Compiling for Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense Plus (SKU 102010694)

Alberto_Cole · February 20, 2025, 4:53am

Hi,

I have an issue with my XIAO nRF52840 Sense Plus, this code “runs”:

#define LEDRED        (11u)
#define LEDGREEN        (12u)
#define LEDBLUE        (13u)
void setup() {
  pinMode(LEDRED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDGREEN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDBLUE, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, HIGH);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, LOW);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, HIGH);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, LOW);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, HIGH);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, LOW);
  delay(100);
}

Couple comments about code above:

The PIN numbers I’m using are not the ones on the schematic, I found these by try/error,
I do verify, then upload, it says it works but then it does not do anything.
I then run Sketch → Export Compiled Library
I had to download Adafruit_nRF52_Bootloader, go to lib/uf2/utils/ and run: python3 uf2conv.py /Users/albertocole/Documents/Arduino/blink_2/build/Seeeduino.mbed.xiaonRF52840SensePlus/blink_2.ino.hex -c -f 0xADA52840

this process is the only way I’ve found to make this thing run code, and on top of that, when I add Serial stuff to try to debug anything, program wont run. I feel like I’m lost with this, just need to know what’s the best way to program with this, I also tried with circuitpython .uf2 (Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 (Sense) Download) and it never changed the drive name to CIRCUITPY, so I’m even wondering if I did something to this board that made it unstable/faulty, is there a way to know that?

Thanks in advance

Seeed_Kevin · February 20, 2025, 9:28am

Hi,

Well, we have tested it with the build in macros, and it seems this USER LED behave as expected.

#include "Adafruit_TinyUSB.h"
#define LEDRED  LED_RED
#define LEDGREEN LED_GREEN
#define LEDBLUE LED_BLUE
void setup() {
  pinMode(LEDRED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDGREEN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDBLUE, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {
  Serial.println("Shiny Red");
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, LOW);
  delay(1000);
  Serial.println("Bright Green");
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, LOW);
  delay(1000);
  Serial.println("Melancholy Blue");
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, LOW);
  delay(100);
}

Video (Link valid for 7 days):

Alberto_Cole · February 20, 2025, 5:41pm

/Users/albertocole/Documents/Arduino/libraries/Adafruit_TinyUSB_Library/src/tusb_config.h:57:4: error: #error TinyUSB Arduino Library does not support your core yet
#error TinyUSB Arduino Library does not support your core yet
^~~~~
exit status 1

Compilation error: exit status 1

That’s what I get when copying your code.

And if I change it for the non-mbed board, I then get this:

/Users/albertocole/Library/Arduino15/packages/Seeeduino/tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc/9-2019q4/bin/arm-none-eabi-objcopy -O ihex /Users/albertocole/Library/Caches/arduino/sketches/078673FB8D8E04F4B01756D8AFB30FF7/blink_2.ino.elf /Users/albertocole/Library/Caches/arduino/sketches/078673FB8D8E04F4B01756D8AFB30FF7/blink_2.ino.hex
/Users/albertocole/Library/Arduino15/packages/Seeeduino/hardware/nrf52/1.1.9/tools/adafruit-nrfutil/macos/adafruit-nrfutil dfu genpkg --dev-type 0x0052 --sd-req 0x0123 --application /Users/albertocole/Library/Caches/arduino/sketches/078673FB8D8E04F4B01756D8AFB30FF7/blink_2.ino.hex /Users/albertocole/Library/Caches/arduino/sketches/078673FB8D8E04F4B01756D8AFB30FF7/blink_2.ino.zip
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “main.py”, line 317, in
File “click/core.py”, line 1134, in call
File “click/core.py”, line 1040, in main
File “click/_unicodefun.py”, line 100, in _verify_python_env
RuntimeError: Click will abort further execution because Python was configured to use ASCII as encoding for the environment. Consult Unicode Support — Click Documentation (8.1.x) for mitigation steps.

This system lists some UTF-8 supporting locales that you can pick from. The following suitable locales were discovered: af_ZA.UTF-8, am_ET.UTF-8, be_BY.UTF-8, bg_BG.UTF-8, ca_ES.UTF-8, cs_CZ.UTF-8, da_DK.UTF-8, de_AT.UTF-8, de_CH.UTF-8, de_DE.UTF-8, el_GR.UTF-8, en_AU.UTF-8, en_CA.UTF-8, en_GB.UTF-8, en_IE.UTF-8, en_NZ.UTF-8, en_US.UTF-8, es_ES.UTF-8, et_EE.UTF-8, eu_ES.UTF-8, fi_FI.UTF-8, fr_BE.UTF-8, fr_CA.UTF-8, fr_CH.UTF-8, fr_FR.UTF-8, he_IL.UTF-8, hr_HR.UTF-8, hu_HU.UTF-8, hy_AM.UTF-8, is_IS.UTF-8, it_CH.UTF-8, it_IT.UTF-8, ja_JP.UTF-8, kk_KZ.UTF-8, ko_KR.UTF-8, lt_LT.UTF-8, nl_BE.UTF-8, nl_NL.UTF-8, no_NO.UTF-8, pl_PL.UTF-8, pt_BR.UTF-8, pt_PT.UTF-8, ro_RO.UTF-8, ru_RU.UTF-8, sk_SK.UTF-8, sl_SI.UTF-8, sr_YU.UTF-8, sv_SE.UTF-8, tr_TR.UTF-8, uk_UA.UTF-8, zh_CN.UTF-8, zh_HK.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8
[41457] Failed to execute script main
Multiple libraries were found for “Adafruit_TinyUSB.h”
Used: /Users/albertocole/Documents/Arduino/libraries/Adafruit_TinyUSB_Library
Not used: /Users/albertocole/Library/Arduino15/packages/Seeeduino/hardware/nrf52/1.1.9/libraries/Adafruit_TinyUSB_Arduino
Using library Adafruit TinyUSB Library at version 3.4.2 in folder: /Users/albertocole/Documents/Arduino/libraries/Adafruit_TinyUSB_Library
Using library SPI at version 1.0 in folder: /Users/albertocole/Library/Arduino15/packages/Seeeduino/hardware/nrf52/1.1.9/libraries/SPI
exit status 1

Compilation error: exit status 1

Let me know what options I have

Seeed_Kevin · February 21, 2025, 1:43am

Sorry that I don’t possess a Mac to reproduce this issue, on Windows everything seems to be OK. For your reference:

Arduino IDE 2.3.4

env_12113×1196 259 KB
BSP: Seeed nRF52 Boards v1.1.9

env_3553×1149 53.5 KB
Adafruit TinyUSB Library v3.4.0

env_2544×554 28.3 KB

From the logs you attached, likely something wrong with Adafruit TinyUSB?

Alberto_Cole · February 21, 2025, 2:30am

Seeed_Kevin:

#include "Adafruit_TinyUSB.h"
#define LEDRED  LED_RED
#define LEDGREEN LED_GREEN
#define LEDBLUE LED_BLUE
void setup() {
  pinMode(LEDRED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDGREEN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDBLUE, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {
  Serial.println("Shiny Red");
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDRED, LOW);
  delay(1000);
  Serial.println("Bright Green");
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDGREEN, LOW);
  delay(1000);
  Serial.println("Melancholy Blue");
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LEDBLUE, LOW);
  delay(100);
}

I made it to run that code on a ubuntu box I setup with UTM, found that there’s no Arduino IDE for ubuntu arm (using a M2 Pro), installed the Arduino legacy one, and I was able to run your code, so def something on mac setups, now, I then do the upload button and it still wont do anything, even by changing your code to use 11,12,13 pins, thx for you help I’ll keep digging.

Alberto_Cole · March 26, 2025, 1:17am

Hey so I bought Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense (SKU 102010469), and all the problems are gone now, my wild rookie guess is that someway somehow the “the unique SMD pins design of the RICK TNY” has no full support on mac.

PJ_Glasso · March 26, 2025, 2:06am

HI there,

So the Pinout looks the same…?YMMV

HTH
GL PJ

Alberto_Cole · March 26, 2025, 2:35am

well then I don’t have idea why sense plus does not work at all but sense does it, I was guessing RICK TNY had something to do w this