This tutorial explains how to run an example BLE app on a board and command it to scan and spew some stats. The stats will be seen over a serial port, not a BLE wireless connection.
Ensure that you have met the following prerequisites before continuing with this tutorial:
Use the newt tool to create a new project directory containing a skeletal Mynewt framework. Change into the newly created directory.
$ newt new myproj Downloading project skeleton from apache/mynewt-blinky... Installing skeleton in myproj... Project myproj successfully created. $ cd myproj $ newt install
You will create two targets - one for the bootloader, the other for the application.
$ newt target create myble Target targets/myble successfully created $ newt target create nrf52_boot Target targets/myble successfully created $ newt target show targets/my_blinky_sim app=apps/blinky bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/native build_profile=debug targets/myble targets/nrf52_boot
Define the targets further. Note that you are using the example app bletiny for the application target. Set the bsp
NOTE: The preview version, nrf52pdk, is no longer supported. If you do not see PCA100040 on the top of your board, you have a preview version of the board and will need to upgrade your developer board before continuing.
$ newt target set myble bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk Target targets/myble successfully set target.bsp to @apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk $ newt target set myble app=@apache-mynewt-core/apps/bletiny Target targets/myble successfully set target.app to @apache-mynewt-core/apps/bletiny $ newt target set myble build_profile=optimized Target targets/myble successfully set target.build_profile to optimized
Use the same newt target set command to set the following definition for the bootloader target -- again, make sure you use the correct value for the bsp based on which version of the board you have..
targets/nrf52_boot app=@apache-mynewt-core/apps/boot bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk build_profile=optimized
You should have the following targets by the end of this step.
$ newt target show targets/my_blinky_sim app=apps/blinky bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/native build_profile=debug targets/myble app=@apache-mynewt-core/apps/bletiny bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk build_profile=optimized targets/nrf52_boot app=@apache-mynewt-core/apps/boot bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk build_profile=optimized
Since we‘re interested in seeing the stats, we’ll need to enable the stats module for the target. By default, the stats module is not enabled, so we will have to override the default behavior. To do this, you‘ll need to create a configuration file syscfg.yml in the app directory. from the target definition above, you can see that the app is in apache-mynewt-core/apps/bletiny so that is where you’ll put your configuration file.
# Package: apps/bletiny syscfg.vals: SHELL_TASK: 1 STATS_NAMES: 1 STATS_CLI: 1
The first configuration value turns on the Shell Task, and we'll need this to get to the shell. The next 2 enable the names for the various stats, and then turns on the stats CLI option.
Then build the two targets.
Run the newt build nrf52_boot command to build the bootloader:
Building target targets/nrf52_boot Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/boot/bootutil/src/image_ec.c Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/boot/bootutil/src/image_ec256.c Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/boot/bootutil/src/image_rsa.c Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/boot/bootutil/src/bootutil_misc.c Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/boot/bootutil/src/loader.c Compiling repos/apache-mynewt-core/apps/boot/src/boot.c Archiving sys_sysinit.a Archiving util_mem.a Linking ~/myproj/bin/targets/nrf52_boot/app/apps/boot/boot.elf Target successfully built: targets/nrf52_boot
Archiving util_mem.a Linking ~/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny.elf Target successfully built: targets/myble
<br> ### Create the app image Run the `newt create-image myble 1.0.0` command to generate a signed application image for the `myble` target. The version number is arbitrary. ```no-highlight $newt create-image myble 1.0.0 Compiling bin/targets/myble/generated/src/myble-sysinit-app.c Archiving myble-sysinit-app.a Linking ~/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny.elf App image succesfully generated: ~/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny.img
Make sure the USB connector is in place and the power LED on the board is lit. Use the Power ON/OFF switch to reset the board after loading the image.
$ newt load nrf52_boot $ newt load myble
You will now look for some BLE related stats over a serial connection and see the radio is actually working. If you haven‘t done so already, make sure you’re familiar with the Serial Port Setup and Configuration section.
Once you have a connection set up, you can connect to your device as follows:
On Mac OS and Linux platforms, you can run minicom -D /dev/tty.usbserial-<port> -b 115200 to connect to the console of your app. Note that on Linux, the format of the port name is /dev/ttyUSB<N>, where N is a number.
On Windows, you can run PuTTY to connect to the device.
If you located your port from a MinGW terminal, the port name format is /dev/ttyS<N>, where N is a number. You must map the port name to a Windows COM port: /dev/ttyS<N> maps to COM<N+1>. For example, /dev/ttyS2 maps to COM3.
You can also use the Windows Device Manager to locate the COM port number.
Welcome to minicom 2.7 OPTIONS: Compiled on Mar 18 2016, 04:59:47. Port /dev/tty.usbserial-1a12, 21:24:09 Press Meta-Z for help on special keys ? 7471:Commands: 7471: stat echo ? prompt ticks tasks 7474: mempools date b
If you'd like a shell prompt, try the prompt command.
prompt 14025:Usage: prompt [set|show] [prompt_char] prompt set > 15086:Prompt set to: > 15086:Usage: prompt [set|show] [prompt_char] 15087: >
You'll notice that there is an ever-increasing counter before the prompt (and before any output to the terminal). This is just a counter kept by the MCU.
Note: If you want to have a shell prompt by default, simply add the line: CONSOLE_PROMPT: 1 to your syscfg.yml file and it will be turned on by default.
Try the tasks command.
> tasks Tasks: 46682: task pri tid runtime csw stksz stkuse lcheck ncheck fg 46684: idle 255 0 46683 99 64 31 0 0 0 46686: main 127 1 1 29 512 156 0 0 0 46688: ble_ll 0 2 0 12 80 58 0 0 0 46691: >
Try specifying a BLE related stat, for example ble_ll. You should see some HCI (Host Controller Interface) command counts.
113136: > stat ble_ll hci_cmds: 11 155545:hci_cmd_errs: 0 155545:hci_events_sent: 11 155547:bad_ll_state: 0 155547:bad_acl_hdr: 0 155548:no_bufs: 0 155548:rx_adv_pdu_crc_ok: 0 155549:rx_adv_pdu_crc_err: 0 155550:rx_adv_bytes_crc_ok: 0 155551:rx_adv_bytes_crc_err: 0 155552:rx_data_pdu_crc_ok: 0 ... 155564:scan_req_txf: 0 155565:scan_req_txg: 0 155565:scan_rsp_txg: 0 155566: >
For a more exciting output, try scanning your surroundings for BLE advertisements. The HCI command shown below specifies a scan duration in ms, scan to passive, and no duplicates. You should see some scan data flying by!
b scan dur=10000 passive=1 nodups=1 37266:[ts=291140616ssb, mod=4 level=1] GAP procedure initiated: discovery; own_as 37641: 38256:received advertisement; event_type=0 rssi=-48 addr_type=1 addr=59:cc:3d:a3: 38261: flags=0x1a: 38261: General discoverable mode 38262: uuids16(complete)=0x1802 38263: name(complete)=Find Me 38264: 38551:scanning finished
If you're still not seeing any output from the device, try running the debugger and see if you are seeing the program execute properly.
$newt debug myble
[~/dev/myproj/repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk/nrf52dk_debug.sh ~/dev/myproj/repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nrf52dk ~/dev/wanda/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny]
~/dev/myproj/repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/scripts/common.sh: line 38: [: =: unary operator expected
Debugging ~/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny.elf
GNU gdb (GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors) 7.8.0.20150604-cvs
Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "--host=x86_64-apple-darwin10 --target=arm-none-eabi".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from ~/dev/myproj/bin/targets/myble/app/apps/bletiny/bletiny.elf...done.
os_tick_idle (ticks=1920)
at repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/mcu/nordic/nrf52xxx/src/hal_os_tick.c:200
200 if (ticks > 0) {
(gdb) monitor reset
Resetting target
(gdb) c
Continuing.
^C
Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
os_tick_idle (ticks=1907)
at repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/mcu/nordic/nrf52xxx/src/hal_os_tick.c:200
200 if (ticks > 0) {
(gdb) p g_os_time
$1 = 13
(gdb) c
Continuing.
^C
Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
os_tick_idle (ticks=1920)
at repos/apache-mynewt-core/hw/mcu/nordic/nrf52xxx/src/hal_os_tick.c:200
200 if (ticks > 0) {
(gdb) p g_os_time
$2 = 6611
(gdb)
You should see the g_os_time advancing as above, as each os time tick is 1ms. If the system ticks aren‘t advancing, then nothing’s actually running.