BLE 2 Click board example on SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit

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Description:

This example demonstrates the BLE capability of BLE 2 Click board on SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit.

This application connects to the MBD (Microchip Bluetooth Data) android application running on an Android Smartphone over Bluetooth low energy using the BLE 2 click board and sends a battery charge indicator (in percentage) message through a custom profile.

Modules/Technology Used:

Peripheral Modules
- GPIO
- SERCOM (USART)
- EIC
- SYSTICK

Hardware Used:

Software/Tools Used:

This project has been verified to work with the following versions of software tools:

Refer Project Manifest present in harmony-manifest-success.yml under the project folder firmware/src/config/sam_e51_cnano

Refer the Release Notes to know the MPLAB X IDE and MCC Plugin version. Alternatively, Click Here

Because Microchip regularly update tools, occasionally issue(s) could be discovered while using the newer versions of the tools. If the project doesn’t seem to work and version incompatibility is suspected, It is recommended to double-check and use the same versions that the project was tested with. To download original version of MPLAB Harmony v3 packages, refer to document How to Use the MPLAB Harmony v3 Project Manifest Feature

Setup:

Connect the SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit to the Host PC as a USB Device through a Type-A male to micro-B USB cable connected to Micro-B USB (Debug USB) port
Mount the BLE2 click board on mikroBUS connector 1 of Curiosity Nano Base

Programming hex file:

The pre-built hex file can be programmed by following the below steps.

Steps to program the hex file

Open MPLAB X IDE
Close all existing projects in IDE, if any project is opened.
Go to File -> Import -> Hex/ELF File
In the “Import Image File” window, Step 1 - Create Prebuilt Project, Click the “Browse” button to select the prebuilt hex file.
Select Device has “ATSAME51J20A”
Ensure the proper tool is selected under “Hardware Tool”
Click on Next button
In the “Import Image File” window, Step 2 - Select Project Name and Folder, select appropriate project name and folder
Click on Finish button
In MPLAB X IDE, click on “Make and Program Device” Button. The device gets programmed in sometime
Follow the steps in “Running the Demo” section below

Programming/Debugging Application Project:

Open the project (ble2/firmware/sam_e51_cnano.X) in MPLAB X IDE
Ensure “SAM E51 Curiosity Nano” is selected as hardware tool to program/debug the application
Build the code and program the device by clicking on the “make and program” button in MPLAB X IDE tool bar
Follow the steps in “Running the Demo” section below

Running the Demo:

Before proceeding, install the Microchip Bluetooth Data android app in an Android Smartphone.

Enable Bluetooth and location from Smartphone settings
Perform reset by unplugging and re-plugging the power cable of SAM E51 Curiosity Nano
Open the “Microchip Bluetooth Data (MBD)” android app from your smartphone and tap on “BLE Connect” icon on the dashboard. If prompted, allow the application to turn on Bluetooth.
Now, scan for Bluetooth devices by tapping “START SCAN” options on the MBD APP.
The BLE 2 device should appear as BLE2CLICK in the list of Bluetooth devices.
Tap on the “BLE2CLICK” device to connect to the device.
Once the device is connected, under “Service List” select battery service
A battery service screen appears and you can observe the battery percentage getting updated

Instructions to add ble2 functionality to your application:

You could use this demonstration as an example to add ble functionality to your MPLAB Harmony v3 based application. Follow the below steps.

If you haven’t downloaded the ble2 demo yet Click Here to download, otherwise go to next step
Unzip the downloaded .zip file
From the unzipped folder ble2/firmware/src, copy the folder click_routines to the folder firmware/src under your MPLAB Harmony v3 application project
Open MPLAB X IDE
Open your application project
In the project explorer, Right click on folder Header Files
and add a sub folder click_routines by selecting “Add Existing Items from Folders…”

Click on “Add Folder…” button
Select the “click_routines” folder and select “Files of Types” as Header Files
Click on “Add” button to add the selected folder
The ble2 click example header files gets added to your project

In the project explorer, Right click on folder Source Files
and add a sub folder click_routines by selecting “Add Existing Items from Folders…”

Click on “Add Folder…” button
Select the “click_routines” folder and select “Files of Types” as Source Files
Click on “Add” button to add the selected folder
The ble2 click example source files gets added to your project

The ble2 click example uses the USART and Timer peripherals. The configuration of these peripherals for your application depends on the 32-bit MCU and development board you are using.
- Configure USART: - Add the SERCOM(USART) peripheral block to the MCC project graph
  - Configure USART Pins using MCC Pin configuration Window
    The USART configuration depends on - 32-bit MCU - 32-bit MCU development board - The socket on which you have mounted the ble2 click board
    Example: The ble2 click example on SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit uses mikroBUS socket #1 on the Curiosity Nano Base for Click boards to mount the ble2 click board. The USART lines from MCU coming to this socket are from the SERCOM4 peripheral on the MCU.
    MCC Project Graph - USART configuration
  MCC Pin Configurator - USART pin configuration
  - BLE 2 click board need 3 additional GPIO pins
  MCC Pin Configurator - BLE Connect, BLE Wake up and BLE CMD/MLDP pin configuration
- Configure Timer:
  - Configure Timer peripheral block in the MCC project graph
    The Timer configuration depends on - 32-bit MCU
    Example: The ble2 click example on SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit uses SysTick timer module on the MCU to implement the time requirement of ble2 click routines.
    MCC Project Graph - SysTick configuration
- Map Generic Macros:
  - After generating the project, following the above configuration, map the generic macros used in the click routines to the Harmony PLIB APIs of the 32-bit MCU your project is running on
  - The generic macros should be mapped in the header file click_interface.h
    
    Example: The ble2 click routines for the example on SAM E51 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit uses the following Harmony PLIB APIs
The click_routines folder contain an example C source file ble2_example.c. You could use ble2_example.c as a reference to add ble2 functionality to your application.

Comments:

Reference Training Module:
This application demo builds and works out of box by following the instructions above in “Running the Demo” section. If you need to enhance/customize this application demo, you need to use the MPLAB Harmony v3 Software framework. Refer links below to setup and build your applications using MPLAB Harmony.
- How to Setup MPLAB Harmony v3 Software Development Framework
- How to Build an Application by Adding a New PLIB, Driver, or Middleware to an Existing MPLAB Harmony v3 Project
- MPLAB Harmony v3 is also configurable through MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC). Refer to the below links for specific instructions to use MPLAB Harmony v3 with MCC.

Revision:

v1.6.0 - Regenerated and Tested the application
v1.5.0 - Released demo application