So is there a way to develop on a mac? Can I use Sparkfun pcb with Nordic?

[FormerMember]

Following a discussion I just saw here Yesterday, people asked about an editor for mac and I could not see there was a clear answer. I was thinking also to go with the nrf51/52 building a custom board. After reading a lot of posts, turns out Keil is not for mac, and I am looking for an editor to use on a mac other then Eclipse.

If you can work with the GCC/ Xcode - how you do that? how would you flash the device ?

I'v seen that, which only state that "it works", but how it works ?

Also, if we use the Sprakfun breakout board that was mentioned here, can we flash it using Nordic firmware and not Arduino ? (with Sparkfun's programmer on the same pins)

Thanks !

[Wojtek]

You can go with gcc, ex. with Eclipse or Segger Embedded Studio. There are blog posts in blog section that describe the setup quite nicely (succesfully tried both methods, prefer SES myself).

[endnode]

Setting up GCC on MAC should be standard, IDE integration is also possible (see blog zone on this forum and search for MAC, Apple or OSX). When it comes to flashing that will be more difficult:

• If you want to stay with Sparkfun proprietary UART bootloader then you need to learn from them how to set it up on MAC (and with IDE you choose, although Make file integration shouldn't be too much difficult).
• If you want to fully "own" nRF52 FW then you need to switch to some SWD (JTAG) flasher like SEGGER J-Link (using Nordic nRF51 or nRF52 DK is pretty convenient for ~$40) or ST-Link or LPCLink or some open source flasher like this one.

[FormerMember]

Thanks, I want to own the chip. So I don't get it yet, sparkfun only took nrf52 and put it on a pcb - so for me its the closest I get into the pure chip. What I am trying to understand, is if its possible to program this board (=nrf52) directly from a usb ? they say you need a serial programmer like this, so I guess you can't really program the chip - using none Arduino ? 2. What official Jtag should I buy and what pins should I use/expose to program it ?

[FormerMember]

Thanks, what programmer have you used on a mac ? can you flash the chip from this program? why havn't you used Xcode ?

[Wojtek]

J-link from nRF5x-DK.

Oh, on mac? I did not work on mac - but that should not matter, as there are j-link drivers available for MacOS, there is GCC for mac, there is Eclipse, SES... I worked on windows, but I am just saying there are the same tools available.