Introduction

The Gecko SDK and hence Bluetooth SDK gets a regular update, usually on a monthly basis, in the form of major, minor and patch releases. These updates contain important bug fixes, new features, and sometimes they add support for freshly released hardware (new parts or new boards). This article discusses how to update an existing project, once a new release was downloaded to your computer.

Releases

When you download an SDK with a new major or minor version number (e.g. you update from v2.6.2 to v2.7.0) a new SDK folder will be created on your computer, and from that point you can choose which SDK to use when creating a new project. Your already existing projects won't be touched.

In contrast to this, when you download a patch release to your computer, it will automatically overwrite your existing SDK content. E.g. Gecko SDK v2.7.3 will overwrite Gecko SDK v2.7.2 when downloaded. Now, if you create a new project, it will be created using the new patch release. However, your already existing projects will still contain the files originated from the previous patch release! This is because when you create a project, the SDK files will be copied to your project during project creation, and an SDK update won't touch your already created projects. (This is to avoid automatically updating projects that were already tested with the earlier patch release.)

Updating Existing Projects

If you want to update an already existing project, there are to ways to go:

1. Creating a new SoC-Empty project with the new SDK, and merging all your changes that were done on the top of the SoC-Empty project generated with the previous SDK

2. Replacing all SDK files in your already existing project

In general, it is highly recommended to take the first path, as the project generator takes care of copying all the files and making all the configuration needed for the latest SDK version to work.

Updating with Freshly Created SoC-Empty Project

It is recommended to write Bluetooth application in a way, that the application files are completely separated from the SDK files. That's why the SoC-Empty example project contains app.c / app.h files, that implements the application and are independent from the underlying SDK version. (Of course more files can be added implementing application code.) In this case the best way to migrate to a new SDK version is:

1. Create a new SoC-Empty project with the new SDK version

2. Overwrite app.c/app.h with your application

3. Add your other application files (e.g. modules that handles peripherals and provide data for Bluetooth)

4. Copy the needed SDK dependencies into your project from the updated SDK folder (e.g. if you use LE timer in your project, you have to copy em_letimer.c / em_letimer.h into your project)

5. Import your GATT database with the GATT configurator. Find the import button on the right side, and import the gatt.xml file from your old project. Press Generate to generate the GATT database code in your project.

6. You may have applied changes on init_mcu.c, init_board.c, init_app.c in your already existing project. Instead of overwriting these files with the ones from your old project, rather merge in the changes you made. This is important, because these files are not SDK independent, and there may be important changes in them between two SDK versions. Important: do not press Generate in the GATT configurator after this point, as it may regenerate these files, and your changes can disappear!

7. Add your additional include directories (e.g. if you created a new folder for own header files, or you copied SDK files into a new folder) and libraries in the project settings. Important: do not press Generate in the GATT configurator after this point, as it may regenerate project settings, and your changes can disappear!

8. You are ready to build your project.

Updating SDK files in your already existing project

You may also take the other path, and update all SDK files in your project one-by-one. In this case you should

1. Update the /hardware, /platform and /protocol folders in your project. Since these folders in your project contain only a subset of the files existing in the /hardware, /platform, /protocol folders of the SDK (C:\SiliconLabs\SimplicityStudio\v4\developer\sdks\gecko_sdk_suite\vX.Y), you should copy the files one-by-one instead of copying the whole folders into your project!

2. Check at least main.c, init_mcu.c, init_board.c, init_app.c if they contain any important update since the last SDK version. Create a new SoC-Empty project for your part, and compare the new files with your existing project. If you see any changes that was not done by you, merge those changes in your project.