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]

Hi Edvin,

Migration Guides:

I did look at migration guides from 15.3.0 to 16.0.0 and then from 16.0.0 to 17.0.2 of the SDK.

RAM and FLASH:

I have used the RAM and flash placements from the usbd_ble_uart_freertos example and that allowed the project to build after migration. However, I did not know that the RAM settings were dependent on the specific use case of S140.

Error in my statement in the "Update" post:

I thought that I had gotten an example from the SDK working without any issues, however I must have been tired as I simply did not get the LOG output with the errors... So I never had a working example project from the SDK.

Sharing an example to run on a nRF52840-DK that reproduces the error:

I have used the usbd_ble_uart_freertos example from SDK 17.1.0, and enabled all NRF logging for the SoftDevice, as well as added my own outputs to the ble_stack_init() function and added that to a .zip library.

To get it to run, you should be able to go to:

<SDK Location on your PC>\nRF5_SDK_17.1.0_ddde560\examples\peripheral\

And unpack the .zip file. I built the version for pca10056, SES and S140 located here:

<SDK Location on your PC>\nRF5_SDK_17.1.0_ddde560\examples\peripheral\usbd_ble_uart_freertos\pca10056\s140\ses

As I wrote in the original post, the error only shows when using the "Build and Run" option in SEGGER Embedded Studio.

From what I can see, it is Line 214 in nrf_sdh.c that returns NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE.

Hope this is something you can work with.

Br. Casper

usbd_ble_uart_freertos.zip

EDIT:
To make it build I assume you also need to change a line in retarget.c like I had to.
retarget.c line 100 changed to: 
#if defined(__SES_VERSION) && (__SES_VERSION >= 34000) && !defined(__SEGGER_RTL_VERSION)