nRF Profiler synchronization module

Use the nRF Profiler synchronization module to synchronize the timestamps of nRF Profiler events between two devices connected over a physical wire. The timestamp synchronization is required to increase the accuracy of the amount of time measured between the nRF Profiler events originating from two different devices.

The nRF Profiler data is collected separately from both devices using dedicated Python scripts. The data can then be merged using the merge_data.py script with sync_event used as a synchronization event for both Peripheral and Central. For more details, see the nRF Profiler documentation.

Module events

Source Module	Input Event	This Module	Output Event	Sink Module
Source modules for module_state_event	module_state_event	nrf_profiler_sync
			module_state_event	Sink modules for module_state_event

Note

See the Application overview for more information about the event-based communication in the nRF Desktop application and about how to read this table.

Configuration

A predefined signal on the GPIO is used to simultaneously generate synchronization nRF Profiler events on both devices. For this reason, you must enable the CONFIG_GPIO option.

You must also enable the CONFIG_APP_EVENT_MANAGER_PROFILER_TRACER Kconfig option. The nRF Profiler synchronization module generates an nRF Profiler event (sync_event) that is not an Application Event Manager event. For this reason, the sync_event execution is not traced.

You must also define the following options:

• The GPIO port (CONFIG_DESKTOP_NRF_PROFILER_SYNC_GPIO_PORT) and the pin (CONFIG_DESKTOP_NRF_PROFILER_SYNC_GPIO_PIN) that are used for synchronization. These GPIOs must be defined separately for both devices and connected using a physical wire.

• The device role. One of the devices must be set as Central (CONFIG_DESKTOP_NRF_PROFILER_SYNC_CENTRAL) and the other device must be set as Peripheral (CONFIG_DESKTOP_NRF_PROFILER_SYNC_PERIPHERAL).

Implementation details

The nRF Profiler synchronization Central generates a predefined signal that is received by Peripheral over the physical wire. Both devices generate an nRF Profiler event (sync_event) on every signal edge. This results in sync_event being generated on both devices at the same time. You can use the timestamps of this event on both devices for clock drift compensation.