/nicla-sense-me-fw

Arduino Nicla Sense ME resources (libraries, bootloader, host pc utilities)

Primary LanguageCGNU Affero General Public License v3.0AGPL-3.0

Nicla

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This repo contains everything needed to program Nicla Sense ME and to control it from another device. Further documentation can be found on the Arduino Docs website.

Nicla Sense ME belongs to Arduino Mbed OS boards and its core is available here. The packaged core can also be downloaded from Arduino IDE as 'Arduino Mbed OS Nicla Boards'

Table of Contents:

Repo structure

Arduino_BHY2 - is the library to be included when making sketches for Nicla. It can be used for configuring bhi's sensors and for retrieving bhi's sensors data either from a sketch running on Nicla (standalone mode) or from an external device (thorugh ESLOV or BLE).

In examples there are already working examples for both scenarios:

  • Standalone mode - Standalone exploits bhi's sensors directly from Nicla.
  • Control from external device mode - App waits for external stimuli, coming from ESLOV or BLE channels.
  • Upload a Fail Safe Firmware - Fail_Safe_flasher uploads a binary to Anna's QSPIFlash. Pressing the button 3 times, Nicla checks if a Fail Safe firmware is present and, if it is valid, runs it.

Arduino_BHY2Host - is the library that an Arduino board should include in order to control the Nicla through the ESLOV port. It can also act as a passthrough, to allow the control of Nicla from a PC. There is an example for both these use cases in examples:

bootloader - contains the source code for Nicla's bootloader.

tools - contains the source code of the command line tool to control Nicla from a PC. There is also a webserver mode that allows to control Nicla from a browser on your PC. The bhy-controller executable files for the main operating systems can be downloaded from the latest release.

Main use cases

Nicla standalone mode

In this use case, Nicla will be able to control its own sensors without the need for an external host.

  • Make a standalone sketch importing Arduino_BHY2 library, follow this example to write the code.
  • Select Nicla Sense ME as the compilation target, then compile and upload.

Control Nicla from an arduino board through ESLOV

  • Upload the App example to Nicla.
  • Use an Arduino board, like a MKR, acting as a host by importing Arduino_BHY2Host and following the example.
  • Upload the host sketch to the Arduino MKR board.
  • Connect Nicla to the MKR board with an ESLOV cable or I2C pins.

Control Nicla from a PC - web server

A local web server has been implemented to manage Nicla from a browser. See browser compatibility.

BLE is used instead of ESLOV, thus there is no need for an intermediary arduino board.

  • Upload the App example to Nicla.
  • Access the command line tool folder.
  • Execute the following command ./bhy webserver to start the local web server.
  • Open the http://localhost:8000/index.html web page with a browser listed in the compatibility list. NB: make sure that WebBLE is enabled! If it is not, enable it from chrome://flags, setting "Experimental Web Platform features".

There are two web pages

  • sensor.html allows to configure the sensors and read their values in real time.
  • dfu.html allows to update the firmware of either Nicla or bhi.

Control Nicla from a PC - command line tool

The command line tool can be used to update the firmware of Nicla or bhi, manage Nicla's sensors and read their values in real time. Refer to tools for the list of available commands. Here the ESLOV protocol is employed, so an arduino board is needed between Nicla and the PC.

  • Upload the App example to Nicla.
  • Upload the Passthrough example to an arduino board.
  • Connect the arduino board to your PC via USB.
  • Connect the arduino board to Nicla through the ESLOV port.
  • Access the command line tool folder
  • Refer to tools for the list of available commands.

Update Nicla firmware

The procedure to update the firmware is the same for both bhi and Nicla. You just need to specify the target during the procedure.

Update procedure through BLE:

  • Follow these steps Control Nicla from a PC - web server.
  • Select DFU in the page located at http://localhost:8000/index.html - or directly go to http://localhost:8000/dfu.html.
  • Select the target (bhi or nicla).
  • Select the .bin firmware file.
  • Click on update and wait for the transfer to complete. Then, Nicla will reset and the firmware will be updated.

Update procedure through ESLOV:

  • Follow Control Nicla from a PC - command line tool
  • Execute the command ./bhy dfu -p YOUR_PORT -t TARGET -bin BIN_FILE
    • Replace YOUR_PORT with the serial port used by the arduino board
    • Replace TARGET with nicla or bhi
    • Replace BIN_FILE with the path of the binary file to bu uploaded
  • Nicla will reset and the firmware will be updated