SAMB11ZR Xplained Pro

Log in or register to post comments
Go To Last Post
4 posts / 0 new
Author
Message
WillG
WillG's picture
Level: New Member
Joined: Wed. Mar 14, 2018
Posts: 5 View posts
#1
Posted by WillG: Wed. Mar 14, 2018 - 03:05 PM
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Total votes: 0

Hi, 

 

Just started trying to get this board running so I can explore the API a bit, but 'Xplained' it is not.

 

I kind of expected the board to at least run some applications out of the box, but I have not yet been able to see the bluetooth module advertise using any of the ASF example projects.

 

When the projects compile (looking at you multirole peripheral) they tend not to run in debug, and when I assume they are running code in 'release mode' (forgive me, I came here from PIC programming, I mean having been programmed using the device programming popup window) there is no sign that anything is happening, no advertising, no LED flashes.

 

Echoing what I have seen a lot of other people writing here, the documentation is awful. I have had a trawl through the forums and there are a lot of people with similar issues, but seemingly no response from Atmel/Microchip.

 

Can anybody point me to a resource that might get me out of this rut and into some sweet bluetooth coding?

 

Thanks

Will

DON'T PANIC!!!

Tags:

Wireless, Bluetooth
Top
avngers92
avngers92's picture
Level: Wannabe
Joined: Thu. Apr 14, 2016
Posts: 71 View posts
Location: brooks
Posted by avngers92: Fri. Mar 16, 2018 - 06:06 AM
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Total votes: 0

Heloo buddy, the issue seems like you are not able to get the board up and running even with asf examples? As far as my experience with samb11, after programming i had to reset and wait for few seconds for the boot only then i used see some debug messages printed on the uart. 

 

Regarding debug i have done it without any issue. And reecently when i was going through the datasheet i see some new register description added to the datasheet, which is bit helpful than previously which does not have any access to registers.

 

http://www.microchip.com/wwwprod...

 

I agrree with you with the documentation, few which are available, are under the documentation category of the product page

Last Edited: Fri. Mar 16, 2018 - 06:07 AM
Top
WillG
WillG's picture
Level: New Member
Joined: Wed. Mar 14, 2018
Posts: 5 View posts
Posted by WillG: Fri. Mar 16, 2018 - 01:11 PM
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Total votes: 0

Hi, thanks for replying!

 

I have managed to work out a fairly reliable programming technique: open the programming window and enable EDBG then go to 'memories', unplug the USB, hit program and plug the USB back in.

 

This seems to get the board back into a state where it will program every time, which makes me slightly happier, even managed to get some useful stuff running by modifying the observer application from the ASF library.

 

Now I want to enumerate some custom characteristics so I'm pulling some examples out of the BLUSDKSMAR Software Development Guide.

 

It's not the most readable document but it seems to be the best I can find at the moment.

 

Cheers

DON'T PANIC!!!

Top
WillG
WillG's picture
Level: New Member
Joined: Wed. Mar 14, 2018
Posts: 5 View posts
Posted by WillG: Tue. Mar 20, 2018 - 11:52 AM
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Total votes: 0

Quick update, don't know if this deserves a new thread or not but seeing as there is next to no support available for this chip hopefully this can help others.

 

Firstly, powering the board definitely helps. It still reports low/fluctuating power from the EDBG but I haven't had a failure to program in a while now.

 

On to my application woes:

 

I have managed to modify the BLE_OBSERVER example app to look for a beacon with a specific BD address and extract the relevant data from the advertising packet.

I then thought I would try and implement my own custom write characteristic and begin advertising so a 3rd device can update the BD address of the required beacon, but after poking around in the user/programming guide and the online API 'help' I am none the wiser and a fair bit more confused.

 

So I switched over to the custom serial chat example, and am trying to port the observer scanning functions into that.

 

However when I try and switch from advertising to scanning something breaks.

 

I call at_ble_adv_stop() and I get a terminal log of 'Scanning process initiated', but the first scan report callback status is AT_BLE_GAP_NOT_SUPPORTED.

The documentation doesn't seem to suggest why this may be happening, and from comparison of the 2 separate projects I can't see any device configuration differences apart from registering some ble manager callback events.

 

Do I have to unregister the CSC example callbacks before registering the observer ones?

 

Any help appreciated :)

DON'T PANIC!!!

Top