K32W061/QN9090/JN5189 Overview of lessons learned

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K32W061/QN9090/JN5189 Overview of lessons learned

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ckielstra
Contributor II

This isn't a question but a topic where I want to share info we learned when working on the K32W041 and that we want to share with other users. Please add more info in the answers to this thread so we all can learn.

1) There is a whole series of SOMs with the same core. Switching should be easy.
NXP acquired several manufacturers of wireless SOMs and is integrating those product lines into a series of SOMs with very different product numbers but an identical core and only differing in peripherals.
K32W041 / K32W061 Zigbee + Bluetooth, NFC for the K32W061. Formerly Freescale Kinetis 
JN5188(T) / JN5189(T) Zigbee, NFC for the 'T' version. Formerly Jennic
QN9030(T) / QN9090(T) Bluetooth, NFC for the 'T' version.
These all have different datasheet documents, but the SDK is almost identical and suggest easy transition when desired.

2) First radio transmission is slow without temperature setting
Our device powers down very often, on waking up, the first (and often only) radio transmission took 80ms. Simply setting the temperature before calling the radio fixes this. Before the first radio transmission there is some calibration done, when the temperature is not set, this calibration takes way longer since no previous stored calibration value can be used.

3) RAM contents are corrupted after a reset
A hardware reset also resets the RAM voltage regulators, as a result, the RAM contents are destroyed after a hardware reset. This was unexpected and differs from many other processors. It makes it more difficult to have data survive a reset like in a firmware update. SDK 2.6.10 introduced the function RESET_ArmReset which resets fewer hardware modules and so retains RAM. All hardware resets, like watchdog and unhandled exceptions, still corrupt RAM.

4) ADC always references 3.60V
Not really a problem, but can have implications for your hardware design. We use a Lithium battery as power supply and the 3.65V of a new battery will be capped reported as 3.60V

5) Brown-out detection can't reset the chip
The brown-out detection can be configured to trigger an interrupt, but not to reset the chip.

6) Older models can provide missing documentation
The K32W041 SDK lacks documentation on how to use the IEEE 802.15.4 stack, luckily there is JN-UG-3024. Last updated in 2016, but still way better than nothing.

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ckielstra
Contributor II

7) Real Time Clock (RTC) resets on a hardware reset

This means that time tracking is lost after a watchdog reset, or other hardware induced reset (software called processor reset is fine).

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