nRF9151 Feather device tree definitions

Voxorin

Are you planning on adding the nRF9151 Feather device tree definitions to upstream Zephyr?

I started development with the new board today and noticed they’re not there. Trying to add them as a module has been a little painful.

AchimKraus

Voxorin adding the nRF9151 Feather device tree definitions to upstream Zephyr

FMPOV, that are two topics:

having the files already at zephyr/boards/circuitdojo
having the files maintained and updated to newer zephyr/NCS versions

While the the first is pretty easy (just copy the files on your own), the second may take some time. And in some cases it will not be too easy to have these changes “in time” (sync to updates in NCS).
So for now I’m pretty happy with it “as it is”. It’s clear, which NCS version is tested and “intended” to work. Everyone may also try newer version on her/his own risk. Or wait.

AchimKraus

Voxorin Trying to add them as a module has been a little painful.

I just tweak “around that” …
See New Board Support - nRF9151 feather - NCS 2.9.x.

I’ve added the files from Jared (with a link to the original source) to an extra folder with instructions how to install them.

The pain is the more, if you need to switch between ncs versions, because the board files will not be included by default. If you need to do that, you may add the new files to the local git with new branches. Switching the version is the done with “west update” and the checkout of the specific branch with the additional board files of that version.

Voxorin

Most of the pain was self-inflicted from using ncs v3.1.1. NPM1300 was renamed to NPM13XX and the npm LEDs can’t be used with MCUBoot, so setting CONFIG_MCUBOOT_INDICATION_LED=n is necessary.

I also haven’t had any luck yet getting JLink to connect so I can get a modem trace out of the uart while debugging.

jaredwolff

@Voxorin I was not planning on it since it has the dependency for NCS.

Btw @AchimKraus and I were just discussing getting modem traces. You may find this useful if you don’t feel like hooking up a J-Link:
https://community.circuitdojo.com/d/733-nrf9151-feather-v1-uart-modem-trace/5

I will push to 3.1.x at some point. Still working through some stuff here first.

Voxorin

jaredwolff I was not planning on it since it has the dependency for NCS.

NCS uses a downstream of Zephyr and it’s nice having the definitions for the nRF9160 feather already there. I’m not sure if it’s worth your effort but it would be nice if you can do it.

jaredwolff Btw @AchimKraus and I were just discussing getting modem traces. You may find this useful if you don’t feel like hooking up a J-Link:

I saw that and tried out your config, but when uart0 is disabled I can’t seem connect with prob-rs at all. I even tried setting up RTT but no luck. I’ll keep trying though.

Voxorin

AchimKraus Everyone may also try newer version on her/his own risk. Or wait.

If only I were so patient. I guess I just like finding new ways to break things. 😅

AchimKraus The pain is the more, if you need to switch between ncs versions, because the board files will not be included by default. If you need to do that, you may add the new files to the local git with new branches. Switching the version is the done with “west update” and the checkout of the specific branch with the additional board files of that version.

Currently I have the the nrf9160-feather-examples-and-drivers repo as part of my west.yml:

  projects:
    - name: nfed
      url: https://github.com/circuitdojo/nrf9160-feather-examples-and-drivers.git
      revision: v3.0.x
      path: nfed

It’s makes the board name a little strange, which tripped me up for a minute: circuitdojo_feather_nrf9151/nrf9151/ns, circuitdojo_feather_nrf9151_nrf9151_ns.conf, etc.

I like to keep my sources clean, so I never want to edit the contents of the zephyr, nrf, modules, etc directories. That makes maintenance much easier.

Unfortunately, I did have to dirty the nfed files to make it work with ncs 3.1. Although the required changes are pretty minimal; so I’ll probably fork it and make PR once I’m sure everything works.

AchimKraus

Voxorin I did have to dirty the nfed files to make it work with ncs 3.1.

Ah, yes, I remember the NPM1300 to NPM13xx …

jaredwolff

@Voxorin v3.1.x branch is a WIP but it should have the NPM13xx conversion done for all samples.

https://github.com/circuitdojo/nrf9160-feather-examples-and-drivers/tree/v3.1.x

Voxorin

jaredwolff
PR made: https://github.com/circuitdojo/nrf9160-feather-examples-and-drivers/pull/15

I also made a PR to update thebuild_all.sh script for local testing to match the github workflow: https://github.com/circuitdojo/nrf9160-feather-examples-and-drivers/pull/16

I only tested that the samples build so far. I’ve yet to figure out how to use twister.

jaredwolff

@Voxorin nice thank you. I will look at it soon.