PCA10040: Possible to program 1.8V boards?

[Jacob]

Hello, I want to use the PCA10040 to program a custom board running on 1.8V using the debug out port. Is this possible?

Also, is there a way to set up the PCA10040 so that it always flashes the connected board? Let's say the connection is broken for whatever reason, then it's possible that it actually flashes the nRF52 on the PCA10040, and not the one on the external board.

Thanks, Jacob

[Ole Bauck]

You can remove the power from the chip on the DK by for example cutting SB9, then you will get an error if you try to flash and there is no external board connected. SB9 is used for current measurement as described here.

[phipi]

I've shorted SB17 and then pulled the RESET pin to GND to ensure that the on board NRF isn't programmed by mistake.