ble_connectivity on nRF51822xxAA

[Mike]

Hello,

I would like to use the nrf51822xxaa as BLE gateway for an ARM application processor (connected through the UART).

I successfully cross-compiled pc-ble-driver 1.0 for my device. But I have a problem with the ble_connectivity application because every time I get Timeout (Error 0x0D) on sd_rpc_open call (port and uart pins in ble_connectivity app are set correct - checked & tested).

This is how I prepared and compiled with GCC my ble_connectivity app (followed this instructions):

1. First of all, I applied SD20_SDK11.patch from the git repository
2. I based on example prepared for PCA10028 ser_s130_hci but because of using nRF51822xxAA with 16kB RAM and different UART pins I have made some changes:

• in ble_connectivity_gcc_nrf51.ld changed RAM region from RAM (rwx) : ORIGIN = 0x20004300, LENGTH = 0x3d00 to RAM (rwx) : ORIGIN = 0x20000300, LENGTH = 0x3d00
• in Makefile changed BOARD from PCA10028 to CUSTOM_BOARD
• in custom_board.h defined my correct UART pins, in my case #define RX_PIN_NUMBER 5 and #define TX_PIN_NUMBER 6
• added defines APP_SCHEDULER_WITH_PROFILER and HCI_LINK_CONTROL

Compilation goes well, everything seems ok, but doesn't work.

Is there something I missed or done wrong?

[Roger Clark]

Most GCC examples are setup for the QFAC MCU which has 32k. You need to change the linker to reduce the RAM length setting by 0x4000

[bjorn-spockeli]

The S130 v1.0.0 requires a minimum of 0x22D8 bytes of RAM so I think the RAM region in the linker script should be set to something like this

RAM (rwx) : ORIGIN = 0x20002300, LENGTH = 0x1D00

[Mike]

Thank you for hints, the RAM region was set wrong. I found very useful app_ram_base.h file which helped me set proper setting according to my connections count etc.

[bjorn-spockeli]

Happy to help :) Does the connectivity firmware run correctly now?

[Mike]

Yes, there is no much RAM - but it is possible to establish 2 connections :)