Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Wobs — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 18:20:34 GMT

Actually, if you supply your board with 3.3V externally when programming / debugging, it works!

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Stephan — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 11:43:48 GMT

Or 3. to get a reguler J-Link EDU, which comes at 60$ for private use only! :)

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Ole Morten — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:09:46 GMT

To clean things up, I'd be happy if you could evaluate the answer you have received and accept it if you feel it's sufficient. If not, it might be useful to expand your question a little and provide further information.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Ole Morten — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:09:39 GMT

Unfortunately, it is apparently not allowed by Segger's license to use the programming chip on the Evaluation Kit to program other boards. If you need to program custom boards, you need to get hold of a separate programmer. Two common options for getting this is

to get an nRF51822 Development Kit, which includes a J-Link Lite capable of programming custom boards as long as they run on 3.3 V, or
to get a regular J-Link.

A development kit should be about USD99, while a J-Link is EUR248 according to the list here. For the latter you'd also need an adapter to the small Cortex-M plug, similar to this one.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Bastiaan — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 21:21:23 GMT

I went for the DK, didn't know it was 100bucks, I had a more expensive option in mind, thats probably the 400USD nRFgo stuff. The DK price and the package is a great deal.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Guest — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 21:21:23 GMT

I went for the DK, didn't know it was 100bucks, I had a more expensive option in mind, thats probably the 400USD nRFgo stuff. The DK price and the package is a great deal.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Keith Wakeham — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 23:56:59 GMT

They are vendor locked with the original firmware on the debug chip. If you hack the board it can debug other boards with other firmware. See this attached link on how to hack the board. Again, haven't gotten around to testing but with other debug firmwares, including the CMSIS-DAP one you should be able to debug a custom board.

The quick and easy option is to order the DK ($100) without any of the nRFgo stuff($400). You don't "really" need it. The nRFgo board is little more than a power supply. I've shoved wires in the ports at the bottom to power the DK boards to use them. The OEM programmer has proved sufficient to program my own board.

I still plan on trying out the Freedom board though.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Wobs — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 16:45:42 GMT

I think those boards that are capable of doing that are vendor locked. I guess I can either hack the little USB dongle or buy myself a J-Link probe, but that sounds a bit unnecessary having 2 J-Link compatible chipsets in the EK.

RE: Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

Keith Wakeham — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 20:28:10 GMT

I have the ANT+ version. On version 1.0 that I have there is a pin header with SWCLK and SWIO. The VCC sense and ground aren't broken out but shouldn't really be needed. On version 2.0 there isn't really a header or an easy breakout that I see. Check your schematic for the nRF51822 for the version you have.

I bought the DK just to get the programmer for custom boards. There is potentially another alternative that I'm exploring. The Freescale Freedom has an onboard programmer easily broken out and can be setup to be a CMSIS-DAP programmer / debugger. It's a 15 dollar board + 1 dollar header. I think you have to cut a couple of lines on the board though. Cheap alternative. See link.