a GPIO input pin to trigger an SPI read from an ADC in quick succession using DPPI on the nrf5340. I am also using the Modbus module from zephyr which requires Zephyr GPIO to operate.
Is there any update on the ncs1.9.0 release that is meant to resolve this issue, allowing for both zephyr GPIO and nrfx GPIO to be used simultaneously?
I am aware of the new gpio_nrfx.c driver release but was wondering how to update the zephyr base to include it so that I am able to begin working with this improved functionality. Would I follow the manual install process here https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/gs_installing.html with a specific developer tag or the latest main branch? 
I am fairly new to zephyr and ncs, especially the manual install process, so I appreciate any assistance on this issue.

Thanks

[Simon]

The PR 37528 should be merged with NCS v1.9.0-rc1 it seems like.

I checked and NCS v1.9.0-rc1 is not added to the Toolchain Manager yet, but you can get it from here http://developer.nordicsemi.com/.pc-tools/toolchain/release-test/ncs-toolchain-v1.9.0-rc1-20220207-728bbd5.zip. Then open the Toolchain Manager, scroll all the way down and select "install package from other source"

You can also change the tag by executing the following commands from <ncs location>/nrf 

• git fetch --all
• git checkout v1.9.0-rc1
• west update

Be aware that if there has happened toolchain updates, this last approach will not take care of this.

Best regards,

Simon

[LChesterID]

Thank you for the quick reply, I will follow that process and see how I go implementing DPPI and the GPIO/SPI triggers.

Thanks