Build and Run with SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES) v6.20a on nRF5 SDK 17.1.0 and S140 7.2.0 on nRF52840

[Casper Kronborg Pedersen]

Hi DevZone,

I have recently updated:

• nRF5 SDK to 17.1.0 from 15.3.0
• S140 to 7.2.0 from 6.1.1
• SES to v6.20a from 4.16

The SoftDevice now fails to initialize when using the "Build and Run" option with SES.

The code initializes without issue if I:

• Use Programmer v2.3.3 from nRF Connect for Desktop v3.10.0
• If I Power Cycle the hardware after each flash of the .hex files
• If I "Build and Debug" with SES

Is this a known issue, and could it potentially be a timing issue?

Code that fails:

void ble_stack_init(void)
{
    ret_code_t err_code;

    err_code = nrf_sdh_enable_request();
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    // Configure the BLE stack using the default settings.
    // Fetch the start address of the application RAM.
    uint32_t ram_start = 0;
    err_code = nrf_sdh_ble_default_cfg_set(BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG, &ram_start);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    // Enable BLE stack.
    err_code = nrf_sdh_ble_enable(&ram_start);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

//    // NO OBSERVERS AT THIS POINT 
//    // Register a handler for BLE events.
//    NRF_SDH_BLE_OBSERVER(m_ble_observer, APP_BLE_OBSERVER_PRIO, ble_evt_handler, NULL);
}

Specifically the call to nrf_sdh_enable_request() returns with error code NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE (0x00000008).

This should mean that the SoftDevice is already initialized when reading the documentation. However, preceding the nrf_sdh_enable_request() call with a nrf_sdh_is_enabled()

tells me that it is not.

Comparing with example projects:

I have compared to the example projects given in SDK 17.1.0, and the initialization code for the BLE stack seems unchanged between versions 17.1.0 and 15.3.0. 

Also, I have tried building and running the peripheral example from SDK 17.1.0 "usbd_ble_uart_freertos" both on our hardware and an nRF52840-DK, which fails with the same error code.

So, even with code directly from the SDK and on multiple hardware the issue is the same.

Thanks in advance.

Br. Casper

[Edvin]

Hello,

I didn't understand exactly what you did with your log, but if you look at the implementation of nrf_sdh_ble_enable(), it should look something like this:

ret_code_t nrf_sdh_ble_enable(uint32_t * const p_app_ram_start)
{
    // Start of RAM, obtained from linker symbol.
    uint32_t const app_ram_start_link = *p_app_ram_start;

    ret_code_t ret_code = sd_ble_enable(p_app_ram_start);
    if (*p_app_ram_start > app_ram_start_link)
    {
        NRF_LOG_WARNING("Insufficient RAM allocated for the SoftDevice.");

        NRF_LOG_WARNING("Change the RAM start location from 0x%x to 0x%x.",
                        app_ram_start_link, *p_app_ram_start);
        NRF_LOG_WARNING("Maximum RAM size for application is 0x%x.",
                        ram_end_address_get() - (*p_app_ram_start));
    }
    else
    {
        NRF_LOG_DEBUG("RAM starts at 0x%x", app_ram_start_link);
        if (*p_app_ram_start != app_ram_start_link)
        {
            NRF_LOG_DEBUG("RAM start location can be adjusted to 0x%x.", *p_app_ram_start);

            NRF_LOG_DEBUG("RAM size for application can be adjusted to 0x%x.",
                          ram_end_address_get() - (*p_app_ram_start));
        }
    }

    if (ret_code == NRF_SUCCESS)
    {
        m_stack_is_enabled = true;
    }
    else
    {
        NRF_LOG_ERROR("sd_ble_enable() returned %s.", nrf_strerror_get(ret_code));
    }

    return ret_code;
}

Are any of the lines containing NRF_LOG_WARNING hit? And if so, what are the parameters that it is trying to print?

Best regards,

Edvin