Getting started with BLE

[ngong]

Bought the Thingy:52. Works fine with its Android app. However, was that the right decision to get started programming? (I lost a weekend to find out that I cannot download software as I would e.g. with Arduino)

Your "Getting started with the nRF51 or nRF52 Development Kit" (as I see now) suggests the nRF52 DK. Should I better buy that one? What else have I to buy for to start? A Segger J-Link? A developement environement?

Is there a way to get along with Thingy:52?

[endnode]

You need to understand that all nRF5x chips (but that applies to most of competition from TI, Silabs, CSR etc.) are ARM Cortex-M chips (or rarely custom x51 clones) so native way how to "talk to them" during programming and debugging are JTAG/SWD programmers. The fact that Thingy doesn't have any built-in (like usual Dev Kits) is disadvantage for some (= if you are starting with ARM Cortex-M) and advantage for others (= if you have at least one compatible programmer so you can really use Thingy as almost production HW without need to cut or disable programming/debugging parts once you are done with development).

I believe Thingy is great for DIY home project because it has casing and built-in battery and many IOs as well as sensors/features. However first steps (even when developing FW for Thingy) are much easier and faster with nRF52 DK (there is Preview DK for nRF52840 but go for that one only if you understand differences in the chips and understand that in ~6 months you will probably need to switch from Preview DK to variant with Production chips which have far less bugs and limitations). In the end nRF52 DK is 40 USD/EUR only (in most of the world) so not really expensive thing and pretty essential for BLE development on nRF platform (you can turn it into cheap BLE radio sniffer/analyzer, you can use it to program and debug any nRF5x board, it is compatible with Arduino and other dev shields, has LEDs and Buttons and NFC antenna on board...)

If you decide to stay with Thingy then you need to learn how Nordic bootloader works and use that way to re-program the board (I guess it works only over the radio - so e.g. from Android or iOS phone - not over wire like UART serial to USB cable). Also if you screw up something massively you can be locked from bootloader after applying new FW and then you will need JTAG/SWD programmer anyway...

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

As @endnode mentions, the nRF52 DK is better choice for firmware development. Thingy is more intended (but not limited to) for use for by mobile and IoT app developers to create demos and prototypes without having to develop hardware or firmware.

The nRF52 DK have built-in Segger J-Link OB debugger, which can be used for programming of the DK. You can even updating the firmware of you Thingy, using the debug out port of the DK.