We've been evaluating the nRF9160 and nRF9161 for potential use in our project for about 4 months now, but the process has been challenging due to documentation flaws and a lack of comprehensive cross-platform integration guidance. A key issue is the difficulty of using Nordic's samples on third-party hardware, such as the Icarus IoT V2 board (nRF9160).
While Nordic DevZone has been somewhat helpful, many common issues remain unresolved despite multiple reports from different developers. In some cases, Nordic's support team appears unaware of previous discussions on the same topic. A recent case we opened, highlighting flaws in the VS Code extension, was set to private, so that we could provide certificates for further troubleshooting. There are several cases pointing out the same issue without resolutions, and our has now remained without respons for over 12 days. We are unable to see if this is still worked on.
One major flaw we've encountered in nRF Connect is that if any file other than main.c is open during a build, the process may fail—causing unnecessary troubleshooting difficulties for developers who are unaware of this quirk. Additionally, certificate provisioning in Nordic’s tooling is problematic, leading to failed connections when for example following the Azure IoT Hub sample guide unless using the nRF9161 DK specifically.
For developers who are not already experienced with Zephyr and Nordic’s toolchain, the learning curve is steep. The fragmented and often unreliable support raises concerns about whether proper assistance will be available when critical issues arise. We would think this poses a significant barrier for teams considering nRF91-series modules for long-term development.
Seems to us Nordic needs to improve documentation, address recurring issues more effectively, and enhance their developer support experience if they aim to attract and retain new users in their ecosystem. The product is really good if you can get it to work as intended...
