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How to get started with a Nordic chip (in my case the nRF52832)

Francesco Crevatin

Hi,
I'm new to Nordic Semiconductor chips.

I have experience programming STM32 and Atmel microprocessors.
I would need to program/debug the NORDIC nRF52832 chip, without using their Development Kit, but I have some questions:
1) to be able to program and write code for Nordic chips, is it mandatory to download and install the "nRF Command-Line Tools" program? What software do I need to install (I have Windows);
2) which debugger can I use? Since there are various debuggers on the market and I haven't found one specifically for NORDIC boards, I wonder which ones could be good (ST-LINK, any JTAG, etc..);
3) since the chip uses SWD communication for programming/debugging, is it also necessary to keep the reset pin HIGH correct?
4) which IDE do you recommend? VS Code? Eclipse? Others?

Basically I need to be able to program/debug a NORDIC chip, via SWD pins, and have the simplest and most effective installation of programs on the computer.

Do you have any advice?

Thanks for your attention and your time.
Have a nice day

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  • +1

    Hi

    1) to be able to program and write code for Nordic chips, is it mandatory to download and install the "nRF Command-Line Tools" program? What software do I need to install (I have Windows);

    If you just want to flash the device it is enough with the command line tool which allows you to flash a device with nrfjprog. 

    2) which debugger can I use? Since there are various debuggers on the market and I haven't found one specifically for NORDIC boards, I wonder which ones could be good (ST-LINK, any JTAG, etc..);

    My go-to recommendation would be to develop using a development board, the DK contains a debugger and you only need to connect it to your computer with a usb device. However if you don't plan to use a DK(Which I again would highly recommend for development) I would go for a segger j-link lite for example

    3) since the chip uses SWD communication for programming/debugging, is it also necessary to keep the reset pin HIGH correct?

    No, the reset pin is not needed during programming. The debug access port (DAP) implements a standard ARMRegistered CoreSightTm serial wire debug port (SW-DP), which implements the serial wire debug protocol (SWD). SWD is a two-pin serial interface, see SWDCLK and SWDIO 

    4) which IDE do you recommend? VS Code? Eclipse? Others?

    If you are not working on an existing project then I would recommend that you use the nRF Connect SDK and use VScode as your IDE with the nRF Connect extension

    I would also strongly recommend that you at least have a look at the nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals course to get an intro to our SDK and Zephyr. 

    We also have an older SDK that has been in maintenance mode for the last 4-5 years, this SDK is not recommended for new designs as it has not received any update expect security fixes for the mentioned 4-5 years. 

    Regards

    Runar

  • 0 in reply to runsiv

    Hi Runar,

    runsiv said:
    If you just want to flash the device it is enough with the command line tool which allows you to flash a device with nrfjprog. 

    Ok thanks. I asked this question because we'll need to incorporate your Software, which programs the NORDIC chip, to our Software.

    runsiv said:
    I would go for a segger j-link lite for example

    Are there other debugger? For example a ST-LINK is usable for program a NORDIC chip?

    From what I saw in the nRF52832 chip manual, it is quite simple to use Bluetooth. Are there any code examples where you write a custom payload in the broadcast packet?

    Thanks again and have a nice day

  • 0 in reply to Francesco Crevatin
    Francesco Crevatin said:

    Ok thanks. I asked this question because we'll need to incorporate your Software, which programs the NORDIC chip, to our Software.

    Then I would like I wrote go for Vscode as it gives the easiest user experience. You can also build your application from the command line(the instruction on how to set it up can also be found here)  and use whichever text editor you like. But I would use vscode due to the debug features. 

    Francesco Crevatin said:

    Are there other debugger? For example a ST-LINK is usable for program a NORDIC chip?

    It might be possible to a st-link with openocd however this is not something we provide support for so you would be on your own

    Francesco Crevatin said:

    From what I saw in the nRF52832 chip manual, it is quite simple to use Bluetooth. Are there any code examples where you write a custom payload in the broadcast packet?

    I would have a look at some of these samples

    You can find multiple beacon/broadcast samples in nRF Connect SDK:

    It is easy to change the content of the advertising packet in for instance the broadcaster sample.

    Regards

    Runar

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