Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

endnode — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 20:13:29 GMT

Hi @rahulnrf, firstly always post new question unless yours is equal to the original (which isn't the case here). Secondly this is pretty much for Adafruit forum not here. And finally to your question: SWD pins on the back of this board seems to be connected directly to nRF5x chip on BLE module so yes, they are usable for direct debugging/flashing. However Adafruit warns you that you might end up in state where board won't work with their tools and environment any more. So as always with direct JTAG/SWD access to any chip make sure you know what you are doing.

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Raja — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 17:45:32 GMT

Hi For this adafruit, module !(learn.adafruit.com/.../25156)

I can see SWD, SWC, VCC, GND

Should i connect them as:

Adafruit SWD ==> SWD IO Adafruit SWC ==> SWD CLK Adafruit VCC ==> VDD Adafruit GND ==> GND

Can i program it using my nRF51-DK like that?

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Matt — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 20:59:29 GMT

Great! You can use this wiring setup for the subsequent debug (with monitor mode debugging, check the blog for details) and tracing (Segger Real Time Trace) in your future testing.

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Li — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 18:44:50 GMT

Thanks Matt! Problem solved!

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Matt — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 14:15:34 GMT

I did not explain myself too clearly in the last post :(

I have bootloader, my app and the softdevice flashed into the PCA10040 board. When I launch nRF go studio I can see the 3 regions there.

Then I close the nRF go studio, but keep the PCA10040 powered up.

Next I connect my external board to the PCA10040 using the wiring as shown in your diagram, and then power up the external board.

Launch nRF go studio and select the same segger device (remember we are still using the same segger/JLink OB for flashing/debugging/tracing) and I see only 2 regions, and I know this is correct as I never flashed the bootloader into the external board before.

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Li — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 13:29:25 GMT

Hi Matt,

This sounds a bit more confusing. How do you know you've flashed the softdevice to the external board i n the first instance? Do you mean you can see two region infor under the development board menu in NRF studio? .

We can only see one region (the development board region).

Thanks

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Matt — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 00:27:01 GMT

Hmmm... that depends on what your application does after powering up. Are there LEDs on your own board that your application can turn on after the flashing? Or, just try to flash a standard Nordic Uart Service (NUS) onto your board and try to connect to it using the nRF connect app or the nRF Uart v2 app.

In my case I have the {bootloader, app, softdevice} in the PCA10040 and {my app, softdevice} in my custom board and as long as the custom board is powered up, the nRF go studio will display the {my app, softdevice} layout, so I know which board I'm programming.

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Li — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 18:34:59 GMT

Thanks both. We can certainly apply external power to our board. Matt: As for the flashing, how do we know the firmware has successfully flashed on our own board. At the moment, we can only see the contents of the development board (flashed softdevice)?

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

FormerMember — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 13:06:03 GMT

Li : To program the external board, you need need to power the board separately. The VDD line going from the nRF52-DK is not for powering the chip, it is for detecting the voltage on the external chip (board).

RE: Programming external/custom NRF52832 board using NRF52-DK

Matt — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 13:25:32 GMT

I have the same wiring setup to flash a custom board using the PCA10040. I don't think you will see the "nRF5x programming menu" light up as the programming is still going through the JLink OB in the PCA10040, so I just pick the menu item "nRF52 development boards - Segger xxxxxxxx".