Zephyr WS2812 neopixel example for PCA10059 nRF52840 dongle

Question

Good Morning

After successfully completed a multi link BLE + WS2812 on the nrf52840DK to nrf52840 dongle (on SDK5) I though I would try the exact same project on nrf Connect SDK with Zephyr nrf connect SDK 2.02.

after opening the ws2812 sdk connect example and changing the build to nrf52840 dongle I am struggling to get it to build successfully. I suspect my SPI is incorrectly configured or I may have a file missing. I changed as follow

1. I have added 'CONFIG_SPI=y' to the prj.conf file.

2. I have created a new overlay file and copy it accross. and im getting the error ..//nrf52-binding.h no such file or directory, when I cntr click on it ,it does open. I have a feeling the overlay file is not compatible for the PCA10059. Overlay below

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2019, Nordic Semiconductor ASA
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 */

#include <dt-bindings/led/led.h>

#include "../nrf52-bindings.h"

&arduino_spi { /* MOSI on D11 / P0.23 */
	compatible = "nordic,nrf-spim";
	led_strip: ws2812@0 {
		compatible = "worldsemi,ws2812-spi";
		label = "WS2812";

		/* SPI */
		reg = <0>; /* ignored, but necessary for SPI bindings */
		spi-max-frequency = <SPI_FREQ>;

		/* WS2812 */
		chain-length = <16>; /* arbitrary; change at will */
		color-mapping = <LED_COLOR_ID_GREEN
				 LED_COLOR_ID_RED
				 LED_COLOR_ID_BLUE>;
		spi-one-frame = <ONE_FRAME>;
		spi-zero-frame = <ZERO_FRAME>;
	};
};

/ {
	aliases {
		led-strip = &led_strip;
	};
};

3. I did not add the below

# This driver only uses spi_write() with the SPIM instance it allocates,

# so PAN 58 doesn't matter, because the RX length is always 0.

CONFIG_SOC_NRF52832_ALLOW_SPIM_DESPITE_PAN_58=y'

4. I noticed my PCA10059 created project does not have the following files nrf52dk_nrf52832.conf (which I suppose is correct as we using the PCA10059) nor does it have SPI_nrfx_spim.c which also looks like it has something to do with NRF52832_ALLOW_SPIM.

If someone can please point me in the right direction.

Claude · Accepted Answer

I managed to get it running: I did not change anything in the prj.conf file (nor create a boards/nrf52840dongle_nrf52840.conf) I use the following boards/nrf52840dongle_nrf52840.overlay: #include #include "../nrf52-bindings.h" &spi1 { compatible = "nordic,nrf-spim"; led_strip: ws2812@0 { compatible = "worldsemi,ws2812-spi"; /* SPI */ reg = <0>; /* ignored, but necessary for SPI bindings */ spi-max-frequency = ; /* WS2812 */ chain-length = <16>; /* arbitrary; change at will */ color-mapping = ; spi-one-frame = ; spi-zero-frame = ; }; }; &spi1_default { group1 { psels = , , ; }; }; &spi1_sleep { group1 { psels = , , ; low-power-enable; }; }; / { aliases { led-strip = &led_strip; }; }; So basically, use &spi1 instead of &arduino_spi And then some code to fix the SPI1 pins that are used (see my question here ). Now the signal is output on pin 0.29. Note that the signal is 3.3V, so you need some extra magic to have it talk to the WS2812 LEDs who want 5V signals: Power the LED strip at 4.6V or lower; or Use a high speed level shifter (e.g. this one from adafruit -- I spent many hours yesterday playing with the sparkfun one , only to realise that it's not fast enough for the strips)

Zephyr WS2812 neopixel example for PCA10059 nRF52840 dongle

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