Re-work hints for QSPI flash on PCA10056

[Julie H]

The design I'm working on will tentatively use "Original SPI" (like "Original Coke" ...), so I started cutting up the QSPI bridges to disconnect DIO2 and DIO3 (which are also other things ...) prior to pulling them up to Vcc.

Has anyone else done this? I'm comfy working under a microscope, but I'm an old geezer fart and I'm always looking for huge pads and buttons and knobs and dials I can use.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Julie

There are several standard SPI interfaces in the nRF51840, both master and slave, so you shouldn't need to repurpose the QSPI interface for this.

If you just need standard SPI I would simply use the SPIM0 or SPIM1 interface instead ;)

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Julie H]

Thanks. The disconnecting was easy, but the two pins on the flash part for DIO2 and DIO3 need to be pulled up to Vcc. Pin 8 is Vcc, so I ran a piece of Kynar wire between DIO2 (pin 3), DIO3 (pin 7) and Vcc. I thought i was going to have a much harder time soldering on the chip-side of the two SBs I had to cut, but the leftover pad was just wide enough.

The USB dongle board will be very handy. For the nRF52832, I've used the Sparkfun breakout board WRL-13990, but we need the extra GPIO pins and RAM of the nRF52840, so if you could make a USB dongle in that form-factor, with all the GPIO pins broken out, that would be super-handy.