Newbie field update questions

[Neil Thiessen]

Hey guys. I'm very new to Bluetooth 4.0 (actually Bluetooth in general), but I'm hoping to be able to use a Fujitsu MBH7BLZ02-109004 module with an nRF51822 in a product I'm working. I just have a couple questions about field updates. First of all, I found information on updating the Application area using a DFU bootloader, but I can't find any information on how to update the SoftDevice. Does the SoftDevice ever need to be updated? Is there any chance of bugs popping up in the SoftDevice after production that will need to be patched in the field? My product will have an LPC11U35 as a host microcontroller connected to the nRF51822 over UART, so I'll need to update them both at the same time to keep the two firmwares in "sync". Thanks in advance!

[Ole Morten]

In general we are confident that the production versions of S110 are stable enough to not upgrade it. However, if you want to be able to push new Bluetooth features to your device, you may still have to do so.

You should talk to our sales manager for your area for information on future plans, but the only current option is to implement the SWD interface on your host CPU and then use this to upgrade the softdevice. This is possible, but will require some engineering effort, as the SWD interface is rather complex. You may however be able to use some open source library or similar for this, but this isn't something we've tried or have lots of experience with.

[Ole Morten]

As I said, I'd recommend you to discuss future solutions with our sales manager for your area, as he is in a good position to take feedback and also inform about what is currently planned. Send me a PM with your location if you don't have his contact information.