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 !

[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.

[endnode]

If you want to "own" the chip then buy nRF52 DK board. It has JTAG/SWD on board, same for serial port emulation over USB, at the same time you have simple area with nRF52 reference design, good antenna and all the ports available on headers. Believe or not but that's the best way for development, all the hings on DK board do not prevent you from "owning" the chip.

In every case forget about "Arduino" style FW flashing over UART (serial line with FTDI chip emulating it over USB or any similar solution), that's not the way how to work with ARM Cortex-M chips. If you still insist on Sparkfun board instead of Nordic DK then get any SEGGER J-Link board, they will all be compatible with SEGGER and Nordic tools/SW. If you are on budget you will hardly get anything cheaper then J-Link on board of nRF5x DK boards (~$40).