Sanity-checking interest: nRF5340 board with integrated CMSIS-DAP debug + jumper-based current measurement, under the DK's price

[whitehand110]

Hi all — I'm developing a custom nRF5340 development board (Raytac MDBT53-1M) and would value the community's honest read on whether it's worth producing.

The goal is a board optimized for the flash–debug–power-profile iteration loop, using open-source tooling.

Key features:
- Onboard CMSIS-DAP debugger (RP2040 + debugprobe firmware): full SWD flash and live debug over USB-C, working directly with probe-rs, OpenOCD, pyOCD, and the nRF Connect SDK / Zephyr toolchain.
- Current measurement without board modification
- LiPo charging with load-sharing power path for battery-powered prototyping.
- Arduino-compatible + dual GPIO headers, Qwiic, USB-C, NFC connection.

Intended price: ~$44*

To be clear, the DK is excellent.  What I'm testing is whether out-of-the-box measurement, open CMSIS-DAP tooling, and battery charging are worth anything to people here, or whether the DK already meets your needs.

Would this fit into your workflow? What would you change or add? If you'd want one, I'd appreciate a note here or a signup on the waitlist so I can gauge whether to do a production run: forms.gle/V1ZPMtDSSYrA95TK9

Thank you for any feedback.

[ougengzhou]

the Nrf5340 DK = $50  as well, you have no price advantage compared to  the DK 

[whitehand110]

Thanks for the honest feedback — this is exactly what I was hoping to learn by posting here, and I appreciate you being direct.

You're right that the DK is hard to beat on price, and for evaluating the nRF5340 I'd recommend it too. This board is aimed at the step after that, when a project goes portable: it's about 1/5 the DK's size, includes a full LiPo charging + protection circuit (the DK has a connector but no charger), and sleep-current measurement is a jumper header on an isolated rail instead of cutting SB40.

If the value isn't landing at this price, that's on me to communicate better — so if you have a sense of what would make it compelling (a different price, a feature, or even a different chip), I'd genuinely love to hear it. Thanks again for engaging!