4.1.1.1 Central - FreeRTOS BLE Stack and App Initialization

Getting Started

Getting Started with Central Building Blocks

FreeRTOS and BLE Stack Setup

Introduction

This document gives a detail information on creating a new MCC Harmony project, configuring FreeRTOS component and BLE stack component in the project and generating code using the MPLAB MCC framework.

It is recommend to follow the examples in order, by learning the basic concepts first and then progressing to the more advanced topics.

Recommended Reading

Hardware Requirement

None

Software Setup

Initiating a BLE Stack

This section explains the steps required to develop this application example from scratch using MPLABx Code Configurator.

Note: It is recommended that new users of MPLAB Code Configurator go through the overview

  1. Create a new MCC Harmony Project. For more details, refer to 3.4 Creating a New MCC Harmony Project

  2. Open the MPLAB Code Configurator:
    Default MPLAB Code Configurator window
  3. Click Plus Symbol the BLE Stack component on to the project graph (BLE Stack is part of Wireless Component)
  4. Upon BLE Stack being added to project graph, the different component dependencies will be requested to be added. User has to select "yes" to add all the dependant components.
  5. Activate the components (snapshot below does not cover all the necessary components that need to be activated. Users are expected to select "yes" for all dependant components)

  6. Verify Project Graph

  7. Display FreeRTOS component configuration options by Selecting the component in Project Graph.
    Note: Upon selecting any component, the default configuration options available for user are displayed.
  8. Configure FreeRTOS component to the following. The configuration chosen here should suit most application needs, users are recommended to follow the FreeRTOS Customization documented here to meet their needs
    Note: By default, the "Total heap size" is set to a default value which might not be sufficient to a specific project. If the total heap size is not enough, vApplicationMallocFailedHook( ) will be caght. Then user can adjust the "Total heap size" to avoid this situation.
    Note: It is required to address the heap needed or BLE stack library as defined in initialization.c #define EXT_COMMON_MEMORY_SIZE (22*1024). Hence the default "Total heap size"

  9. Display BLE Stack component configuration options by Selecting the component in Project Graph.

    Default Configuration: Peripheral Device functionality is enabled by default. Central configuration needs to enabled and peripheral configuration should be unchecked

  10. For more details on code generation, refer to Generate Code

  11. Switch to MPLAB X IDE window and Build Project. The project should compile successfully.

  12. Choose the correct compiler version, as suggested in development environment.

  13. Build Project, upon building project user action is required as mentioned 13.1  User Action

For more information, refer to UART