Programming a custom external board using nRF52832 dk

[connorshannon]

Hello, 

For my project I am making a custom circuit board which is pretty much just the nRF52832 chip and the surrounding capacitors and whatnot. I'd like to program this circuit board using my nRFdk, but am unsure how to do it. I actually have two of the dk circuit boards, and I was trying to use one to program the other to test the process before trying it on my custom circuit board. However, I was running into some issues.

I suppose my question is this: How can I program my custom board using the development kit I already have?

I've seen other posts where people were able to program and external board using a dk, but many of these weren't resolved. Additionally, the ones that I saw were resolved seemed to have a key difference when compared to my situation, such as using the 9 pin connector debug in to program an external board (my custom board doesn't have this, only the connections directly to the nRF52832. Happy to provide more information, so let me know if that is needed. Additionally, if it isn't possible to program my custom board this way it would be good to know. 

Thank you!

[runsiv]

Hi 

Could you elaborate a bit regarding the "only the connections to the nRF52832"? 

In general you need at least VDD, SWCK, SWDIO and GND to flash a board. You can read more about programming a board using custom connections for the nRF52832 here

Regards

Runar

[connorshannon]

By that I meant that effectively my custom board is just the nRF52832 chip, which I am trying to program using my development kit. On my custom board, I don't have the special 9 pin connector. I talked a little bit about my problem here and got some feedback which I was trying to clarify by making this post. I'll try the connections in the page you shared tomorrow.

I suppose that the simplest version of the questions I have are:

1. Can I program an external nRF52832 using the development kit I have (assuming I have access to all the pins on the external chip)?

2. Is it possible to test this by programming another development kit, or is there no way to directly access the nRF52832 pins on the development kit?

Thank you!

[runsiv]

connorshannon said:

1. Can I program an external nRF52832 using the development kit I have (assuming I have access to all the pins on the external chip)?

Yes

connorshannon said:

2. Is it possible to test this by programming another development kit, or is there no way to directly access the nRF52832 pins on the development kit?

Yes, just use the a 10 pin cable to test between the DK's. Debug out to debug in

Regards

Runar

[connorshannon]

The issue is that I don't have the 10 pin cable, and I would consider getting it, but I don't plan on using it for my custom board, so there's no real point in using it to program the other dk (since this was just to test connections before programming my custom board). It sounds like there is no way to access the nRF52832 chip directly, meaning that I can't program the external dk unless I have the special cable.

As far as programming the nRF52832 chip directly, would I just follow the schematic connections in the post that you shared with me?

Thank you

[runsiv]

connorshannon said:

The issue is that I don't have the 10 pin cable, and I would consider getting it, but I don't plan on using it for my custom board, so there's no real point in using it to program the other dk (since this was just to test connections before programming my custom board). It sounds like there is no way to access the nRF52832 chip directly, meaning that I can't program the external dk unless I have the special cable.

It might work if you use the p20 connect and connect as shown in figure 2 in the custom programming link. I can't guarantee anything but it's worth the try. My honest opinion would be to just get a 10 pin cable as the time spent trying to get the custom connection to work might easily surpass the cost of just getting a cable. 

connorshannon said:

As far as programming the nRF52832 chip directly, would I just follow the schematic connections in the post that you shared with me?

That is correct just remember you need the gpio voltage on both devices

Regards

Runar