nRF5 action!

korttoma

@nca78 I have now measured the current consumption of the small bluetooth beacon device (N51822 QFABC0) using your code and the results are encouraging.

With your code I get around 4uA sleep current compared to 800-4000uA with my old code :D

Measurements done with an Micro (nano) ampere meter (double) that has not been calibrated against a reliable meter so do not take the measured values so seriously but more as a comparison.

Device

Nca78

@korttoma I was going to ask you for some news. This is great news as it confirms the problem is solved even with older versions of the chip.
Time to start work on a clean library...

PS: I think you will have a reliable measurement with a simple multimeter, as the nrf51 by default is using an internal LDO, whether you feed it with 3.3V or (3.3V - burden voltage) in the end the chip will run at the same 1.8V voltage and use the same current. Of course it won't be the case if you have extra sensors on the board but it's not the case here.

Toyman

@nca78 BTW, HolyIoT makes a similar beacon but nrf52 based. Should be much more energy efficient. The price is about $7

Mars Warrior

I see a lot of nice assembled PCB's on this forum, and just out of curiosity, but do you guys do your own SMT assembly?

I looked at the PCBA options, but just a small batch of 10 PCB's starts somewhere around $140 excluding components.
It would save me I think a lot of work, but on the other hand it feels expensive...

My ebyte modules & STM32 programmers are on there way from AliExpress, so no problem in that area.

Toyman

@mars-warrior it depends on quantities of both PCBs and components on the PCBs.
If you have lets say 10 pcbs with 20 components and potentially will have to do it again, the best bet is get a small oven (kitchen type) with PID regulator.
If you just need 2-3 pcbs with 5-6 componets, hot air gun is your choice.
In my current project, I solder ebyte module by hand (very easy) and then LED, resisttors and capacitors with hot air and solder paste.
Looks pretty neat.

Mars Warrior

@toyman Thanx for that info!

Never worked (yet) with a hot air station/pencil.

Found some reviews here: https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-soldering-stations. Both the Kendal 853D and the Ayyue 968+ are stations I can afford to buy. I assume the cheaper ones ($50) are the ones to avoid...

Looking at some youtube vids about this subject, it seems doable, even for a novice like me ;-)

Of course, any recomendations about hot air stations are appreciated!

Toyman

@mars-warrior

something like this:

https://store.reflowster.com/products/reflowster

gohan

140$ it is quite expensive compared with a simple small oven
#192 Aldi Hack: Simplify SMD Soldering with a Cheap Aldi Oven. Nothing else – 06:09
— Andreas Spiess

Toyman

@gohan I am not telling you to buy this. Just a direction.
I've created a PID sous vide machine. It's relatively easy project. SMD oven is absolutely the same. All you need is Arduino, thermoprobe and a relay.

alowhum

Quick question: when programming the eByte module (or any module really):

Should I select "reset enable or not? What does that do exactly?
Should I select clock: "Crystal oscillator" for the eByte module?

NeverDie

@alowhum "Reset enable" determines whether pin21 acts as a reset pin or not.

NeverDie

@alowhum IIRC, the crystal oscillator is only required by Bluetooth. For everything else, the internal resonator is sufficient.

alowhum

Thanks!

I received two new eByte modules. I can't even connect to either one, both with BMP or ST-Link V2. Very strange. I'm going to try not powering them from the USB stick but from a second 3.3v source.

Toyman

@alowhum did you manage to flash them?

alowhum

@toyman No. I don't understand what's going on, as I was able to flash one succesfully before. I did find [this a bit unnerving].(https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/19943/nrf52832-unable-to-connect-to-the-target).

Could it be that the EByte chips need the DCDC stuff before they can be connected to? Or that the exact moment on power-on (reset) matters?

One thing I have found is that I had installed OpenOCD on my laptop to turn a ST-Link V2 into a Black Magic Probe. That version of OpenOCD was overruling the hacked version that Sandeep Mistry had created for the NRF5.

But even with that removed, the problem remains this:

"TARGET: nrf52.cpu - Not halted".

Apparently this is a sign that the chips are protected. I was able to remove that protection before (by selecting "Burn Bootloader"), but it doesn't work now.

NeverDie

@alowhum said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

Could it be that the EByte chips need the DCDC stuff before they can be connected to?

No.

Nca78

@alowhum have you tried the menu item to write softdevice ? If I remember well it will unlock the chip and after that you will be allowed to write code to it.

Omemanti

~~Hey,~~

somehow I cant change the pins on my Ebyte module. Im trying to test with MockMysensors.
I want te TX set to pin nr. P0.06

~~I changed: MyBoardNRF.h and included nrf.h~~

#define PIN_SERIAL_RX (8)
#define PIN_SERIAL_TX (6)

~~but somehow the TX pin stays P0.25.~~

~~Can someone point me in the right direction?~~

~~The node connects to the gateway, so thats also working.~~

Seems like that if you put the MyBoardNRF5 files into the example map and you change some things in that file using the Arduino IDE, it doenst get uploaded. When I changed the MyBoardNRF5 file using Brackets it working as intended.

alowhum

@Nca78 Thanks, but it didn't work either :-(

Some notes from my adventures with the eByte module:

I've been playing with OpenOCD and the ST-Link v2. The ST-Link V2 that I turned into a Black Magic Probe doesn't see the modules.

I went into the Arduino's folder that has OpenOCD, created .cfg file, and then:

./openocd -d2 -f nrf52832.cfg

This started the OpenOCD server. Then I opened another terminal window and did

telnet localhost 4444

Now I could manually issue some OpenOCD commands. The goal was to do a manual mass erase.

Some OpenOCD commands and their output:

flash probe 0                                                                 c Unknown device (HWID 0x00000000)

> flash banks
#0 : nrf52.flash (nrf51) at 0x00000000, size 0x00000000, buswidth 1, chipwidth 1
#1 : nrf52.uicr (nrf51) at 0x10001000, size 0x00000000, buswidth 1, chipwidth 1

> flash probe 1
Unknown device (HWID 0x00000000)
flash 'nrf51' found at 0x10001000

> nrf51 mass_erase 0
Target not halted

This command actually resulted in OpenOCD ballooning to 8Gb in ram. Then after 5 minutes of seemingly being busy, I got the 'target not halted' command.

> flash info 1
Unknown device (HWID 0x00000000)
#1 : nrf51 at 0x10001000, size 0x00000100, buswidth 1, chipwidth 1
	#  0: 0x00000000 (0x100 0kB) not protected
Target not halted
error retrieving flash info

Here is says "target not protected".

> nrf52.cpu curstate
reset

Weird: the processor says it is in reset state? Could it be that it is not so much protected, but that it is constantly being reset? But then why is this with all the chips?

Once the OpenOCD server is running I also tried getting into the chip with

telnet localhost 3333

But then I get "Error: attempted 'gdb' connection rejected"

The OpenOCD documentation mentions the chip protection:

Flash Driver: nrf5
All members of the nRF51 microcontroller families from Nordic Semiconductor include internal flash and use ARM Cortex-M0 core. Also, the nRF52832 microcontroller from Nordic Semiconductor, which include internal flash and use an ARM Cortex-M4F core.
flash bank $_FLASHNAME nrf5 0 0x00000000 0 0 $_TARGETNAME
Some nrf5-specific commands are defined:
Command: nrf5 mass_erase
Erases the contents of the code memory and user information configuration registers as well. It must be noted that this command works only for chips that do not have factory pre-programmed region 0 code.
http://www.openocd.org/doc/html/Flash-Commands.html

I also got out my voltmeter. Pin 21 and pin 25 have 3v on them, the rest don't.

maciekczwa

I have the same problem with brand news ebyte modeules.

Here are my openocd logs:

Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0-dev-gdc53227 (2016-04-09-13:45)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 2
0x4000
Info : The selected transport took over low-level target control. The results might differ compared to plain JTAG/SWD
adapter speed: 10000 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 10000 kHz, using 4000 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 10000 kHz, using 4000 kHz
Info : clock speed 4000 kHz
Info : STLINK v2 JTAG v17 API v2 SWIM v4 VID 0x0483 PID 0x3748
Info : using stlink api v2
Info : Target voltage: 3.241270
Info : nrf52.cpu: hardware has 0 breakpoints, 2 watchpoints
Error: timed out while waiting for target halted
TARGET: nrf52.cpu - Not halted
in procedure 'program'
in procedure 'reset' called at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 478
in procedure 'ocd_bouncer'

embedded:startup.tcl:454: Error: ** Unable to reset target **
in procedure 'program'
in procedure 'program_error' called at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 479
at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 454
wybrany port szeregowy at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 454
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