nrf52dk for learning ARM based development

[krishnanmc3]

Hello all,

I am new to ARM architecture with some prior experience in Arduino based application development and some FPGA experience. I have a few queries:

1. Should I have an overview of the BLE stack or should I understand the different layers in depth to build BLE based projects?
2. How familiar must I be with ARM architecture to develop nrf52 based applications? I already own a nrf52 dk. Since I am new to ARM based development and microcontroller based development in general, can I use the nrf52 dk itself as a training board to learn ARM architecture?

Thanks in advance, Ram

[endnode]

Hi Ram,

1. It's highly recommended to have at least high level understanding about how BLE stack works from bottom to up, what are high-level differences between BT SIG specifications v4.0/4.1/4.2/5.0 etc. There are several nice presentations and whitepapers on the internet, including Nordic tutorials and papers (you can find the links on this site). Without that knowledge you will hit the wall sooner or later because you will use assumptions about how BLE radio works, base your application design on them and then be surprised and disappointed by the reality.
2. If you have knowledge about embedded 8/16 bit systems and ANSI C programming then you can learn small details of 32-bit ARM Cortex-M architecture on the road. Actually nRF52 seems to be very good platform for that (from my experience).

Cheers Jan

[krishnanmc3]

Thank you Jan. An additional question, if I may. Regarding point 2, any documentation/material available online? I have tried looking this up. But, most online materials are based around dev boards from ST Micro or TI.