xiao ble sense not connecting in vs code with nrf connect extension

[Vidz]

Hello,

I am using Seed Studio's XIAO BLE nRF52840 (Sense) and VS code as IDE. I have followed Nordic's Youtube series (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx_tBuQ_KSqEt7NK-H7Lu78lT2OijwIMl) to install and setup VS code for my board. However, I am stuck at the 4th video- my Connected Device tab is empty. (If it makes a difference, I find the usb port COM11 as connected on my Device Manager and even Arduino IDE is able to recognize that the xiao ble sense board is connected on COM11)

Is it because of some incompatibility or have I missed a step?

Thanks in advance.

[Elfving]

Hello

The board you are connecting needs to have an onboard interface chip aka debugger in order to flash/program itself, or to debug.

What I assume you are used to doing with the Seed Studio's XIAO is to drag and drop a hex file into an MSD. That would take advantage of a bootloader on the chip, and essentially do a DFU in order for the new application to be updated. That is not what the VSC extension is doing. 

I see also that the getting started guide here also says that you would need a JLink in order to debug using the SWD pins. You could get a JLink commander or external debugger, though what might be a bit more affordable is to get an nRF52840DK. Our DKs come with onboard debuggers, that can also be used for programming other boards (like your Seed Studio XIAO) using SWD. If you go this route you would be able to flash and debug using our VSC extension, and follow along in the youtube tutorials or the DevAcademy.

If you don't want to follow this route I see that there are more tutorials on how to use NCS with the Seed XIAO here.

Let me know if there is anything else.

Regards,

Elfving