Arduino MKR Vidor4000 problems!!!!

Although this post is over a month old, if you are running with the Desktop version of the Arduino IDE, I would suggest using the latest Hourly Build of the Arduino IDE instead of the current released one.

You can get the hourly build part way down the page on the following link:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software

There may be a firmware update for the board as well so you might want to look at that.

Under File->Preferences on the Arduino IDE you can enable "Show verbose output during: upload and compilation.  This should give you more details and may point to an issue.

After the CPU reset, the next phase should have been a Read back but from what is posted that does not seem to happen.  I wonder if the board is going offline after the Write so it can't do a read back.  Have you tried resetting the board from the reset button to see if the Sketch runs after manual reset?  You could try to reset the board by pressing the Reset button and then applying power to it.

The Blink Sketch should blink the LED_BUILTIN, so if that is not set in your Sketch, then use that instead of any other defined pin.

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/MKRVidor4000

Hello,

I see that it is an old post but I'm running in the same trouble, my MKR4000 boards (3 different boards) are all running much slower than my MKR1010 with the same code !?!  Why ...?

No idea yet - I'm comparing the startup.c files and the other places where clocks are configured but I still cannot find the root cause...

... if somebody solved this issue ?

Thanks, Jean

I found that the speed trouble comes from 'print.client(data);' => sending 'big' chunk of data (~ 1.3 kB)  to the WiFiNINA module takes much much longer on the MKR4000 than on the MKR1010

If I check the firmware version it says that I use 1.1.0 and I should upgrade to 1.2.0 but where is version 1.2.0 ?!

Not in stable 1.8.10, not in the beta and not in the latest hourly build !?! Only 1.1.0 available...

J.

6320.contentimage_189407.png

This issue was filed against WiFiNINNA mid last year by me and someone else but it looks like it was closed with no resolution.

Perhaps you would have better luck with the Arduino folks, but it does seem like they are not really interested in providing much support for this board.

https://github.com/arduino-libraries/WiFiNINA/issues/68

According to Arduino, look at https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/WiFiNINA .

Utilities

You find these two utilities under Examples - > WiFiNINA -> Tools.

• CheckWiFiNINAFirmwareVersion : Reads the required firmware number required from library and matches with the one installed on the board or the shield.
• WiFiNINAFirmwareUpdater : The sketch that must be loaded to allow the firmware and certificates update process through the integrated plugin of Arduino Software (IDE) rel. 1.8.5 or later.

Can you find WiDiNINAFirmawareUpdater? Note IDE must be 1.8.5 or later.

Clem

Oh maybe the later versions is not working. Save off your working one and install a back level version. I have heard upgrades may drop function or introduce new problems...

I had got the board almost like 1.5 years ago as soon as it was released. I have not yet updated my WiFiNINA firmware on the ublox esp32 chip and it seems that ble and wifi both work quite very well.
I have also used it with Blynk which needs more ram and long links and it works very well.

So, probably the recent versions of the firmware have some problems.

Hi Vimarsh & All,

Ok but how can you explain that the small attached test code runs much faster on MKR1010 boards than on 4000 boards ?

Firmware up to date on the 4000 & tried both 1.1.0 and 1.0.0 versions of the Nina firmware, same result: with the MKR4000 it take ages to serve a web page !

Something wrong with the SPI between the M0 and the ublox ? MKR4000 board running at a much lower speed ?

Cheers, J.

The MKR Vidor 4000 is designed much different from the other MKR boards so I am not sure you can compare this to something like a MKR WiFi 1010.  There is too much interaction with the FPGA that the other boards do not have.

For issues with the board, you should try the Arduino Forums or file an issue on their GitHub account.

jomoenginer is right! This is a social forum that tries to help when we can. The real engineers who design the boards are on the Arduino Forums which has the true insights.

Hi Jon, thanks for the advice, I've just posted on the Arduino forum https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=657807.0

It's true that it seems there is not a lot of activity around the MKR4000...

Checking the schematics of the board shows that the SPI (& Coms) go thru the FPGA instead of a direct connection M0+ - NINA as on the MKR1010...

But I suppose the FPGA can be configured "transparent" for the SPI/UART connections  (?)

The workaround could be another wifi module in direct connection (SPI or UART) with the M0+ but it will be a shame as there is already one !

Or consider using FPGA to handle transfers directly into shared memory. That way you can avoid the pass through problem(s).

Or consider using FPGA to handle transfers directly into shared memory. That way you can avoid the pass through problem(s).