nRF51 dongle programmation

[Inia]

Hello, I have bought an nRF51 dongle with a SEGGER J-Link. I have downloaded all the SDK and everything from nordic website. If i open an ble peripheral example in uvision5, compile it and download it to the nRF51 dongle, it says it was a success to download it but it looks like the software is not working (not advertising led). I have tried to download the nrf51422_xxac_s130 and the flash_s130_nrf51_2.0.0-7.alpha_softdevice. Same results. I have tried with other ble peripheral example but not more success. What does i forget ? What am i doing wrong ? Is there a tutorial on howto programm an nrf51 dongle ? Best regards. Julien

[endnode]

Are you using right HW reference (header file) for your board? In nRF5 SDK examples it's typically sneaked as global define through Makefile (e.g. -DBOARD_PCA10031) or Keil project setting. Which exact SDK version and project you opened and compiled? Also note that for all BLE projects you must download proper stack aka Soft Device binary first (typically just once unless you change the version because Keil as well as other flashing tools can use just block erase for application memory area and don't need to erase whole chip - in that case you would need to flash SD again or use merged SD + APP binaries).

[endnode]

Yes, this all looks good. The big question mark is: why on Earth you use legacy beta SDK and SD release instead of proper latest nRF5 SDK v12.3.0 with S130 v2.0.1? Normally you can debug the process step by step as anything else:

1. Use proven tool (e.g. nRFgo Studio or nrfjprog) and pre-compiled HEX files coming in SDK zip. These should always work and verify that your HW is OK.
2. If you pass step number 1 then compile project in Keil without any modification and try to again flash the board with some external tool like nRFgo Studio. This verifies that your build process is under control and resulting binary works on the board.
3. Finally you need to make flashing work in Keil.

In what step you encounter first issue?