don't understand what DFU really is ?

[Yacire]

Hi Nordic's community,

I have a "stupid" question; i search a programmer for programming a nrf51822 module, and i see everywhere : " flash SD + BL + DFU"... i know Sd =softdevice, BL= bootloader and DFU is for device firmware upgrade but i don't understand if this is my firmware or something else ?

I don't understand what DFU really mean ? Sorry for my "noob" question and thanks for your answer , Yacire.

[RichieJH]

As Mahesh says it stands for Device Firmware Update. It allows you to update your firmware on your device over the air (sometimes referred to as OTA). There is example code that you can flash into your module to achieve this.

It's very useful in case you ship your product with a bug or an uncovered corner case. By emailing your end user an updated hex, or having them download one from a website, they can update the firmware in the field using a smartphone to fix the bug without having them return the device to you for replacement/remediation.

Nordic also makes the iOS and Android code that handle the smartphone side of the DFU available, so there is very little to do to provide your end users the feature from the smartphone side of things. In fact we often direct users to just use the Nordic app to do DFU on our devices when it is needed.

[Yacire]

Thanks RichieJH, it's clear now with your answer and Mahesh's answer.