Is merging HEX files of application built using GCC with Bootloader DFU built using Keil recommended?

[Aravinth]

Our product is based on nrf51422_CEAA chip with softdevice S110, SDK 8.0.0, dual bank ble bootloader DFU.

We have modified the dfu bootloader example from SDK 8.0.0 to have certain features and it was compiled using Keil. Bootloader example of SDK 8.0.0 works only with Keil. However, we found out that SDK 8.1.0 and above have works with GCC as well.

Initially our application was also built using Keil and recently we have migrated the project to GCC. We have to merge s110_nrf51_8.0.0_softdevice.hex, application.hex (GCC) and bootloader.hex (KEIL) for batch flashing. We have found the tutorials in the nordic devzone to merge them.

Does merging the HEX files generated by different compilers (Keil and GCC) corrupt the final image in someway? Is it recommended to do it?

[Øyvind Karlsen]

Hi,

In theory this should work as long as you have a merger that supports merging intelhex16 (GCC) and intelhex32 (Keil) structure, I believe mergehex supports this, but you should test it.

Best regards,

Øyvind

[Aravinth]

Thanks. Yes. I'm using mergehex version 9.0.0 on OSX. I haven't faced any apparent issues by merging using nrf mergehex.

[Øyvind Karlsen]

Good. Let me know if you run into any issues.