Does nrf52840 dongle have to work with Softdevice?

[TGuanLa]

Hello all,

I'm using a custom nrf52840 dongle. There are some questions about bootloader and Softdevice. Everything works fine when I use nrf Bluetooth Low Energy app to program this dongle as "nRF52 Connectivity". But when I try to program blinky sample to it by nrf Programmer app, the nrf52840 dongle doesn't seem running the code. After auto resetting, there is nothing happened.

When I program "s132_nrf52_5.0.0_softdevice.hex" to this nrf52840 dongle by nrf Programmer app, it runs correctly.

 I have already checked the pin set.

I'm using vscode to build the blinky sample with nRF Connect SDK v2.3.0. I select nrf52840dongle_nrf52840 as configuration.

Here are the blinky hex and s132_nrf52_5.0.0_softdevice.hex.

 

Here is the SCH of the custom nrf52840 dongle I'm using.

I wonder why my dongle cannot run samples and other applications. Does nrf52840 dongle have to work with Softdevice?

Thanks!

[TGuanLa]

The right side of Programmer app is the programed dongle by nrf Bluetooth Low Energy app.