nRF70 BM Driver README

Setup Instructions

This section provides instructions on how to set up and use the nRF70 BM driver with west for nRF boards or git submodule for customer boards.

Using west for nRF Boards

For applications integrating the nRF70 Series BM driver it is recommended to use west and the nRF Connect SDK Toolchain, for building and programming, when testing and evaluating the BM driver using official Nordic development boards.

1. Toolchain and environment setup:

   Install the nRF Command Line tools (for programming and debugging applications on Nordic development boards) downloading them from https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nrf-command-line-tools.

   Follow the instructions on the official nRF Connect SDK documentation on how to install the required toolchain. https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/installation/install_ncs.html

   When using the command line and nRF Util method, west and all the required tools will be installed. Alternatively, west can be installed as described in the following step.

2. Install West:

   Follow the instructions on the official Zephyr Project documentation to install west: https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/guides/west/install.html

3. Clone the Repository:

   Clone the main repository using west:

   west init -m https://github.com/nrfconnect/nrf70-bm
   cd nrf70-bm
   west update

4. Build the Project:

   Use west to build the project for your specific board and type i.e., CONFIG_NRF70_BOARD_TYPE_DK (default) or CONFIG_NRF70_BOARD_TYPE_EK

   west build -b your_board_name -- -D<BOARD_TYPE>=y

5. Flash the Board:

   Flash the firmware onto your nRF board:

   west flash

Using git submodule for third-party boards

1. Clone the Repository:

   Clone the main repository and its submodules:

   git clone https://github.com/nrfconnect/nrf70-bm --recurse-submodules

   If you have already cloned the repository without submodules, you can initialize and update the submodules with:

   git submodule update --init --recursive

2. Build and flashing instructions depend on the third-party board and the build system used. Please use board type as CONFIG_NRF70_BOARD_TYPE_CUSTOM and also add the TX power ceiling header file for the custom board at nrf70_bm_lib/include, see nrf70_bm_lib/include/nrf70_tx_pwr_ceil_dk.h for reference.

Source directory Structure

The source directory structure shall look like this:

.. code-block:: none

nrf70_bm_lib/         # nRF70 BM driver library
sdk_nrfxlib/          # nRF Connect SDK nrfxlib
  nrf_wifi/           # nRF70 Wi-Fi firmware patch blobs
nrf_wifi/             # nRF Wi-Fi driver OS agnostic code
samples/              # Sample applications
  radio_test_bm/      # Radio test sample application
  scan_bm/            # Scan sample application
  scan_rt_bm/         # Scan and Radio test combo sample application
nrf70_zephyr_shim/    # Zephyr shim for nRF70, reference for third-party boards

Porting guide

The nRF70 Series BM driver is designed to be portable across different platforms. The nrf70_zephyr_shim directory contains a reference implementation for Zephyr. This reference implementation can be used as a guide to port the library to other platforms.

Please refer to nrf70_bm_lib/docs for more information on the BM driver and the porting guide.

Documentation

The documentation for the nRF70 BM driver is available in the nrf70_bm_lib/docs directory. To build the documentation in a Linux environment, follow the below steps:

Note: Currently, only Linux platforms are supported.

1. Install python requirements:

   Install the required python packages using pip:

   pip install -r nrf70_bm_lib/docs/requirements.txt

2. Install doxygen:

   Install doxygen using apt package manager (or any other package manager based on your OS):

   sudo apt install doxygen

3. Build the Documentation:

   Build the documentation using the following command:

   ./build-docs.sh

   The generated HTML files will be available in nrf70_bm_lib/docs/build/html.

   Open the index.html file in a browser to view the documentation.

Example code

The repository includes the below sample applications for the testing and the evaluation of the nRF70 Bare Metal library:

1. BM radio test sample to perform basic RF testing of the nRF70 Series device, as well as Factory Information Configuration Registers (FICR) programming.

2. BM scan sample to test Wi-Fi SSID scanning with the nRF70 Series devices.

3. BM scan and radio test combo sample to demonstrate runtime switching capability between scan and radio test operational modes for the BM library

The samples can be found under the samples/ directory. The samples can be built using west, as explained above.

Tests

The repository includes a comprehensive test suite for validating the nRF70 BM driver functionality:

Bustest Test Suite

The tests/bustest/ directory contains Ztest-based unit tests for the nRF70 bus library. These tests validate:

Register Tests

• RDSR0 Test (test_rdsr0): Validates reading of RDSR0 register (0x05) and verifies expected value
• RDSR1 Test (test_rdsr1): Validates reading of RDSR1 register (0x1F) and checks RPU awake status
• RDSR2 Tests (test_rdsr2_*): Comprehensive tests for RDSR2 register (0x2F) functionality:
  • Pattern tests: Validates writing and reading specific bit patterns (0xAA, 0x54)
  • Walking bit tests: Tests individual bit manipulation with walking '1' and walking '0' patterns
  • WRSR2 integration: Tests writing to WRSR2 register (0x3F) and reading back via RDSR2

Bus Interface Tests

• System Bus Test (test_sysbus): Validates system bus read operations across multiple addresses
• Peripheral Bus Test (test_peripbus): Tests peripheral bus read/write operations with 24-bit addressing
• Data RAM Test (test_dataram): Memory test for data RAM region

Test Configuration

The tests use the following register address macros for maintainability:

#define RDSR0_ADDR    0x05
#define RDSR1_ADDR    0x1F
#define RDSR2_ADDR    0x2F
#define WRSR2_ADDR    0x3F

Running the Tests

To run the bustest suite:

west build -b your_board_name tests/bustest
west flash

The tests will execute automatically and report results via the console output.

Test Coverage

The bustest suite provides comprehensive coverage of:

• Register read/write operations via QSPI and SPI interfaces
• Bus interface functionality (system and peripheral buses)
• Memory operations and validation
• Error handling and edge cases