Octopus IO-Board

Overview

Octopus IO-Board is an expansion to the Octopus SoM, which is built around the nRF9160 SiP offering NB-IoT and LTE-M connectivity, GPS and accelerometer. Octopus IO-Board expands the capabilities of the Octopus SoM by providing additional peripherals and interfaces for development and prototyping of low-power IoT applications.

nRF9160 SiP contains ARM Cortex-M33 application processor and the following devices:

  • ADC

  • CLOCK

  • FLASH

  • GPIO

  • I2C

  • MPU

  • NVIC

  • PWM

  • RTC

  • Segger RTT (RTT Console)

  • SPI

  • UARTE

  • WDT

  • IDAU

Octopus IO-Board offers the following features:

  • Battery charger

  • USB-C for power

  • Solar charger

  • Alkaline battery input

  • LDO regulator to power Octopus SoM and peripherals

  • Battery monitoring using ADC

  • 64 Mbit SPI NOR flash

  • Dedicated ADC, GPIO, I2C, SPI and UARTE pins for expansion

  • Exposed headers for current measurements

  • Nano SIM connector

  • Tag-Connect TC2030-IDC 6-pin connector for SWD programming and debugging

  • 2x3 pinheader for SWD programming and debugging

More information about the board can be found at the Octopus IO-Board Product Page [1] and in the Octopus IO-Board Documentation [2].

Hardware

Supported Features

The octopus_io_board board supports the hardware features listed below.

on-chip / on-board
Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
2 / 2
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files.
vnd,foo
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.

octopus_io_board/nrf9160 target

Type

Location

Description

Compatible

CPU

on-chip

ARM Cortex-M33F CPU1

arm,cortex-m33f

ADC

on-chip

Nordic Semiconductor nRF family SAADC node1

nordic,nrf-saadc

ARM architecture

on-chip

Nordic EGU (Event Generator Unit)6

nordic,nrf-egu

on-chip

Nordic KMU (Key Management Unit)1

nordic,nrf-kmu

on-chip

Nordic nRF family CTRL-AP (Control Access Port)1

nordic,nrf-ctrlapperi

on-chip

Nordic SPU (System Protection Unit)1

nordic,nrf-spu

on-chip

Nordic UICR (User Information Configuration Registers)1

nordic,nrf-uicr

Audio

on-chip

Nordic PDM (Pulse Density Modulation interface)1

nordic,nrf-pdm

Charger

on-board

BQ25180 I2C Controlled, 1-Cell, 1-A Linear Battery Charger with Power Path and Ship Mode1

ti,bq25180

Clock control

on-chip

Nordic nRF clock control node1

nordic,nrf-clock

Counter

on-chip

Nordic nRF timer node3

nordic,nrf-timer

Cryptographic accelerator

on-chip

ARM TrustZone CryptoCell 3101

arm,cryptocell-310

Flash controller

on-chip

Nordic NVMC (Non-Volatile Memory Controller)1

nordic,nrf91-flash-controller

GPIO & Headers

on-chip

NRF5 GPIO1

nordic,nrf-gpio

on-chip

NRF5 GPIOTE1 1

nordic,nrf-gpiote

I2C

on-chip

Nordic nRF family TWIM (TWI master with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-twim

I2S

on-chip

Nordic I2S (Inter-IC sound interface)1

nordic,nrf-i2s

Interrupt controller

on-chip

ARMv8-M NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller)1

arm,v8m-nvic

IPC

on-chip

Nordic nRF family IPC (Interprocessor Communication)1

nordic,nrf-ipc

LED

on-board

Group of GPIO-controlled LEDs1

gpio-leds

on-board

Group of PWM-controlled LEDs1

pwm-leds

Miscellaneous

on-chip

Nordic DPPIC (Distributed Programmable Peripheral Interconnect Controller)1

nordic,nrf-dppic

on-chip

Nordic FICR (Factory Information Configuration Registers)1

nordic,nrf-ficr

on-board

The Octopus SoM provides the user 2 options for connecting a SIM card to the nRF91601

norik,sim_select

MMU / MPU

on-chip

ARMv8-M MPU (Memory Protection Unit)1

arm,armv8m-mpu

MTD

on-chip

Flash node1

soc-nv-flash

on-chip

Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1

fixed-partitions

on-board

Properties supporting Zephyr spi-nor flash driver (over the Zephyr SPI API) control of serial flash memories using the standard M25P80-based command set1

jedec,spi-nor

Pin control

on-chip

The nRF pin controller is a singleton node responsible for controlling pin function selection and pin properties1

nordic,nrf-pinctrl

Power management

on-chip

Nordic VMC (Volatile Memory Controller)1

nordic,nrf-vmc

on-chip

Nordic nRF power control node1

nordic,nrf-power

PWM

on-chip

nRF PWM1 3

nordic,nrf-pwm

on-chip

nRFx S/W PWM1

nordic,nrf-sw-pwm

Regulator

on-chip

Nordic REGULATORS (voltage regulators control module) on nRF91X1

nordic,nrf91x-regulators

Retained memory

on-chip

Nordic GPREGRET (General Purpose Register Retention) device2

nordic,nrf-gpregret

RTC

on-chip

Nordic nRF RTC (Real-Time Counter)2

nordic,nrf-rtc

Sensors

on-board

ADXL362 3-axis SPI accelerometer1

adi,adxl362

Serial controller

on-chip

Nordic nRF family UARTE (UART with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-uarte

SPI

on-chip

Nordic nRF family SPIM (SPI master with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-spim

SRAM

on-chip

Generic on-chip SRAM description1

mmio-sram

Timer

on-chip

ARMv8-M System Tick1

arm,armv8m-systick

Watchdog

on-chip

Nordic nRF family WDT (Watchdog Timer)1

nordic,nrf-wdt

octopus_io_board/nrf9160/ns target

Type

Location

Description

Compatible

CPU

on-chip

ARM Cortex-M33F CPU1

arm,cortex-m33f

ADC

on-chip

Nordic Semiconductor nRF family SAADC node1

nordic,nrf-saadc

ARM architecture

on-chip

Nordic EGU (Event Generator Unit)6

nordic,nrf-egu

on-chip

Nordic KMU (Key Management Unit)1

nordic,nrf-kmu

Audio

on-chip

Nordic PDM (Pulse Density Modulation interface)1

nordic,nrf-pdm

Charger

on-board

BQ25180 I2C Controlled, 1-Cell, 1-A Linear Battery Charger with Power Path and Ship Mode1

ti,bq25180

Clock control

on-chip

Nordic nRF clock control node1

nordic,nrf-clock

Counter

on-chip

Nordic nRF timer node3

nordic,nrf-timer

Flash controller

on-chip

Nordic NVMC (Non-Volatile Memory Controller)1

nordic,nrf91-flash-controller

GPIO & Headers

on-chip

NRF5 GPIO1

nordic,nrf-gpio

on-chip

NRF5 GPIOTE1

nordic,nrf-gpiote

I2C

on-chip

Nordic nRF family TWIM (TWI master with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-twim

I2S

on-chip

Nordic I2S (Inter-IC sound interface)1

nordic,nrf-i2s

Interrupt controller

on-chip

ARMv8-M NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller)1

arm,v8m-nvic

IPC

on-chip

Nordic nRF family IPC (Interprocessor Communication)1

nordic,nrf-ipc

LED

on-board

Group of GPIO-controlled LEDs1

gpio-leds

on-board

Group of PWM-controlled LEDs1

pwm-leds

Miscellaneous

on-chip

Nordic DPPIC (Distributed Programmable Peripheral Interconnect Controller)1

nordic,nrf-dppic

on-board

The Octopus SoM provides the user 2 options for connecting a SIM card to the nRF91601

norik,sim_select

MMU / MPU

on-chip

ARMv8-M MPU (Memory Protection Unit)1

arm,armv8m-mpu

MTD

on-chip

Flash node1

soc-nv-flash

on-chip

Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1

fixed-partitions

on-board

Properties supporting Zephyr spi-nor flash driver (over the Zephyr SPI API) control of serial flash memories using the standard M25P80-based command set1

jedec,spi-nor

Pin control

on-chip

The nRF pin controller is a singleton node responsible for controlling pin function selection and pin properties1

nordic,nrf-pinctrl

Power management

on-chip

Nordic VMC (Volatile Memory Controller)1

nordic,nrf-vmc

on-chip

Nordic nRF power control node1

nordic,nrf-power

PWM

on-chip

nRF PWM1 3

nordic,nrf-pwm

on-chip

nRFx S/W PWM1

nordic,nrf-sw-pwm

Regulator

on-chip

Nordic REGULATORS (voltage regulators control module) on nRF91X1

nordic,nrf91x-regulators

Retained memory

on-chip

Nordic GPREGRET (General Purpose Register Retention) device2

nordic,nrf-gpregret

RTC

on-chip

Nordic nRF RTC (Real-Time Counter)2

nordic,nrf-rtc

Sensors

on-board

ADXL362 3-axis SPI accelerometer1

adi,adxl362

Serial controller

on-chip

Nordic nRF family UARTE (UART with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-uarte

SPI

on-chip

Nordic nRF family SPIM (SPI master with EasyDMA)1 3

nordic,nrf-spim

SRAM

on-chip

Generic on-chip SRAM description1

mmio-sram

Timer

on-chip

ARMv8-M System Tick1

arm,armv8m-systick

Watchdog

on-chip

Nordic nRF family WDT (Watchdog Timer)1

nordic,nrf-wdt

Connections and IOs

The Octopus IO-Board features multiple dedicated pin headers for peripherals:

  • 3x I2C0 bus

  • 2x SPI0 bus

  • 3x I2C1/SPI1 bus (selectable)

  • 1x UARTE0 bus

  • 1x Analog input (5 input pins)

  • 1x GPIO (7 I/O pins)

The I2C1/SPI1 bus is selectable by the user by cutting/soldering SB8 and SB9 solder bridges and configuring the bus in the device tree.

The GPIO pin header provides 7 I/O pins, which can be used as digital input/output. Some of them also serve as chip selects for SPI peripherals.

Power supply

The Octopus IO-Board can be powered from the following sources:

  • USB-C connector

  • Solar cell

  • Alkaline battery

  • Li-Po battery

When powered from USB-C or solar cell, the board can charge the Li-Po battery. The battery voltage can be monitored using ADC which can provide information about the battery State of charge (SOC).

When powered from alkaline battery, the user needs to set switch SW1 to ALK position. This ensures that the Li-Ion battery is not charged from the alkaline battery.

The board has a built-in LDO regulator that is used to power the Octopus SoM and peripherals. The EN2 pin can be used to enable/disable output 2 of the LDO regulator. This can be used to power off peripherals to save power when they are not needed.

The board also has multiple built-in test points for measuring current consumption of the board, which enables the user to measure and optimize the power consumption of the board.

Programming and Debugging

Norik Octopus IO-Board can be programmed and debugged using the Tag-Connect TC2030-IDC 6-pin connector or 6-pin SWD pinheader.

Building an application

In most case you’ll need to use octopus_io_board/nrf9160/ns board target for building examples. Some examples don’t require non secure mode and can be built with octopus_io_board/nrf9160 board target.

Flashing

Refer to the instruction in the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page to install and configure all the necessary software.

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

First, run your favorite terminal program to listen for output.

$ minicom /dev/<tty_device> 115200

Replace <tty_device> with the port where the Octopus IO-Board can be found. For example, under Linux, /dev/ttyACM0.

Then build and flash the application in the usual way.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b octopus_io_board/nrf9160 samples/hello_world
west flash

To build and flash the application in non-secure mode, use the following command:

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b octopus_io_board/nrf9160/ns samples/hello_world
west flash

Debugging

Refer to the instruction in the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page for information on debugging.

Testing the on-board LED

Use the Blinky to test the on-board LED. Build and flash the example to make sure Zephyr is running correctly on your board.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b octopus_io_board/nrf9160 samples/basic/blinky
west flash

References