nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 22:30:08 GMT

Hi Jared,

I found the issue with nRF5340. There were 3 serial ports for nRF5340:

I previously used CDC UART ports (COM6 and COM9) for my testing. Those do not work. I tried USB Serial Device (COM10) and it worked for me. We can close this issue now. Thanks for your helps.

Dennis

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 21:56:49 GMT

Jared,

I did the same procedure for nRF52840 PCA10112, the serial interface works. I was able to transmit reset (0x00 0x00) or transmitter_test (0x80 0x96) and I got back success (0x00 0x00) or failure (0x00 0x01). This tells me that there is definitely an issue with the same DTM software running on nrf5340 network core with remote shell on the application core.

This is my screenshot from RealTerm with nRF52840 PCA10112:

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:26:06 GMT

The issue I am facing with DTM is direct-test-mode example does not work or does not work consistently with MS Visual Studio Code IDE. I won’t get to the issue at this point.

I switched to the command line and I was able to see J-Link RTT as Jared mentioned. However my observations are:

J-Link RTT viewer is only displays the printk from the network core.
J-Link RTT viewer only works with MS Visual Studio Code IDE over SWD. If I reset the board, I won’t see anything because I am not using SWD.
From reading https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/README.html#direct-test-mode-testing-app, the user interface to send DTM commands (two-byte HEX numbers) has to be a serial terminal interface as you can see in section “Connect with RealTerm”. I was not be able to able to see anything over this JLinkCDC1 serial.

I am still can’t get DTM application going. Please let me know if I am missing something here.

Thanks for your helps in advance,

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:46:17 GMT

Jared,

I build dtm from the command line with "west build samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet -- -DCONFIG_DTM_USB=y". I was able to see this RTT viewer:

I followed https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/README.html#direct-test-mode-testing-app, section Connect with RealTerm (Windows) step 3, but I got nothing in the RealTerm: Serial Capture Program area 3?

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:47:14 GMT

Jared,

I built MS Visual Studio Code to build this DTM. Would this be a problem since https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/README.html referenced to the command line?

I used and configured J-Link RTT viewer as you recommended. I still can't get the user interface as I expected. This is all I got from RTT viewer:

Should Nordic update the readme information here? https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/samples/bluetooth/direct_test_mode/README.html

I am expecting that the user interface is similar to what I saw from nrf52 several years ago. A single key allow the users to drive dtm test modes.

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:23:44 GMT

Jared,

I flashed the unmodified to nRF5340 DK PCA10095 and viewed from Visual Studio Code RTT terminal. I don't think viewing from J-Link RTT viewer should make any difference but I will try it.

Thanks,

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

Jared — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:17:58 GMT

Did you build the sample unmodified this time?

I tried flashing the unmodified sample to my nRF5340 development kit with the latest NCS v2.3.0 and was able to run it and view it on RTT:

regards

Jared

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:22:26 GMT

Jared,

I switched to RTT and running on NRF5340 DK PCA10095. The only connections I have are J2 and J3. However, I still have UART device is not ready error. RTT trace:

Connected via RTT with settings mem-address:auto

SEGGER J-Link V7.82 - Real time terminal output
J-Link OB-nRF5340-NordicSemi compiled Dec 3 2021 15:46:49 V1.0, SN=1050031422
Process: JLink.exe
[00:00:00.000,793] <inf> ipc_uart: IPC service instance opened
[00:00:00.100,982] <err> ipc_uart: IPC endpoint bond timeout
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.99-ncs2 ***
Starting Direct Test Mode example
UART device not ready

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 15:23:51 GMT

Thanks for the clarifications, Jared. Since the radio direct test mode is a board level test, I could use SWD pins on my breakout boards for RTT. My first thought by reading main.c in application was UART was for the user interface. Now, I am seeing UART on the application is for interfacing to the network core. I will switch to RTT.

Thanks,

Dennis

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

Jared — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:57:23 GMT

Dennis,

I see, I don't think this is trivial as the UART peripheral for the netcore is already in use for the DTM commands.

regards

Jared

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:34:20 GMT

Hi Jared,

Yes, I am attempting to use the UART interface because that is the only interface for us to do radio direct test mode on our custom PCBA. I can't use RTT. My thought was UART versus RTT is just a minor configuration. Please let me know if this is not the case.

Thanks,

Dennis

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

Jared — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 13:58:02 GMT

Hi Dennis,

I'm sorry for the late reply,

I've been out of office,

Just to be clear I understand what you're trying to do:

Are you trying to get the debug logs out to UART instead of RTT when you run the DTM sample on your nRF5340 board?

Have you been able to run`and test the unmodified sample?

regards

Jared

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 13:41:34 GMT

I double checked uart0 pins from GPIO port 0 for application core remote_shell. I saw zephyr boot string *** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.99-ncs2 ***. However, uart0 is not ready due to z_device_is_ready() uart0 dev->state->init_res is 32 while expecting 0 in below images.

UART0		FTDI
TX	P0.20	RX	Yellow
RX	P0.22	TX	Orange
RTS	P0.19	CTS	Brown
CTS	P0.21	RTS	Green
GND		GND	Black

From z_device_is_ready() uart0 dev->state->init_res is 32 while expecting 0

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 21:30:31 GMT

Please let me know if you need anything else. Thanks

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:26:59 GMT

Hi Jared,

I attached the build folder. Thanks,

Dennisdevzone.nordicsemi.com/.../0458.build.7z

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

Jared — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:12:09 GMT

Hi,

Can you share your build folder?

regards

Jared

RE: nRF53 Direct Test Mode Question

gfgf2400a — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 18:27:22 GMT

To make sure that I have a working FTDI cable. I ran the Hello World example. I was able to see the serial trace on Tera Term: