Unlocking the RAK5010's BG95-M3 USB Serial Ports

2025-02-22
Unlocking the RAK5010's BG95-M3 USB Serial Ports

This post details accessing the three serial ports on the Quectel BG95-M3 module embedded in the RAK5010 development board. The author, after consulting the schematic, identified and resoldered four resistors to redirect the USB data lines from the nRF52840 to the BG95-M3. Despite a minor mishap involving a lost resistor, the modification was successful, allowing direct USB communication with the modem and access to its three serial ports.

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Hardware

Barely Running Wi-Fi Station Mode on a Resource-Constrained MCU with Thingy:91 X

2025-02-21
Barely Running Wi-Fi Station Mode on a Resource-Constrained MCU with Thingy:91 X

This post details the author's experience running Wi-Fi station mode on the resource-constrained Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151 MCU using the Thingy:91 X. The nRF9151's limited 256KB of RAM presented a significant challenge due to the Wi-Fi driver's resource demands. By disabling nrf_modem_lib and cleverly using overlay files and devicetree configuration, Wi-Fi connection was achieved, albeit at a whopping 99.11% RAM utilization. The post meticulously analyzes encountered issues, including driver resource consumption, patch loading methods, and socket creation, providing solutions and valuable insights for embedded developers.

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Development

Nordic Unveils VPR: Its First RISC-V Processor, Ushering in a New Era of Heterogeneous Computing

2024-12-26
Nordic Unveils VPR: Its First RISC-V Processor, Ushering in a New Era of Heterogeneous Computing

Nordic Semiconductor has launched VPR, its first RISC-V processor, integrated into the new nRF54H and nRF54L SoCs. VPR, an RV32EMC processor running at up to 320MHz, is designed for software-defined peripherals. The article details VPR's architecture, initialization process, and collaboration with the Arm Cortex-M33. Zephyr's sysbuild simplifies building and deploying VPR applications, enabling heterogeneous computing for enhanced performance and functionality.

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