Programming nRF51822 without kits

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

Alex Shepherd — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 23:31:01 GMT

Ok, how about buying just the RF Module from here: http://www.semiconductorstore.com/cart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=48872 and build your own PCB and solder on one of the RFduino modules and provide some sort of USB -> TTL Serial interface like the RFduino USB adapter does and interface to your accelerometer via SPI and add your solar charger circuit - afterall you have to demonstrate some of your own development skills... ;)

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

David — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 23:07:16 GMT

I see, I guess I have to somehow convince my supervisor then, even though it says $A130 according to AU Mouser.

Based on your answer on 2nd paragraph, I guess the SDK file on nRF51822 page doesn't include IDE huh.

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

David — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 23:05:12 GMT

@Alex: Ah, unfortunately, my accelerometer (ADXL362) is a very small SMD component (around 3mm x 3mm). The reason we chose this chip is because we want to make the smallest, and most power efficient board (since it has to operate using solar panel as sole power source).

I appreciate your answer though, if I were to do this from scratch again as a personal project, I will probably use this chip instead.

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

Alex Shepherd — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 22:51:16 GMT

Well how about wiring up a DIP accelerator via SPI using their prototyping board: http://www.rfduino.com/rfd22125-prototyping-shield-accessory-board.html

You should be abel to configure the SPI peripheral to use 4 GPIO pins or maybe 5 to allow for SPI, Chipselect and an interrupt coming back in.

Solar power should be possible with a simple USB LiPo 3.7 V charger PCB from eBay, a 3.7V LiPo battery and a 6V solar cell.

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

David — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 22:39:58 GMT

@Alex: Well, my project needs to work with solar panel and accelerometer, so I doubt that I can use that rfduino without doing something radical to incorporate accelerometer into it, or do I?

(Also, the accelerometer uses SPI to communicate, so I'm not sure if RFDuino can handle it).

It looks very nice though, so thanks for the link!

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

Alex Shepherd — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 22:19:18 GMT

Well (as you already know) without the Dev or Eval Kit you cannot download the Nordic SDK, so the only other alternative that might get you going with BLE is to look at the RFduino (http://www.rfduino.com/) as it is Arduino-ized version of the Nordic nRF81522 chip.

It has a USB/Serial adapter and bootloader and all the BLE libraries etc are wrapped into the Arduino supplied library etc. I had ordered one last June and it finally arrived a week or two ago and seems to work well out of the box.

Hope that helps

Alex Shepherd

RE: Programming nRF51822 without kits

Janek Mann — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:54:37 GMT

Sadly Nordic don't permit download and licensing of the SDK without the product key from an EVK or DK. The DK is available for $99 from Mouser though so perhaps that'd be an option for you (I know some supervisors can be very stingy, you may need to be a little persistent)?

The easiest to set up option is the Windows installer for the SDK and uVision 4 IDE from Keil (there is a free version).