Custom Board Configuration

RE: Custom Board Configuration

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 08:17:20 GMT

[quote user="ISN_B"]The firmware appears to be running and makes it past the advertising_start() function.[/quote]

I see. If it does, and there are no errors later, then that should be good.

[quote user="ISN_B"]We have already done the HW review with Nordic actually and designed the antenna according to their specifications.[/quote]

I see. But it is easy to make mistakes, so I really suggest you get your HW reviewed by us (in a separate case) if you have not doen so already. This can potentially save you a lot of time, and I strongly encourage it (we see many designs every week, and often spot issues right away that the customer may never though about).

[quote user="ISN_B"]Where would be a good starting point to test the hardware? If this is an antenna issue, how can we go about debugging it?[/quote]

First of all, start by measuring the radiated power, typically using a spectrum analyzer, and see that it is within the expected range. You can also refer to this white paper on tuning.

RE: Custom Board Configuration

ISN_B — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 21:44:16 GMT

The firmware appears to be running and makes it past the advertising_start() function. We have already done the HW review with Nordic actually and designed the antenna according to their specifications.

Where would be a good starting point to test the hardware? If this is an antenna issue, how can we go about debugging it?

RE: Custom Board Configuration

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 09:34:49 GMT

Does everything look good from the firmware perspective? Code runs and starts to advertise etc? If not, you should look into that. If not (or in any case really) you should consider your HW, and in particular your layout and antenna tuning. If you have not done so before, I suggest you open a new ticket where you attach your schematics and layout and ask for it to be reviewed.

RE: Custom Board Configuration

ISN_B — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 21:44:04 GMT

Hello,

The board does not have that crystal. Changing the config allowed the code to progress.

However, even though the code seems to be running smoothly, I cannot locate the device on nRF Connect or any LE scanner. We are looking into if this is a hardware issue, but could something on the firmware side be causing this?

Thank you

RE: Custom Board Configuration

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:30:39 GMT

Hi,

Does your custom board have the optional 32.768 kHz crystal or not? If it does not, you need to change the SoftDevice clock configuration in sdk_config.h to use the LFRC (see this post). If not, the sd_softdevice_enable() will never return as it waits for a non-existing clock to start.