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

[Casper Kronborg Pedersen]

Update:

I found this thread which enabled me to build the usbd_ble_uart_freertos_pca10056_s140 SDK example from SDK 17.1.0 by changing line 100 in retarget.c.

Then I tried the following on an nRF52840-DK:

1. I removed all features from the SDK example that are not used in our own project and then I was able to start s140 without doing power cycles, using the debugger or any of the other methods.
2. Then I removed all features and initialization in the main() function except nrf_log and s140 from our own project and used the exact same sequence of function calls as in the SDK example. But the problem still exists.

Could this mean that the difference might lie in defines in the sdk_config.h header file?

I am running with the same sdk_config.h as before the change from SDK 15.3.0 to 17.1.0.

Are any changes needed to that file to make things work as intended when updating the SDK version?

I am currently investigating the differences between the files.

Br. Casper