What Dongle Hardware with nRFConnect Core and Boiler Plate

[WestCoastDaz]

I would like to under stand Nordic's strategy for compatible hardware for use with nRFConnect V2.

We have a customer who wants a desktop BLE app and we are considering using nrfconnect-core-and-boiler-plate as the environment to build on.

What is Nordic expecting customer to use as the BLE hardware interface? Is there a plan to have a consumer version of the dongle available, IE: In a plastic case?

Thanks, Darren

[Hung Bui]

Hi Darren,

As far as I know, at this moment, we don't have any plan for a "consumer version" of the dongle. We would leave that task to you, the developers.

Any hardware with the nRF52 chip on it which interfaces with the PC via same UART pins as on the dongle/DK can be used as the hardware interface for nRF Connect Core.

[WestCoastDaz]

Hi Hung Bui,

Thanks for answering. Can you provide some more detail on your last statement "Any hardware with the nRF52 chip on it which interfaces with the PC via same UART pins as on the dongle/DK can be used as the hardware interface for nRF Connect Core."

Would we have to develop firmware that was compatible with pc-ble-driver-js or is there firmware available?

[Hung Bui]

The firmware on the hardware interface is the connectivity firmware. You can either compile it on your own (using the ble_connecitvity project) or you use the firmware provided in pc-ble-driver github.

If you build your own hex, you can modify the UART pins as you need. Then you can use any nRF5 hardware, don't have to match the UART pins with the pins we used on the nRF52 DK.