nrf528540 Dongle

[DiBosco]

Folks,

We have been developing a product to use the nrf51840 Dongle. Idea being to solder it to a mother board and as it's pre certified we don't have to go through RF certification.

However, the reset line does not come out on any of the pins, just the SWDIO and SWDCLK. So how, once it's soldered to the board are you supposed to debug usijng SWD? You can use the ten way header but that is on the bottom side of the board and inaccessible. What am I missing here? Surely there is a way to program and debug it without needing the bottom side connector?

[Steve Rathjen]

Are you referring the NRF52840 dongle?  If so, the RESET wasn't required when I used it.  There are two castellated pads (on either edge) near the USB plug that are the SWDCLK and SDIO for the programmer/debugger, as you mentioned.  I've used these successfully with GND and V+ connections only... no RESET.

[Priyanka]

Hi,

You are not missing anything. As Steve mentioned, you can program and debug using the SWDIO, SWDCLK, VDD and GND pins.

The nRF Chip is connected via the SWD pins to the Debug unit.

Please take a look at this: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/app_dev/device_guides/custom/programming_custom_board.html 

And in case you actually need to use the RESET, the hardware reset is on P0.18 internally (and it's connected to the button SW2 on the side of the Dongle) so maybe you can route it to some test pad outside.

-Priyanka