NRF51822-MKIT, NO Product Key, can't develop without SDK

[efiLabs]

friends :

i assume that the nordic support team can also be considered as friends.

i purchased a nrf51822-mkit, but it seems that it does not qualify for a legitimate product key

is this for real ???

how is anyone supposed to write ANY code for this device without any access to startup files and / or the sdk

the whole purpose of choosing nordic semi is the ble-radio and m0 core including the binary ble-stack library, otherwise i would run it on a nxp cpu and some ble radio.

the mbed kit is offered as a m0-cpu with radio and peripherals and a binary ble stack.

the whole purpose of choosing it is that it comes with a cmsis-dap debug interface and a whole bunch of i/o lines and some peripherals to create an embedded ble based control device.

i particular chose this product for the above mentioned reasons and i have to say that i'm moderately upset about all the roadblocks i encounter to get started.

i have been working with a gcc based development environment under linux and it has been great until i bought this device.

arm designed a generic interface for their cpus and usually the chip vendors add their i/o configurations for the implementation specific issues.

some vendors even provide a whole bunch of libraries and they are available in source for free to evaluate if it's worth to choose their chip and the indicated support OR NOT.

i'm not asking for any source for the bt-stack, but if i try to evaluate a product and buy a board from the chip vendor and the vendor includes even in a nice way 5 chips in case i have my own hardware to try it out, then i would also in some way expect to get enough software support bits to, not continue, basically get started with the evaluation of the product and the support expectations of the supplier.

so here is the question, probably others were asking themselves, where is a link or key or whatever it takes to get header files and some form of a board support package to turn an led on and off without being chained to mbed and their libraries.

i'm not against mbed, but a hex file alone and then load it somehow and go-no-go test it was fun 30 years ago ... today i expect to get enough chip specific support in form of header files and libraries to use it in a generic tool chain of my choosing.

note ... i got turned on to ble by a friend and he said he prefers TI cause he gets all the support he needs and with all other ble vendors it's like breaking teeth to get information to use it ... sorry, not my words ... but maybe i can see where he's coming from.

today there is no time to wait ... how do i get to the market in time and be 1st, what i use is to a degree secondary ... and how easy is it to manage the learning curve of the engineers efficiently, cause the development time cost is still part of it.

the question now is, what can nordic semiconductor offer to designers who want to buy the peripheral and i/o rich nrf51822-mkit since it leads to believe that it is a nice inexpensive platform to develop ble based embedded control applications and be able to debug it with cmsis-dap based debug tools

in anticipation of a positive response i would like to thank the nordic semiconductor engineering support team, cheers, efiLabs

[Jerod]

I would concur with some of your statements,

The different products offering 51822 development is confusing at best. When I first looked into developing this, I ordered the -DK (Dev kit) and the -EK (Eval Kit) -- both being the same price, and not clear on which I needed. Turns out the -DK needed a much more expensive kit to hook into, and so I sent that back. Since, I ordered the beacon kit, and the mkit, mostly not knowing the full development capabilities of the beacon kit, and figuring the mkit was just a newer variant of the -EK eval kit. In the end, I find the -mkit is a nice toy (using mbed.org), the -EK is doing everything I need at this point (using SDK), and well, I still can't seem to compile any code and get it working on the beacon HW.

[Jerod]

In short, I think you can do some good development with the -MKIT, but if you're looking for full support, it seems to me only the -EK or more expensive development kits are the way to go.

It would be really nice if Nordic could advise better between these different options and clarify what can/can't be done with each.

[efiLabs]

thanks Jerod : compiled blinky in mbed and dropped it into the mbed-msc and it blinked tried to erase the flash with lpcxpresso (recognized as cmsis-dap), but the flash erase module / script for the part is missing ... obviously, not an lpc... part i was wondering what you're using to load code into the -EK segger j-link jig ... keil ??? i love lpcxpresso and need to talk tomorrow to a few buddies who have more experiences with debug jigs .. i also saw an mkit board on one's desk and have to ask him, he has some small sensor hooked up on it on another note ... mbed has released the source code for their sdk libs, but i had some compilation errors related to "tydef enum" constructs in some i/o header files it seems not enough to fight the new ble design issues, no it's a nice enhancement to also fight tools and documentation issues ... sorry for me sounding a bit disillusioned ... thanks for your info

[efiLabs]

here is the complete mbed library source ... mbed.org/.../ ... click on : Download repository: zip gz ... i still need to organize it and put it into an lpcxpresso project or make a linkable library out of it ... i'll post my success as i get along ... will see if i can produce a stand alone blinky :)

[efiLabs]

as simple as a blinky can be, it compiles with the mbed library, but doesn't run due to a mismatch in the startup file ... created a generic lpcxpresso c++ m0 project ... need to analyze the diffs in the startup and ivects ... probably also a memory specification issue ... more to come ... achievement so far : mbed lib compiles as library in lpcxpresso and links to the blinky main() and "DigitalOut myled(LED2) ;" mbed statement ... not that i want to follow mbed forever, but for the start as a reference ... next step, will lpcxpresso connect to the -EK segger j-link jig ... i'll try it tomorrow with a generic segger j-link pod ... if i get either the j-link to work or the cmsis-dap from mkit, lpcxpresso could be a valuable development platform for nordic semi ... i wish their documentation would be better and available ... wishful thinking :(