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

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

endnode — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 13:30:16 GMT

Hard to say, we use both architectures: one where nRF5x chip is just auxiliary "peripheral" providing radio connectivity and talks over UART/SPI/I2C with some "main" processor as well as architectures where nRF5x takes role of the main processor. I guess having large code base and stable/tested FWs on ST32 makes it faster to develop just new HW revision with radio aside, however there will be more and more new designs which will already invest into writing proper FW on nRF52, utilizing all its power and saving interesting money on BOM cost by eliminating the other processors (like general multi-IO chips from STM, Atmel, NXP etc.)

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

FormerMember — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 12:21:36 GMT

So why use their board? its only about the Jtag. You know I just went over 10 well known products in the market that are using nrf51/2 , non of them uses the integrated processor for their application. All of them using the same STM32 processors and the nrf for BLE. Could the reason be that this processor is limited/too complicated to handle? It starts to feel unreasonable to base the product application on this chip and become dependable.

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

endnode — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:50:01 GMT

Still I believe the shortest development cycle is to simulate the HW from dev kits, develop functional FW and then fine-tune final things on final HW later (that also takes advantage of parallel FW and HW development as it is usually done by different people). But you can get there with Spakfun board as well.

To SWD: read particular section in nRF52 Product Specification, it should give you all the answers about flashing/debugging interface and PINs needed (just 2 SWD pins are mandatory, the rest is only if you want to use tracing capabilities for advanced debugging).

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

FormerMember — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:11:55 GMT

Thanks a lot, I see. So the thing is not a badget. The thing is that I want to cut dev time to minimum, so instead of interacting with Nordic dev kit, jump to developing directly on a custom pcb I make. I ask about sparkfun board because I can simply take their Eagle design and build a pcb which includes only the actual chip(+passive parts). So basically I am asking - if I put on a custom pcb the recommended circuit for the nrf52, can I flash it (or Spark's pcb) with the JTAG you linked? what pins should I expose for this ?

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

endnode — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:43:19 GMT

Regardless development platform (MAC, Windows, Linux...) you need SWD/JTAG debugger to flash/debug nRF5x, SEGGER J-Link seems to be proven option, but there are more as I've mentioned. When it comes to compilation chain and IDE for cross-compiling on MAC you can find some hints on Blog zone, e.g. this and this.

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

endnode — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:07:39 GMT

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).

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

Wojtek — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:06:07 GMT

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.

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

FormerMember — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:05:15 GMT

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

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

FormerMember — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 07:57:49 GMT

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 ?

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

endnode — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 17:57:09 GMT

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.

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

Wojtek — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 16:30:43 GMT

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).