Setup configuration nightmares with an otherwise excellent hardware - nRF 5x SDK

[fe7565]

https://community.element14.com/products/roadtest/rv/roadtest_reviews/1646/draft_for_nrf5340

Above link is a user experience with one of you development kits, which is typical of my experience as well. 

The reason I posted is because I hope your software engineers look at it and get an understanding of what a non-professional developer must go trough to use your otherwise excellent hardware.  I am planning to buy the nRF5340 DK, and with my current experience using the nrf52840 dongle and Segger Studio's various versions along with VS...I am already dreading the configuration process and the outdated, broken link user guides, the official Nordic examples that only run on 7 year old versions of the IDEs.and need to be rewritten. 

If your main aim are professional developers who get paid to decipher your confusing processes, then I understand, but there are a throve of others between a professional and a hobbyists, like myself. Again, your hardware is superior to others in the field, but your development environment is stuck at the professional level where only those who get paid for their time and sweat are willing to suffer through setting it up.  

[runsiv]

Hi Tom

Thanks for reaching out to us. When comparing NCS vs nrf5 sdk in terms of how easy it is to set up its kind of a mixed bag. The jump from bare metal in nrf5 SDK to Zephyr in the NCS SDK can be a big leap. At least it was for me when I joined the company after working bare metal in the past. Luckily the review is a few years old now and the SDK has gone through multiple releases since then where the experience has been improved. 

You no longer need to use the nRF Connect for Desktop app to install the toolchain and SSDK. This can be done from the VScode extension as seen here

I would also note that with introduction of Zephyr the amount of samples you now have access to should cover most use cases. With NCS it is also easy to configure the project for different build targets as seen below. 

 

We have also created a graphical tool since the review to edit the devicetree( A devicetree is a hierarchical data structure primarily used to describe hardware) which makes it easier if you prefer to use graphical tools. 

The documentation has improved and we have created our devAcademy courses to help you get familiar with the SDK(beginner and intermediate course), a BLE course, Wifi course and a Cellular course. My recommendation to someone how has never worked with NCS is to always start with the nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals course. As it gives you an introduction on how everything hangs together. For my part especially the device tree was something new to me and I felt the lack of easy documentation. 

The review mentioned the building from the command line. This is more of a personal preference, I have colleagues how always uses the command line to build their applications wheres as I prefer to just use buttons in Vscode since I'm working there anyway. 

For newer devices we have also created a quick start app that handheld you through the entire installation project to make everything easier for the user. However I'm not sure if this will be updated to include older devices

Regards

Runar

[fe7565]

Thank you for the candid straightforward reply and for the detailed guide.  This answers the questions I have. I will review and modify my setup accordingly.