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By woifi
#192659
Hi,

I'm trying to prototype an ANT+ bike power sensor using the nRF52832 Breakout Board.

Thanks to the detailed hookup guide I got the blinky example running using the Arduino IDE, after working around the nrfutils issue already reported here: https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.ph ... 32#p192517. I also managed to build and run examples from the Nordic SDK, after minor adjustments for toolchain location and custom_board.h.

Next step would be to run a simple ANT example. To do so, I need to get one of the ANT softdevices uploaded to the board, which I aquired from thisisant.com. However, I'm not clear on how to upload the S212 or S332 softdevice to the board while keeping the DFU bootloader working. I have no JTAG tools at hand currently, so I'd better avoid breaking the bootloader and consequently bricking the board.

As far as I understand, bootloader and application share the same softdevice, is that correct? Does this imply that I have to build a new bootloader against the S332 softdevice and upload that together with the softdevice before uploading an ANT enabled application? If so, are there instructions on how to do so?

I tried to investigate into that direction, but got stuck. I managed to build the bootloader from https://github.com/sparkfun/nRF52832_Breakout.git against SDK 11.0.0 and the S132 softdevice, and DFU it to the board. However, when trying to build against the S332 softdevice, I'm failing on SDK versions. If I understand the Nordic documents correctly, I need to build the bootloader against SDK 11.0.0, because the bootloader protocol changed with SDK 12.2.0, right? However, the S332 softdevice has a newer API than the S132 from SDK 11.0.0, which breaks the build. On a side note: I don't need the BLE capabilities of the bootloader, UART is sufficient for prototyping. Is there an easy way to remove the BLE dependencies from the bootloader?

So I need some advice on how to proceed. Did I miss some documentation on how to run an ANT application on the SparkFun nRF52832 breakout?

Thanks,
Wolfgang
By jwshale
#193249
Hi Wolfgang,

I'm afraid I cannot help you (certainly not yet), but wondered if you had managed to get the ANT+ softdevices working?

John
By dpletche
#193253
You can buy a compatible Nordic nRF52832 prototyping board from Arrow for about $32, with free shipping. It includes an embedded Segger J-Link programmer that can be wired directly to the SWDIO / SWCLK headers on this board, Then you can reprogram everything to your heart's content, and it's a million times more convenient than the reset button dance. Plus you can debug the board and perform very fast, efficient debug printing as an added bonus, and you have an extra board to play with.

Note that the SWDIO/SWCLK wiring photo on the product page is wrong; see:
https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=45357

It's unfortunate that SparkFun didn't respond.
By woifi
#193257
jwshale wrote:I'm afraid I cannot help you (certainly not yet), but wondered if you had managed to get the ANT+ softdevices working?
No, not with the standard bootloader.
dpletche wrote:You can buy a compatible Nordic nRF52832 prototyping board from Arrow for about $32, with free shipping. It includes an embedded Segger J-Link programmer that can be wired directly to the SWDIO / SWCLK headers on this board, Then you can reprogram everything to your heart's content, and it's a million times more convenient than the reset button dance. Plus you can debug the board and perform very fast, efficient debug printing as an added bonus, and you have an extra board to play with.
You're right. I took a similar approach and bought another nRF52832 based module (ACN52832 from Aconno) with a JTAG / SWD programmer (ACNPROG) that was readily available here in Germany, with all the benefits you describe. The ACN52832 is smaller than the Sparkfun breakout, at the cost of having not so breadboard friendly pads and no buttons. I managed to implement my ANT+ project on that platform without any further problems.
dpletche wrote:Note that the SWDIO/SWCLK wiring photo on the product page is wrong; see:
https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=45357
Thanks for the pointer. I did not take the time yet to adopt the ACNPROG's Tag-Connect interface to the Sparkfun breakout for programming it via SWD, but will keep this in mind as soon as I do.
dpletche wrote:It's unfortunate that SparkFun didn't respond.
Yes. SparkFun advertises the breakout as ANT capable, which is true as long as one has access to an SWD programmer, but a bit misleading for people planning to get along with the bootloader only.
By jabcat
#199819
Hi
I am working on making an airspeed sensor that can be connected to a garmin cycling computer over ant+
I will use the environment chanel and instead of inputting temperature data I will replace with windspeed, this will be used to calculate the CdA of a cyclist.
I have an arduino windspeed sensor working and now need to send this data over ant
To do this i bought a sparkfun nRF52832 breakout board that was adveritsed with having ant capabilities however i cant find any reference material on how to actualy use this feature.
could anybody help?
Thanks