circuitpython/nrf5

MicroPython port to the NRF5

This is a port of MicroPython to the Nordic nRF5 series of chips.

Supported features

• UART
• SPI
• LEDs
• Pins
• ADC
• I2C
• PWM (nRF52 only)
• Temperature
• RTC (Real Time Counter. Low-Power counter)
• BLE support including:
  • Peripheral role on nrf51 targets
  • Central role and Peripheral role on nrf52 targets
  • REPL over Bluetooth LE (optionally using WebBluetooth)
  • ubluepy: Bluetooth LE module for micropython

Tested hardware

• nRF51
  • micro:bit
  • PCA10000 (dongle)
  • PCA10001
  • PCA10028
  • PCA10031 (dongle)
• nRF52832
  • PCA10040
  • Adafruit Feather nRF52
  • Thingy:52
  • Arduino Primo
• nRF52840
  • PCA10056

Compile and Flash

Prerequisite steps for building the nrf5 port:

git clone <URL>.git micropython
cd micropython
git submodule update --init
make -C mpy-cross

By default PCA10040 (nrf52832) is used as compile target. To build and flash issue the following command inside the nrf5/ folder:

make
make flash

Alternatively the target board could be defined:

 make BOARD=pca10040
 make flash

Available board target names:

• microbit
• feather52
• pca10000
• pca10001
• pca10028
• pca10031
• pca10040
• pca10056

Compile and Flash with Bluetooth Stack

First prepare the bluetooth folder by downloading Bluetooth LE stacks and headers:

 ./drivers/bluetooth/download_ble_stack.sh

If the Bluetooth stacks has been downloaded, compile the target with the following command:

make BOARD=pca10040 SD=s132
make sd

The make sd will trigger a flash of the bluetooth stack before that application is flashed. Note that make sd will perform a full erase of the chip, which could cause 3rd party bootloaders to also be wiped.

Note: further tuning of features to include in bluetooth or even setting up the device to use REPL over Bluetooth can be configured in the bluetooth_conf.h.

Board	SD param	Support
microbit	s110	Peripheral
pca10000	s110	Peripheral
pca10001	s110	Peripheral
pca10028	s110	Peripheral
pca10031	s110	Peripheral
pca10040	s132	Peripheral and Central
feather52	s132	Peripheral and Central
pca10056

Segger targets

Install the necessary tools to flash and debug using Segger:

JLink

nrfjprog linux-32bit nrfjprog linux-64bit nrfjprog osx nrfjprog win32

Boards that would need JLink/nrfjprog:

• PCA10000
• PCA10001
• PCA10028
• PCA10031
• PCA10040
• PCA10056

PyOCD/OpenOCD targets

Install the necessary tools to flash and debug using OpenOCD:

sudo apt-get install openocd
sudo pip install pyOCD

Boards that would need PyOCD:

• micro:bit

DFU targets

sudo apt-get install build-essential libffi-dev pkg-config gcc-arm-none-eabi git python python-pip
git clone https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_nRF52_Arduino.git
cd Adafruit_nRF52_Arduino/tools/nrfutil-0.5.2/
sudo pip install -r requirements.txt
sudo python setup.py install

make flash and make sd will not work with DFU targets. Hence, dfu-gen and dfu-flash must be used instead.

• dfu-gen: Generates a Firmware zip to be used by the DFU flash application.
• dfu-flash: Triggers the DFU flash application to upload the firmware from the generated Firmware zip file.

Example on how to generate and flash feather52 target:

make BOARD=feather52
make BOARD=feather52 dfu-gen
make BOARD=feather52 dfu-flash

Boards that would need DFU flash utilities:

• feather52 (Adafruit Feather nRF52)