Program BHI260AP directly on the Nicla Sense ME

[Ismar]

Hello Everyone,

I am working on a project where I want to use the IMU and other sensors of the BHI260AP to train a tensorflow lite model in order to do some classification. I got some tensorflow lite models working on the Nicla, with the integrated NRF52 MCU, but the RAM (64 KB) limits me from implementing any larger models.

I can see that the ARC MCU on the BHI260AP has 4 times as much RAM, but I haven't figured out how to directly reprogram it. From googling I have seen that these types of MCUs generally support tensorflow lite, but is there a way to get acces to that MCU and program it, so I can maybe create another sensor output, which just does the classification I want, just like the step counter?

It would be really great if I can use the BHI260AP to do all the ML stuff on it, and then only use the NRF for the application side of the project.

Thanks in advance!

[BSTRobin]

Hi Ismar,

BHI260AP supports running user's algorithm. However, the SDK has not yet released on Arduino.

[Ismar]

Hi Robin,

thanks for the quick reply. So as I understood it, there is no way to do this on a nicla then? Not even, let's say, program a new firmware on a development board, and then just upload it to the BHI260AP on the nicla? I am aware this might cause huge issues and break the board, but would it be possible technically?

Also, do you have any timeframe when the SDK might be available for arduino?

[BSTRobin]

Hi Ismar,

The current firmware is pre-compiled and then released to Arduino. At present, we have no plan to release the SDK to Arduino because it involves the software license.

[hkayan]

Hi @BSTRobin , is this still the case? I also need more RAM hence looking for alternative solutions.