Getting started with nRF7002 EK

This section gets you started with your nRF7002 Evaluation Kit (EK) using the nRF Connect SDK.

The nRF7002 EK is a versatile evaluation kit in the form of an Arduino shield. The kit can be used to provide Wi-Fi® connectivity and Wi-Fi-based locationing to compatible development or evaluation boards through the nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 companion IC.

The nRF7002 EK features the nRF7002 companion IC. In addition, the shield may be used to emulate the nRF7001 and nRF7000 companion IC variants.

If this is your first time developing with a Nordic Semiconductor DK, read the appropriate getting started tutorial first:

Overview

The nRF7002 EK (PCA63556) is designed to provide Wi-Fi connectivity and Wi-Fi (SSID) scanning capabilities through the nRF7002 companion IC to a compatible host development board.

The nRF7002 EK features an Arduino shield form factor and interface connector that allows it to be used with Arduino compatible boards, such as the nRF52840 DK, nRF5340 DK, nRF9160 DK, or nRF9161 DK. This interface is used to connect the nRF7002 companion device to a host System on Chip (SoC), Microprocessor Unit (MPU), or Microcontroller Unit (MCU).

nRF7002 EK

nRF7002 EK

Pin assignment for Arduino interface connector

The Arduino interface of the nRF7002 EK is compatible with the nRF52840 DK, the nRF5340 DK, and an nRF91 Series DK. The interface connectors are described in the following table:

Arduino pin name

nRF7002 Signal

Function

D0

IOVDD_EN

Enable power to I/O interface

D1

BUCK_EN

Enable power to nRF7002

D2

COEX_STATUS0

Coexistence status 0

D3

COEX_REQ

Coexistence request from host

D4

COEX_GRANT

Coexistence grant to host

D5

SW_CTRL0

Switch control 0

D6

COEX_STATUS1

Coexistence status 1

D7

HOST_IRQ

Interrupt request to host

D8

DATA2

QSPI data line 2

D9

DATA3

QSPI data line 3

D10

SS

Slave select

D11

MISO/DATA1

QSPI/SPI Data line 1/ Slave Out

D12

MOSI/DATA0

QSPI/SPI Data line 0/ Slave In

D13

CLK

QSPI/SPI Clock

GND

GND

Ground

AREF

N.C.

Not used

SDA

N.C.

Not used

SCL

N.C.

Not used

Note

UART1 cannot be used and must be disabled on the nRF9160 DK, as UART1 RXD and TXD conflict with pins P0.00 and P0.01 (Arduino pins D0 and D1). These correspond to the IOVDD-CTRL-GPIOS and BUCKEN-GPIOS signals in the nRF7002 EK, respectively.

For an nRF7002 EK connected to an nRF9160 DK, you can find example overlays at the following paths:

  • sdk-nrf/boards/shields/nrf7002ek/boards/nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns.overlay

  • sdk-nrf/samples/cellular/lwm2m_client/boards/nrf9160dk_with_nrf7002ek.overlay

Minimum requirements

Make sure you have all the required hardware and that your computer and mobile device both have one of the supported operating systems.

Hardware

  • One of the following development kits:

    • nRF52840 DK

    • nRF5340 DK

    • nRF9160 DK

    • nRF9161 DK

  • nRF7002 EK

  • A suitable battery

  • Micro-USB 2.0 cable

  • USB-C charger

  • Jumper wires

Software

On your computer, one of the following operating systems:

  • Microsoft Windows

  • macOS

  • Ubuntu Linux

The operating system versions that support the nRF Connect SDK tools are listed in the Supported operating systems section.

Installing the required software

Install nRF Connect for Desktop. After installing and starting the application, install the Programmer app.

Building and programming

To add support for the nRF7002 EK on an application running on a compatible host development board, the SHIELD setting must be specified.

To add support for the nRF7002 EK and the nRF7002 IC, set -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek when you invoke west build or cmake in your nRF Connect SDK application. To emulate support for the nRF7001 or nRF7000 ICs, specify -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek_nrf7001 or -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek_nrf7000, respectively.

Alternatively, add the shield in the project’s CMakeLists.txt file, specifying the below settings, depending on which IC is to be used:

set(SHIELD nrf7002ek)

set(SHIELD nrf7002ek_nrf7001)

set(SHIELD nrf7002ek_nrf7000)

To build with the nRF Connect for VS Code extension, specify -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek in the Extra CMake arguments field. See Providing CMake options for instructions on how to provide CMake options.

To build for the nRF7002 EK and the nRF7002 IC with nRF5340 DK, use the nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp build target with the CMake SHIELD variable set to nrf7002ek. For example, you can use the following command when building on the command line:

west build -b nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp -- -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek

To build for the nRF7002 EK and the nRF7001 or nRF7000 ICs, you can use the corresponding shield name in the above command.

Next steps

You have now completed getting started with the nRF7002 EK. See the following links for where to go next: