What do I need to do to get a sample program in the SDK to advertise?

[brian fleming]

Hello,

I have just purchased the nRF51 Development Kit and I am having extreme difficulty getting any of the sample programs to function.

There are the specifications at this point:

IDE uVision V5.24.2.0

SDK nRF5_SDK_11.0.0

nrf SoftDevice s130_nrf51_2.0.0

Device arm_startup_nrf51.s(startup)

For example, I have loaded the project in this path: examples/ble_peripheral/ble_app_template/pca10028/arm5_no_packs/ble_app_template_s130_pca10028

I can build the project, flash it, and start a debug session and set a breakpoint and see it reach the breakpoint, so I know that the device is working. From looking at the code in the main routine, it should at very least advertise the DEVICE_NAME , however, a scanning app on my Android phone does not see this device.

I have performed various internet searches, and tried everything I could think of and although I have not tried all the example programs, none of the ones I have tried have advertised the DEVICE_NAME.

Your assistance would be very much appreciated.

Sincerely, Brian Fleming

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi again Brian.

Yes, you are correct. I forgot to mention that you can also drag-and-drop the hex file to the removable drive that appears.
But as the pre-compiled hex file is working, we can rule out any HW issues.

You haven't made any modifications to the examples you are testing?
My guess would be that the softdevice is not being downloaded to your DK.
The softdevice can be found as a hex-file in the SDK;
sdk_root/components/softdevice/s130/hex

This file doesn't need to be built or modified, you can simply flash it directly to your DK.
This can be done by using nRFGo Studio, like I mentioned in my comment. nRFGo Studio is a software solution provided by Nordic Semiconductor and can be used for programming nRF5x devices through SEGGER J-Link. After the softdevice is on your board, you can flash your application.

You should take a look at our tutorials page here on devzone.
There we have a Getting started with the nRF51 or nRF52 Development Kit tutorial that I'm sure will be helpful.

Note; I will get a notification when you reply here on devzone, so there is no need to send an e-mail.

Best regards,
Joakim.

[Jay Tyzzer]

I believe if you use the drag and drop to program the device it will do a Erase of the flash which means if the Softdevice was in there it will be gone. One way to fix this is to merge the Softdevice with the application code using Mergehex.exe which can be downloaded with other utilities from the Nordic website.   Then you can use the drag and drop method.

  FYI -- The SDK 11 has the example and the Softdevice merged already...  in the hex subdirectory.

X:......nRF52_SDk_11.0\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_hrs\hex