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Raytac MDBT50Q-DB-40

Overview

The Raytac MDBT50Q-DB-40 hardware provides support for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4F CPU and the following devices:

  • ADC

  • CLOCK

  • FLASH

  • GPIO

  • I2C

  • MPU

  • NVIC

  • PWM

  • RADIO (Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4)

  • RTC

  • Segger RTT (RTT Console)

  • SPI

  • UART

  • USB

  • WDT

MDBT50Q-DB-40

More information about the board can be found at the MDBT50Q-DB-40 website [1]. The MDBT50Q-DB-40 Specification [2] contains the demo board’s datasheet. The MDBT50Q-DB-40 Schematic [3] contains the demo board’s schematic.

Hardware

  • Module Demo Board build by MDBT50Q-1MV2

  • Nordic nRF52840 SoC Solution Version: 2

  • A recommnded 3rd-party module by Nordic Semiconductor.

  • BT5.2&BT5.1&BT5 Bluetooth Specification Cerified

  • Supports BT5 Long Range Features

  • Cerifications: FCC, IC, CE, Telec(MIC), KC, SRRC, NCC, RCM, WPC

  • 32-bit ARM® Cortex™ M4F CPU

  • 1MB Flash Memory/256kB RAM

  • RoHs & Reach Compiant.

  • 48 GPIO

  • Chip Antenna

  • Interfaces: SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, PWM, ADC, NFC, and USB

  • Highly flexible multiprotocol SoC ideally suited for Bluetooth® Low Energy, ANT+, Zigbee, Thread (802.15.4) ultra low-power wireless applications.

  • 3 User LEDs

  • 4 User buttons

  • 1 Mini USB connector for power supply and USB communication

  • SWD connector for FW programing

  • J-Link interface for FW programing

  • UART interface for UART communication

Supported Features

The raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 board configuration supports the following hardware features:

Interface

Controller

Driver/Component

ADC

on-chip

adc

CLOCK

on-chip

clock_control

FLASH

on-chip

flash

GPIO

on-chip

gpio

I2C(M)

on-chip

i2c

MPU

on-chip

arch/arm

NVIC

on-chip

arch/arm

PWM

on-chip

pwm

RADIO

on-chip

Bluetooth, ieee802154

RTC

on-chip

system clock

RTT

Segger

console

SPI(M/S)

on-chip

spi

QSPI(M)

on-chip

qspi

UART

on-chip

serial

USB

on-chip

usb

WDT

on-chip

watchdog

Other hardware features have not been enabled yet for this board. See MDBT50Q-DB-40 website [1] and MDBT50Q-DB-40 Specification [2] for a complete list of Raytac MDBT50Q-DB-40 board hardware features.

Connections and IOs

LED

  • LED1 (green) = P0.13

  • LED2 (red) = P0.14

  • LED3 (blue) = P0.15

Push buttons

  • BUTTON1 = SW1 = P0.11

  • BUTTON2 = SW2 = P0.12

  • BUTTON3 = SW3 = P0.24

  • BUTTON4 = SW4 = P0.25

UART

  • RXD = P0.08

  • TXD = P0.06

  • RTS = P0.05

  • CTS = P0.07

Programming and Debugging

Applications for the raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 board configuration can be built, flashed, and debugged in the usual way. See Building an Application and Run an Application for more details on building and running.

Note

Flashing and Debugging Zephyr onto the raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 board requires an external J-Link programmer. The programmer is attached to the J1 or J9 SWD connector.

Flashing

Follow the instructions in the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page to install and configure all the necessary software. Further information can be found in Flashing. Then build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

Use a USB to TTL converter to connect the computer and raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 J10 connector. Then run your favorite terminal program to listen for output.

$ minicom -D <tty_device> -b 115200

Replace <tty_device> with the port where the USB to TTL converter can be found. For example, under Linux, /dev/ttyUSB0.

Then build and flash the application in the usual way.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 samples/hello_world
west flash

Debugging

The raytac_mdbt50q_db_40/nrf52840 board does not have an on-board-J-Link debug IC, however, instructions from the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page also apply to this board. Use the Debug out connector of nRF52x DK to connect to the J1 connector, and use SEGGER J-Link OB IF to debug.

Testing the LEDs and buttons in the MDBT50Q-DB-40

There are 2 samples that allow you to test that the buttons (switches) and LEDs on the board are working properly with Zephyr:

samples/basic/blinky
samples/basic/button

You can build and flash the examples to make sure Zephyr is running correctly on your board. The button and LED definitions can be found in boards/raytac/mdbt50q_db_40/raytac_mdbt50q_db_40_nrf52840.dts.

Selecting the pins

Pins can be configured in the board pinctrl file. To see the available mappings, open the MDBT50Q-DB-40 Specification [2], chapter 2.5 ‘Pin Assignment’. Select the pins marked ‘General-purpose I/O’. Note that pins marked as ‘low-frequency I/O only’ can only be used in under-10KHz applications. They are not suitable for SPI, I2C, UART, and PWM.

References