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nRF5 Example Makefile Project

This is a generic starting point for a project made with the nRF5 SDK. It extends Nordic's example build system:

  • Builds using Docker environment
  • Allows use of multiple sub-projects (for example, application and bootloader) within one repository
  • Multiple PCB variants supported
  • Continuous integration supported

Getting Started

You will need the following software:

  • Git
  • Make
  • Docker
  • nrfutil
  • Segger RTT viewer
  • An IDE of your choice
  • Some example nRF5 code from the nRF5 SDK found here - this example project assumes nRF52 SDK 17.0.2 with S140 SoftDevice on nRF52840 in various places, but other nRF52 ICs should work with minor changes.

You will need to:

  1. Copy nRF5 example(s) from the nRF5 SDK into the project:

    • examples/ble_peripheral/ble_app_uart -> app
    • examples/dfu/secure_bootloader -> boot
    • examples/dtm/direct_test_mode -> dtm

  2. Update example project Makefile(s):

    • -DNRF_DFU_HW_VERSION=$(COMBINED_PRODUCT_HARDWARE_VERSION) added to CFLAGS / ASMFLAGS in the bootloader Makefile (and COMBINED_PRODUCT_HARDWARE_VERSION may need to be passed to the Makefile - TODO: Confirm this)

  3. Configure the project.mk Makefile to build the example apps

  4. Set up app-specific changes (eg DFU private key setup): nrfutil keys generate private.pem nrfutil keys display --key pk --format code private.pem --out_file boot/dfu_public_key.c

  5. Configure products.mk based on the current range of products and PCB versions

To build the firmware, run make. Each sub-project will be built, and then project.mk will build the relevant artefacts (App DFU package and combined hex).

To flash the hex using a JLink (external or on development board), run make flash.

To flash the app package to a remote development board via DFU, run make flash_dfu. You will need an nRF5 dongle or development board with the correct connectivity firmware flashed and your application will need to support Buttonless DFU (or you will need to add a script that runs in advance to put the device into DFU mode).

Notes

Overrides default Makefile values with the following:

  • SDK_ROOT - set to match the location of the nRF5 SDK in the Docker image. If you need to patch a bug in the SDK, you will need to copy this in to your project and update the path(s).
  • OUTPUT_DIRECTORY - this is overridden to be specific to a Product and PCB version (ensures correct results even if building for different products/variants without running make clean inbetween.
  • PASS_LINKER_INPUT_VIA_FILE - this is set to 0 to enable parallel builds

Continuous Integration

If your build server is capable of launching new Docker instances (eg Travis) you can do something similar to the following:

env:
  matrix:
    - PRODUCT_ID=1 PCBVER=1
    - PRODUCT_ID=1 PCBVER=2
    - PRODUCT_ID=2 PCBVER=1
    - PRODUCT_ID=2 PCBVER=2

script: 
  - make PRODUCT_ID=$PRODUCT_ID PCBVER=$PCBVER clean
  - make PRODUCT_ID=$PRODUCT_ID PCBVER=$PCBVER

For Github Actions, a similar syntax can be used, however the matrix strategy isn't as flexible. This can be worked around using cut:

build:
  name: Build
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  strategy:
    matrix:
      combined_ver: ["1.1", "1.2", "2.1", "2.2"]
  steps:
  - name: Check out code
    uses: actions/checkout@v2
  - name: Build (Hardware ${{ matrix.combined_ver }})
    env:
      COMBINED_VER: ${{ matrix.combined_ver }}
    run: |
      export PRODUCT_ID=$(cut -d'.' -f1 <<<$COMBINED_VER)
      export PCBVER=$(cut -d'.' -f2 <<<$COMBINED_VER)
      echo "Building firmware $VERSION for product $PRODUCT_ID - PCB $PCBVER"
      make clean
      make