Bit of a question out of left field - if I don't use any firmware for the QCA7005, can I implement the application externally? Like, just use the QCA7005 as the PHY and do all the message decoding/encoding myself in a separate microcontroller?

I'm asking this because I'd like to experiment with ...

Thank you for providing info and traces, that's above and beyond!

Unfortunately still stuck in SPI purgatory. Tried everything, even soldered up a new board and still no signs of life. Schematic seems solid and (mostly) as per the datasheet. Tried with burst mode disabled, no flash, checked my pins ...

Just wondering if anyone has experienced problems getting the SPI to work on the QCA7000?

I made up a small PCB using the schematic from the Foccci for the QCA part (the board is for implementing an EVSE on an ESP32P4 devkit) and everything measures and behaves like it should except I can't get it ...