Can I use SPI and I2C at the same time on nRF5340? Do I use the same pins?

[jrjradler]

Hey!

Would it be possible to use I2C and SPI simultaneously on the nRF5340? I'm using I2C/TWI for sensor data (optical based) and SPI for a DAC - need both of them operating at the same time. The DAC can interface with SPI, 3-Wire, QSPI, and Microwire (but I'm only knowledgeable on SPI and I2C/TWI).

If it's possible to operate them simultaneously, would I just hook up the SCLK to SCL and SDI to SDA? Also, where would I connect the CS pin?

I appreciate any support :)

[Simonr]

Hi

The nRF5340 can support up to 5 SPI instances or up to 4 I2C (TWI) instances, where TWI0 shares the same peripheral resource (address) with SPI0, and so on. But you can use the SPI0 instance simultaneously as you use TWI1 for example, so you can indeed run SPI and TWI at the same time. You can however not use the same GPIOs for both at the same time, and I'd recommend configuring pins separately for the SPI and TWI instances you decide on using. You can find detailed information on all our peripherals and instances in the nRF5340 product specification here.

The nRF5340 has 48 GPIOs that you can configure at your leisure so it should not be a problem to find space for both TWI and SPI.

Best regards,

Simon