Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

Sohaib Qamar — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 13:53:46 GMT

Hi NordicSwissTom
Thanks a bundle for the tip.

I have managed to get P0.14 working after trying your hack.

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

NordicSwissTom — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 12:38:31 GMT

Hi
First note my project is completed now, I no longer work with nordicsemi chips (and never will again).
Just short summary from mind: the P 14/15 got working (at least with our custom HW; the DK has another crap, see board controller)
It was a fundamental issue how the two (app+spm) .overlay files (zephyr crap) do work:
The conflicting uart has to be set (in both overlays) to status 'okay' (=enabled, ==>> force OVERRIDING originals),
with their IO pins set to other free/unused ones, or FF* or (or maybe the new /delete-property/ hack).
Do force a make-rebuild, IMPORTANT: verify results in the generated files!
I guess another solution could be to hack the original device files in ncs.

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

Sohaib Qamar — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 09:03:29 GMT

Hi NordicSwissTom

Hope you are doing well.
Were you able to use P0.14 as input?

I am trying to use this pin as Output for RESET functionality of my SPI device (LR1110).

I have tried to separately toggle P0.14 but no luck. Same is the case with P0.15.

Any help would be really appreciated.

--
Regards
Sohaib

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 07:54:56 GMT

Could you share your test project so I can have a look?

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

NordicSwissTom — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:47:11 GMT

ok, also tried this, but fails in: z_arm_exc_spurious.

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

Håkon Alseth — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:42:31 GMT

Hi,

Are you sure that you've disabled uart2 in both the secure application (spm) and the non-secure application?

for spm, the location should be my_application/child_image/spm.conf, where you can just plainly disable serial with "CONFIG_SERIAL=n".

For the non-secure application, you can create my_application/boards/nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns.overlay, with the uart2 disabled:

&uart2 {
    status = "disabled";
};

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

NordicSwissTom — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:41:05 GMT

Hi, thanks - but as I wrote I tried that long ago,
the routing (of course) has no effect on the physical nrf9160 pin functionality!

I also found when using an spm.conf with lines:
CONFIG_NRFX_UARTE2=n
CONFIG_SPM_NRF_UARTE2_NS=y
it did disable uarte2 in the generated spm source files, but with no effect on pin ownership or in/out setting.
And the boot log still tells secured UARTE2:
Peripheral -Domain -Status:
00 NRF_P0 Non-Secure OK
01 NRF_CLOCK Non-Secure OK
05 NRF_UARTE1 Non-Secure OK
06 NRF_UARTE2 Secure SKIP

My conclusion so far:
the 4 pins of VCOM2 (aka APP2, or schematics 1.0 group nRF91_UART_2)
are stolen by the Modem-Trace functionality inside the proprietary modem firmware (using 1.3.0).
I also tried
AT%XMODEMTRACE=0
to ensure the trace is OFF, no luck.

Therefore: the DK headers are simply NOT arduino compatible, P0.00, P0.01, P0.14, P0.15
can never be used and even worse have fixed voltage levels.
So we can't use standard shields without risk of damage.
This should be documented in big letters in the DK-UG.

RE: Need P0.14 as input on nrf9160

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 12:24:40 GMT

Hi,

As you have figured out, the default pins for the UART are directly connected to the debugger IC by default.

In order to disable this routing, you have to clear P1.12 on the nRF52840 side:

https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/ug_nrf91_dk/UG/nrf91_DK/board_controller.html

You should add this to the nrf9160dk_nrf52840 project to disable it:

   &vcom2_pins_routing {
           status = "disabled";
   };

Kind regards,

Håkon