Intermediate
30 min

Eliminate the hassle of cords with the ANNA-B112 module and STM32F423RH

Embrace the 'Bluevolution'

BLE 8 Click with UNI Clicker

Published Jul 29, 2023

Click board™

BLE 8 Click

Dev Board

UNI Clicker

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

STM32F423RH

Our Bluetooth solution empowers you to enjoy wireless audio, transfer files, and interact with smart devices, all while experiencing unmatched reliability and efficiency

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Hardware Overview

How does it work?

BLE 8 Click is based on the ANNA-B112, a standalone Bluetooth 5 low-energy module from u-blox based on the nRF52832 chip. The nRF52832 is the mid-range member of the nRF52 Series SoC family. It meets the challenges of a broad range of applications requiring Bluetooth 5 feature sets, protocol concurrency, and a rich and varied set of peripherals and features. In addition, it offers generous memory availability for both Flash and RAM. It is operated by a set of AT commands over the UART interface, which makes the BLE 8 click very easy to use. By integrating most of the critical components on the chip, the ANNA-B112 allows the module to overcome any imperfections of external discrete components, allowing signal transmission power of up to 5dBm, and -92 dBm

sensitivity for the receiver, using the on-chip antenna. The ANNA-B112 module is built around an ARM® Cortex™-M4 CPU with a floating point unit running at 64 MHz. It has NFC-A Tag for use in simplified pairing and payment solutions and numerous digital peripherals and interfaces, such as PDM and I2S, for digital microphones and audio. It is also fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth mesh, ANT, and 2.4 GHz proprietary stacks. Besides the mikroBUS™ socket, BLE 8 click also features two optional 6-pin header mounts with marked pin labels. All of these pins can be externally connected and used for various purposes. SWDCLK and SWDIO pins are reserved for the SWD interface, which the ANNA-B112 series

modules use for flashing and debugging. The rest of the external pins, labeled as IO1-IO10, are general purpose IO type and can be programmed according to the users' needs. The onboard buttons T1 and T2 and the RGB, LED LD2 (labeled SYS) are also user programmable and can be used for various purposes for basic user interaction without any external components required besides the BLE 8 click. This Click board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. Also, it comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used, as a reference, for further development.

BLE 8 Click hardware overview image

Features overview

Development board

UNI Clicker is a compact development board designed as a complete solution that brings the flexibility of add-on Click boards™ to your favorite microcontroller, making it a perfect starter kit for implementing your ideas. It supports a wide range of microcontrollers, such as different ARM, PIC32, dsPIC, PIC, and AVR from various vendors like Microchip, ST, NXP, and TI (regardless of their number of pins), four mikroBUS™ sockets for Click board™ connectivity, a USB connector, LED indicators, buttons, a debugger/programmer connector, and two 26-pin headers for interfacing with external electronics. Thanks to innovative manufacturing technology, it allows you to build

gadgets with unique functionalities and features quickly. Each part of the UNI Clicker development kit contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. In addition to the possibility of choosing the UNI Clicker programming method, using a third-party programmer or CODEGRIP/mikroProg connected to onboard JTAG/SWD header, the UNI Clicker board also includes a clean and regulated power supply module for the development kit. It provides two ways of board-powering; through the USB Type-C (USB-C) connector, where onboard voltage regulators provide the appropriate voltage levels to each component on the board, or using a Li-Po/Li

Ion battery via an onboard battery connector. All communication methods that mikroBUS™ itself supports are on this board (plus USB HOST/DEVICE), including the well-established mikroBUS™ socket, a standardized socket for the MCU card (SiBRAIN standard), and several user-configurable buttons and LED indicators. UNI Clicker is an integral part of the Mikroe ecosystem, allowing you to create a new application in minutes. Natively supported by Mikroe software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping thanks to a considerable number of different Click boards™ (over a thousand boards), the number of which is growing every day.

UNI clicker double image

Microcontroller Overview

MCU Card / MCU

default

Type

8th Generation

Architecture

ARM Cortex-M4

MCU Memory (KB)

1536

Silicon Vendor

STMicroelectronics

Pin count

64

RAM (Bytes)

327680

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

Data Terminal Ready
PB0
AN
Reset
PC13
RST
UART CTS
PA4
CS
NC
NC
SCK
NC
NC
MISO
NC
NC
MOSI
Power Supply
3.3V
3.3V
Ground
GND
GND
Data Set Ready
PA1
PWM
UART RTS
PB13
INT
UART TX
PA2
TX
UART RX
PA3
RX
NC
NC
SCL
NC
NC
SDA
NC
NC
5V
Ground
GND
GND
1

Take a closer look

Schematic

BLE 8 Click Schematic schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

UNI Clicker front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the UNI Clicker as your development board.

UNI Clicker front image hardware assembly
Thermo 28 Click front image hardware assembly
SiBRAIN for STM32F745VG front image hardware assembly
Prog-cut hardware assembly
UNI Clicker MB 1 - upright/with-background hardware assembly
Necto image step 2 hardware assembly
Necto image step 3 hardware assembly
Necto image step 4 hardware assembly
Necto image step 5 hardware assembly
Necto image step 6 hardware assembly
Necto image step 7 hardware assembly
Necto No Display image step 8 hardware assembly
Necto image step 9 hardware assembly
Necto image step 10 hardware assembly
Debug Image Necto Step hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output via Debug Mode

1. Once the code example is loaded, pressing the "DEBUG" button initiates the build process, programs it on the created setup, and enters Debug mode.

2. After the programming is completed, a header with buttons for various actions within the IDE becomes visible. Clicking the green "PLAY" button starts reading the results achieved with the Click board™. The achieved results are displayed in the Application Output tab.

DEBUG_Application_Output

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for BLE 8 Click driver.

Key functions:

  • ble8_reset - This function allows user to reset a module

Open Source

Code example

This example can be found in NECTO Studio. Feel free to download the code, or you can copy the code below.

/*!
 * \file 
 * \brief Ble8 Click example
 * 
 * # Description
 * This example reads and processes data from BLE 8 clicks.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 * 
 * ## Application Init 
 * Initializes driver and wake-up module.
 * 
 * ## Application Task  
 * Reads the received data.
 * 
 * ## Additional Function
 * - ble8_process ( ) - Logs all received messages on UART, and sends the certain message back to the connected device.
 * 
 * *note:* 
 * <pre>
 * The all possible commands, module configuration and specification can be found in the 
 * related documents:
 *     [1] ANNA-B112 System Integration Manual, document number UBX-18009821 
 *     [2] u-blox Short Range AT Commands Manual, document number UBX-14044127 
 *     [3] ANNA-B112 Getting Started Guide, document number UBX-18020387 
 *     [4] ANNA-B112 Declaration of Conformity, document number UBX-18058993
 * </pre>
 * 
 * \author MikroE Team
 *
 */
// ------------------------------------------------------------------- INCLUDES

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "ble8.h"
#include "string.h"

#define PROCESS_COUNTER 5
#define PROCESS_RX_BUFFER_SIZE 100
#define PROCESS_PARSER_BUFFER_SIZE 100

// ------------------------------------------------------------------ VARIABLES

static ble8_t ble8;
static log_t logger;
static uint8_t data_mode = 0;

static char current_parser_buf[ PROCESS_PARSER_BUFFER_SIZE ];

// ------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS

static int8_t ble8_process ( void )
{
    int32_t rsp_size;
    uint16_t rsp_cnt = 0;
    
    char uart_rx_buffer[ PROCESS_RX_BUFFER_SIZE ] = { 0 };
    uint8_t check_buf_cnt;
    uint8_t process_cnt = PROCESS_COUNTER;
    
    // Clear current buffer
    memset( current_parser_buf, 0, PROCESS_PARSER_BUFFER_SIZE ); 
    
    while( process_cnt != 0 )
    {
        rsp_size = ble8_generic_read( &ble8, uart_rx_buffer, PROCESS_RX_BUFFER_SIZE );

        if ( rsp_size > 0 )
        {  
            // Validation of the received data
            for ( check_buf_cnt = 0; check_buf_cnt < rsp_size; check_buf_cnt++ )
            {
                if ( uart_rx_buffer[ check_buf_cnt ] == 0 ) 
                {
                    uart_rx_buffer[ check_buf_cnt ] = 13;
                }
            }
            // Storages data in current buffer
            rsp_cnt += rsp_size;
            if ( rsp_cnt < PROCESS_PARSER_BUFFER_SIZE )
            {
                strncat( current_parser_buf, uart_rx_buffer, rsp_size );
            }
            
            // Clear RX buffer
            memset( uart_rx_buffer, 0, PROCESS_RX_BUFFER_SIZE );
            
            if (strstr(current_parser_buf, "ERROR")) {
               return -1;
            }
               
            if (strstr(current_parser_buf, "OK")) {
               log_printf( &logger, "%s", current_parser_buf );
               Delay_100ms( );
               return 1;
            }
               
            if ( data_mode == 1) {
                log_printf( &logger, "%s", current_parser_buf );
                uart_write( &ble8.uart, "Hello", 5 );
                Delay_ms ( 1000 );
                Delay_ms ( 1000 );
                uart_write( &ble8.uart, "BLE8", 4 );
            }
        } 
        else 
        {
            process_cnt--;
            
            // Process delay 
            Delay_ms ( 100 );
        }
    }
    
    return 0;
}

// ------------------------------------------------------ APPLICATION FUNCTIONS

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;
    ble8_cfg_t cfg;

    /** 
     * Logger initialization.
     * Default baud rate: 115200
     * Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
     * @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX 
     * are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will 
     * need to define them manually for log to work. 
     * See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
     */
    LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
    log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
    log_info( &logger, "---- Application Init ----" );

    //  Click initialization.

    ble8_cfg_setup( &cfg );
    BLE8_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    ble8_init( &ble8, &cfg );

    ble8_reset( &ble8 );
    Delay_1sec( );
    
    log_printf( &logger, "Configuring the module...\n" );
    Delay_1sec( );
    
    ble8_set_dsr_pin( &ble8, 1 );
    Delay_ms ( 20 );

    do {
        ble8_set_echo_cmd( &ble8, 1 );
        Delay_100ms( );
    }
    while( ble8_process( ) != 1 );
    
    do {
        ble8_set_local_name_cmd( &ble8, "BLE 8 Click" );
        Delay_100ms( );
    }
    while( ble8_process( ) != 1 );
    
    do {
        ble8_connectability_en_cmd( &ble8, BLE8_GAP_CONNECTABLE_MODE );
        Delay_100ms( );
    }
    while( ble8_process( ) != 1 );
    
    do {
        ble8_discoverability_en_cmd( &ble8, BLE8_GAP_GENERAL_DISCOVERABLE_MODE );
        Delay_100ms( );
    }
    while( ble8_process( ) != 1 );
    
    do {
        ble8_enter_mode_cmd( &ble8, BLE8_DATA_MODE );
        Delay_100ms( );
    }
    while( ble8_process( ) != 1 );
    
    ble8_set_dsr_pin( &ble8, 0 );
    Delay_ms ( 20 );
    data_mode = 1;
    log_printf( &logger, "The module has been configured.\n" );
}

void application_task ( void )
{
    ble8_process( );
}

int main ( void ) 
{
    /* Do not remove this line or clock might not be set correctly. */
    #ifdef PREINIT_SUPPORTED
    preinit();
    #endif
    
    application_init( );
    
    for ( ; ; ) 
    {
        application_task( );
    }

    return 0;
}


// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END

Additional Support

Resources

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