RE: How to use the nRF9160 DK onboard external flash

NelsonGoncalves — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 06:07:34 GMT

Hello Hakon,

Thanks. I knew I had to flash the other processor, but I could not find the instructions to do so.

Kind regards,

Nelson

RE: How to use the nRF9160 DK onboard external flash

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 12:47:13 GMT

Hi,

As you have found, the default routing of the flash is to the nRF52840 board controller.

[quote user=""]

On the back of the DK board it says that there is an analogue switch for sharing the flash between the nRF9160 and the nRF52. But I

cannot understand how to make sure that the flash chip is being used by the nRF9160 instead of the nRF52. The Hardware Guide says

"Two analog switches are used to control the signals between the nRF9160 and the external memory. The switches are controlled by P0.19 of nRF52840."

How can I make sure the analogue switches are set to use the external flash chip with the nRF9160 ?

[/quote]

If you create a small piece of fw for the nRF52840, that sets this pin active, you should be able to interface the flash with the nRF9160.

This is the DTS configurations available:

http://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/1.6.0/zephyr/boards/arm/nrf9160dk_nrf52840/doc/index.html#board-controller-firmware

What you can do is to go to zephyr/samples/hello_world (copy this to "board_controller_nrf52840" for instance), and then you create the file nrf9160dk_nrf52840.overlay containing this (and other options, if you'd like!):

&external_flash_pins_routing {
	status = "okay";
};

You can configure & build using west, by appending the @version :

west build -b nrf9160dk_nrf52840@0.14.0

Kind regards,

Håkon