I started looking through the DW code. It looks pretty well written and reasonably documented. However it is going to take me quite a few man-days to get into all the corners and figure out how it all works. So my first step is to configure Eclipse so that I can compile, load and run their demo code on the STM32F10x they use for the eval kit. This process is fairly well documented too.
The next step might seem to be to port their demo code to whatever BLE chip we use (Lets assume RayTac). It looks straightforward in principle. I’m really not sure how to connect the DW eval kit to the RayTac, or even if this is feasible, but I’ll need a lot of your help to do that. Even so much of the ancillary code assumes access to buttons and LCD. This code will have to be unpicked, and I’ll have to find some other way to display their feedback messages, and somehow do without buttons. I’m hoping I can use the SWD channel I have tried so hard to get working. Of course the standard C config will be different for the RayTac chip (at least in some minor ways), so I’m sure that there will be anomalies that I’ll have to sort out there too.
I said the next step seems to be to port their code to the RayTac, but now I have written down the process I’m rethinking. It would be a smaller step if I could attach the DW EK to the eval board I just received from Nordic. It will mean changing the DW code to use the correct SPI pins, but the Nordic has lights and buttons that I know how to use already, and I have it configured to use the SWD channel for debugging messages. That small step would allow me to figure out the differences between the STM32F10x processor and a BLE processor without changing more than I have to. Again though, I’m not sure the DW eval kit can be connected to the Nordic EK, and I’d need a lot of help from you to figure this out.
I’m not really sure what the following step will be. It might be logical to move code onto our hardware, but there’s a lot to be said for starting to write our own app (the one that uses both BLE and DW) on the Noridc+DW eval hardware – making sure that it all works in some way, before leaping off onto the TS06 Dewbly. I think a lot depends on precisely when our h/w shows up, and how hard it is to do the previous steps. I like small steps! But I have plenty to keep me busy.
I notice that DW assumes that it can get access to the SPI for extended periods without being interrupted. This might cause some issues.