WICED Studio Wi-Fi Combo

[user_4638851]

Hello,

I am using WICED Studio 6.4 with the CYW94343WWCD1_EVB board.

I need to use BLE + WiFi at the same time, and I am running out of memory.

I have written a little app which enables WiFi and BLE, and print the available memory once it has been started:

#include <http_server.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <wiced.h>
#include <wiced_bt_cfg.h>
#include <wiced_bt_dev.h>
#include <wiced_bt_stack.h>
static void memfree(const char *step)
{
    extern unsigned char _eheap[];
    extern unsigned char *sbrk_heap_top;
    struct mallinfo mi = mallinfo();
    printf("FREE MEMORY: %7lu @step '%s'\n", mi.fordblks + (uint32_t)_eheap - (uint32_t)sbrk_heap_top, step);
}
static wiced_result_t bt_callback(wiced_bt_management_evt_t event, wiced_bt_management_evt_data_t *p_event_data)
{
    printf("bt_callback: %d\n", event);
    return WICED_SUCCESS;
}
void application_start(void)
{

+

void application_start(void)
{
    wiced_result_t wret;
    memfree("start");
    wret = wiced_init();
    if (wret != WICED_SUCCESS) { printf("ERROR: wiced_init\n"); }
    memfree("wiced init");
    wret = wiced_network_up(WICED_STA_INTERFACE, WICED_USE_EXTERNAL_DHCP_SERVER, NULL);
    if (wret != WICED_SUCCESS) { printf("ERROR: wiced_network_up STA\n"); }
    memfree("wiced_network_up STA");
    volatile int i = 0;
    if (i > 0) {
        /* No need to run this code, but I want to link the associated libraries in the binary image */
        wret = wiced_network_up(WICED_AP_INTERFACE, WICED_USE_INTERNAL_DHCP_SERVER, NULL);
        wiced_http_server_t http_server;
        wret = wiced_https_server_start(&http_server, 443, 2 /* MAX_SOCKETS */, NULL, NULL,
                                        WICED_AP_INTERFACE, DEFAULT_URL_PROCESSOR_STACK_SIZE);
    }
    extern const wiced_bt_cfg_settings_t wiced_bt_cfg_settings;
    extern const wiced_bt_cfg_buf_pool_t wiced_bt_cfg_buf_pools[];
    wret = wiced_bt_stack_init(bt_callback, &wiced_bt_cfg_settings, wiced_bt_cfg_buf_pools);
    if (wret != WICED_SUCCESS) { printf("ERROR: wiced_bt_stack_init\n"); }
    memfree("wiced_bt_stack_init start");
    vTaskDelay(10000 / portTICK_PERIOD_MS); /* Wait until the BLE stack is actually initialized */
    memfree("init done");
}

I have used `wiced_bt_cfg.c` from `WICED-Studio-6.4/43xxx_Wi-Fi/apps/snip/bluetooth/ble_hello_client/wiced_bt_cfg.c` and put STA credentials in `wifi_config_dct.h`.

The static ram usage is:

----------------------------------|---------|---------|
                                  |         |  Static |
              Module              |  Flash  |   RAM   |
----------------------------------+---------+---------|
Bluetooth_Embedded_Low_Energy_Stac|     168 |      12 |
bluetooth_low_energy              |   79084 |    8080 |
crc                               |    1060 |       0 |
DHCP_Server                       |    1440 |     132 |
DNS                               |      64 |      44 |
FreeRTOS                          |    6271 |     444 |
Host MCU-family library           |   15082 |    2596 |
HTTP_Server                       |    4092 |       8 |
Interrupt Vectors                 |     396 |       0 |
libc                              |   30761 |    3372 |
Linked_List                       |     456 |       0 |
LwIP                              |   46655 |    2963 |
mbedTLS                           |  111988 |      88 |
Networking                        |    5636 |     772 |
Other                             |    1017 |     120 |
Packet Buffers                    |       0 |   40363 |
platform                          |    1468 |     124 |
RAM Initialisation                |    2972 |       0 |
resources                         |      44 |       0 |
Ring_Buffer                       |     100 |       0 |
SPI_Flash_Library_CYW94343WWCD1_EV|     512 |       0 |
Startup Stack & Link Script fill  |      97 |      62 |
Supplicant - BESL                 |    3486 |     184 |
WICED                             |    5814 |     252 |
WICED_Bluetooth_Firmware_Driver_fo|   36236 |       0 |
Wiced_RO_FS                       |     568 |       0 |
WWD                               |   16263 |     320 |
----------------------------------+---------+---------|
TOTAL (bytes)                     |  368758 |   59936 |
----------------------------------|---------|---------

The application logs are:

FREE MEMORY:   62096 @step 'start'
Starting WICED Wiced_006.004.000.0061
Platform CYW94343WWCD1_EVB initialised 
Started FreeRTOS v9.0.0
WICED_core Initialized
Initialising LwIP v2.0.3
DHCP CLIENT hostname WICED IP
WLAN MAC Address : ****
WLAN Firmware    : wl0: May  2 2019 02:39:20 version 7.45.98.83 (r714225 CY) FWID 01-476cc09d
WLAN CLM         : API: 12.2 Data: 9.10.39 Compiler: 1.29.4 ClmImport: 1.36.3 Creation: 2019-05-02 02:29:53 
FREE MEMORY:   44792 @step 'wiced init'
Joining : ****
Successfully joined : ****
Setting IPv6 link-local address
Obtaining IPv4 address via DHCP
IPv6 Network ready IP: ****
IPv4 Network ready IP: ****
FREE MEMORY:   44712 @step 'wiced_network_up STA'
00:00:14.944000 GKI_create_task func=0x8030ed1  id=1  name=BTU  stack=0x0  stackSize=4096
00:00:14.952000 GKI_create_task func=0x80325e9  id=0  name=HCISU  stack=0x0  stackSize=3072
FREE MEMORY:   27776 @step 'wiced_bt_stack_init start'
bt_callback: 21
bt_callback: BTM_ENABLED_EVT
bt_callback: 33
FREE MEMORY:   21200 @step 'init done'

When I run this simple example, I get at the end of initialization 21200 bytes of free memory. This means I am left with 20kB of RAM to write my application, which is not enough for my use case.

Is there a way I can run BLE + WiFi with a lower memory footprint? If not, which evaluation board to you recommend instead?

Thank you.

[AditiB_81 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

How much memory does your application need? You can define the following global defines in your makefile (.mk file):

   WICED_CONFIG_DISABLE_SSL_CLIENT \

   WICED_CONFIG_DISABLE_DTLS \

   WICED_CONFIG_DISABLE_ENTERPRISE_SECURITY \

   WICED_CONFIG_DISABLE_DES \

Thanks