How can I make the external QSPI flash work with Arduino NANO 33 BLE?

[bigbearishappy]

Hello, I am working with my arduino 33 ble. And I want to make it work fine with a QSPI flash. I find a demo code in this project. But it's based on the nrf52840's internal flash.

What should I do if I want to make the external QSPI flash works with nano 33 BLE?

[facchinm]

Hi @bigbearishappy , to use mbed classes you first need to modify nano33 config file adding "target.components_add" : ["QSPIF"], (like https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed/blob/master/variants/NICLA/conf/mbed_app.json#L20 ) and recompile libmbed using mbed-os-to-arduino script (https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed#adding-an-mbed-target) .

Once done, you can replace this line https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed/blob/master/libraries/USBMSD/src/Singleton.cpp#L82 with an object of type QSPIFBlockDevice, with the correct pins as you wired them.

Let me know if you need any help with these steps

[bigbearishappy]

Thank you so much for you reply. I tried to follow you steps. After I add "target.components_add" : ["QSPIF"], to /variants/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/conf/mbed_app.json. I compiled the libmbed.a with command:

./mbed-os-to-arduino -r  /home/pi/work/mbed-os/ ARDUINO_NANO33BLE:ARDUINO_NANO33BLE

it compiled failed when compiling the QSPIFBlockDevice.cpp.Here is the error log:

Compile [ 88.3%]: SlicingBlockDevice.cpp
Compile [ 88.4%]: ObservingBlockDevice.cpp
Compile [ 88.5%]: ffunicode.cpp
Compile [ 88.5%]: QSPIFBlockDevice.cpp
[mbed] ERROR: "/usr/bin/python3" returned error.
       Code: 1
       Path: "/tmp/mbed-os-program"
       Command: "/usr/bin/python3 -u /tmp/mbed-os-program/mbed-os/tools/make.py -t GCC_ARM -m ARDUINO_NANO33BLE --source . --build ./BUILD/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/GCC_ARM -v"

 done.
Generating defines... done.
Generating includes... copying to destination... /tmp/mbed-os-program
 done.
Generating libs... done.
Generating flags... done.
Copying generic MbedOS headers to core...  done.
Patching 'mbed.h'... done.
Patching SPI headers... done.

[mbed-os-to-arduino] MbedOS core generation ended succesfully.

I tried to run the command:

/usr/bin/python3 -u /tmp/mbed-os-program/mbed-os/tools/make.py -t GCC_ARM -m ARDUINO_NANO33BLE --source . --build ./BUILD/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/GCC_ARM -v

here is the output of it:

pi@raspberrypi:~/work/ArduinoCore-mbed $ /usr/bin/python3 -u /tmp/mbed-os-program/mbed-os/tools/make.py -t GCC_ARM -m ARDUINO_NANO33BLE --source . --build ./BUILD/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/GCC_ARM -v
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/requests/__init__.py:91: RequestsDependencyWarning: urllib3 (1.26.7) or chardet (3.0.4) doesn't match a supported version!
  RequestsDependencyWarning)
[Warning] @,: Compiler version mismatch: Have 7.3.1; expected version >= 9.0.0 and < 10.0.0
Building project ArduinoCore-mbed (ARDUINO_NANO33BLE, GCC_ARM)
Scan: ArduinoCore-mbed
No Linker Script found

Could not compile for ARDUINO_NANO33BLE: No Linker Script found

I am wondering if you can give me some help to fix this problem. Thanks~

[facchinm]

You procedure was correct but I forgot one modification :slightly_smiling_face:

Here's the full patch for mbed_app.json

+++ b/variants/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/conf/mbed_app.json
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 {
   "macros": [
-    "NRFX_GPIOTE_CONFIG_NUM_OF_LOW_POWER_EVENTS=8"
+    "NRFX_GPIOTE_CONFIG_NUM_OF_LOW_POWER_EVENTS=8",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO0=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO1=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO2=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO3=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_CSN=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_SCK=p1"
   ],
   "target_overrides": {
     "*": {
@@ -12,7 +18,9 @@
       "rtos.main-thread-stack-size": 32768,
       "cordio.max-connections": 5,
       "platform.all-stats-enabled": true,
-      "target.mbed_app_start": "0x10000"
+      "target.mbed_app_start": "0x10000",
+      "target.components_add" : ["QSPIF"],
+      "target.device_has_add" : ["QSPI"]
     }
   }

Of course replace p1 with the pins you are actually using to connect the external QSPI flash

[bigbearishappy]

You procedure was correct but I forgot one modification 🙂

Here's the full patch for mbed_app.json

+++ b/variants/ARDUINO_NANO33BLE/conf/mbed_app.json
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 {
   "macros": [
-    "NRFX_GPIOTE_CONFIG_NUM_OF_LOW_POWER_EVENTS=8"
+    "NRFX_GPIOTE_CONFIG_NUM_OF_LOW_POWER_EVENTS=8",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO0=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO1=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO2=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_IO3=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_CSN=p1",
+    "QSPI_FLASH1_SCK=p1"
   ],
   "target_overrides": {
     "*": {
@@ -12,7 +18,9 @@
       "rtos.main-thread-stack-size": 32768,
       "cordio.max-connections": 5,
       "platform.all-stats-enabled": true,
-      "target.mbed_app_start": "0x10000"
+      "target.mbed_app_start": "0x10000",
+      "target.components_add" : ["QSPIF"],
+      "target.device_has_add" : ["QSPI"]
     }
   }

Of course replace p1 with the pins you are actually using to connect the external QSPI flash

Great, I can compile the libmbed.a successfully now. I am going to make the change and try Nano33BLE_FlashMassStorage.ino now. Before that I have a question. Do I need to format the external QSPI flash before I run the Nano33BLE_FlashMassStorage.ino ??? I ask this question because I find that the arduino edge control support the external QSPI flash and in it's relative demo code. it's need to be format before use as a U disk.

[facchinm]

Edge Control flash is being formatted in factory; anyway, adding the formatting phase is very easy (just add this line https://github.com/arduino-libraries/Arduino_EdgeControl/blob/master/examples/Storage/StoragePartitions/StoragePartitions.ino#L92 ) . format() will also mount the partition so the flow doesn't need many modifications.