Is there a Windows driver for the nRF52840 USB CDC ACM?

[Roger Clark]

Hi

I'm trying to use the nRF52840 USB Serial UART device (aka USB CDC ACM) however I can't find a Windows driver for this device

The VID is 0x1915 and the PID is 0x520F

I've looked in all the development files listed for the nRF52840 PDK www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF52840-Preview-DK

But I can't find a driver.

I've tried forcing a CDC ACM driver using libwdi, but although the board then appears as a serial device, I can't see any data from the board, so I presume that method is not valid as it may be a composite device and i need a more complex install method (or the official driver)

[Hung Bui]

Hi Roger,

I found that issue on my PC too.

I checked with the developer, it could be an issue with signing for the driver. We will look into that.

The work around is to select: "Browse my computer for driver software" -> "Let me pick from a list " -> "Ports (COM & LPT)" ->"Have Disk..."

After that you select the nordic_cdc_acm_example.inf file in the SDK folder. It should work after that.

[Roger Clark]

Thanks

That method did install the driver (after I accepted the warning about it being unsigned)

Ideally you'd need a much simpler way for people to install Windows drivers ;-)

However the demo, doesn't seem to output any text to the com port.

I compliled and uploaded using Keil and the application is definitely working, as I can log to the JLink USB Serial (when I have the cable connected to the JLink USB), and I added code to log when the BSP button is pressed and it would be writing text to the USB serial, and that worked fine.

(I guess I can connect to both USB's at the same time but wasnt sure, so at the moment I only connect one at a time)

Anyway, in the terminal I'm using "Hercules" I don't get any text. All that seems to happen is the CTS indication comes on when I press the button.

Can you tell me what terminal emulator you used ?

[Roger Clark]

BTW. I forgot to ask.

Is it OK for commercial applications to use your USB VID / PID values ? Or are these only available to use for demo purposes ?

[Hung Bui]

Hi Roger,

Yes, we will try to fix it.

I used Realterm and it worked for me I can see the text when pressing button 1.

You can use Nordic's VID and any PID you want, but there is chance that it's also used by other vendors. The disclaimer for using this is that Nordic Semiconductor cannot be held reliable if any issues with regard to using our VID should occur.

[Roger Clark]

I tried RealTerm and it works a bit, but does not give the results I would expect.

I get about 100 or more NULL characters, followed by the expected test "Hello USB CDC FA demo: " etc

The only other terminal I have installed is part of the Arduino IDE, so I tried that, and I get similar results, except the NULL characters show up as spaces (or white space)

Hercules still doesn't work. www.hw-group.com/.../index_en.html

My W7 dev machine has a lot of other Serial drivers installed, so I guess there may be a clash, but it seems unlikely.

Are you running W7 or something newer ? (I know Windows 10 driver installation of USB CDC ACM is different from W7)

[Roger Clark]

I forgot to say, I'm compiling the SDK 12.2.0 example usbd_cdc_acm