How can I program nRF82832 or nRF82840 chip ?

[Sylvain]

Hello everyone,

I come from the 8bits MCU world and I'm used to program my chip with a debugger like Atmel-ICE.

But with 32bits MCU I'm a bit troubled to program nRF82832 or nRF82840 chip.

Are there specific configuration to take in consideration to program and develop with these chip?

I see that's need to use Segger J-Link placed in a chip, but there aren't any programer to make a production development ? .

I hope that's not a too basic question ...

Kind regards,

Sylvain.

[gamnes]

Hi Sylvain,

Programming the _nRF52832_ or the _nRF52840_ is pretty straight forward. Both these SoCs include a Serial Wire Debug Port (SWD), which you can read a little more about here: http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.nrf52832.ps.v1.1/dif.html?cp=2_1_0_15#debugandtrace. SWD is basically a two-wire debug interface. The nRF52 family does not support standard JTAG - which requires more GPIOs.

There should not be any specific configuration that you need to think about when programming these chips. As long as the SWD GPIOs (along with GND and voltage reference) are routed to a debug probe header, such as the 10-pin Debug In or Debug Out headers you can see on our DKs, you are fine.

Any standard programmer tool that supports SWD can be used to program/erase our SoCs, such as the SEGGER J-Link Debug Probes https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/, IAR debug probes https://www.iar.com/iar-embedded-workbench/add-ons-and-integrations/in-circuit-debugging-probes/, or ULINK debug probes. Some more information on debug probes and adapters can be found here: https://developer.arm.com/products/software-development-tools/debug-probes-and-adapters. 

Testing applications on our standard Development boards is as easy as copy pasting the .hex file onto the boards USB drive, see here http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v14.2.0/getting_started_precompiled.html?cp=4_0_0_1_0. 
Erasing the flash can be done using our Software tools such as nRFgo Studio, or using the command line nrfjprog, http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v14.2.0/getting_started_examples.html?cp=4_0_0_1_2_0#gs_examples_erasing. This can also be done from most IDEs by enabling board erase before programming. 
If you need to program SoCs that do not have an on-board debugger of some sorts, you need to connect a debug probe to that SoCs SWD pins. See here for how that can be done using our nRF52-DK as the programmer for external boards, http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.nrf52/dita/nrf52/development/nrf52_dev_kit/hw_debug_out.html?cp=2_1_4_5_9. 

Some additional information:
Here is a White Paper on Production Programming, http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.whitepapers/dita/whitepapers/nwp_027/intro.html?cp=11_3. The White Paper is inteded for developers of flash download tools - which i assume you are not going to do - but it does provide some insight into how exactly the SWD programming is done. I also wrote an in-depth blog post on how the low level SWD commands are actually done here https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/b/blog/posts/serial-wire-debug-port-interface-for-nrf52832, but that is also documentation directed towards flash download tools developers. 

[Sylvain]

Thank you for your answer @gamnes . Very helpful and complete informations ! A good starting point to start in the ARM world . I just need to take the right choice of software and flasher now

[gamnes]

Hi Sylvain, No problem :) Please note that the Nordic programming tools are based on the SEGGER JLink Software, and thus only works with SEGGER Debug Probes. If you want to use ULINK, or for example a CMSIS-DAP based debug probe, there are other tools for that, such as https://github.com/mbedmicro/pyOCD. 

If you are only going to work with Nordic SoCs for now, i would suggest you get a nRF52-DK http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-low-energy/nRF52-DK/(language)/eng-GB. The DK includes an on-board SEGGER JLink (or CMSIS-DAP - it can be swapped out) debugger, which means if you are only programming the on-board nRF52832 SoC you dont need to get an external debug probe And as mentioned, the DK also includes a 10-pin Debug Out header which can be used to program external nRF5x boards if you decide to make your own PCB design, or for example you would like to program the Thingy:52 with some new FW, https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Nordic-Thingy-52. You would need a 10-pin cable to program external boards (or make your own adapter if your PCB does not include a 10-pin connector), https://www.adafruit.com/product/1675. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions :) 

[Sylvain]

Nice, as I can see there're many solutions  ! For now, I have an STM32 NUCLEO board that I use with Eclipse. I see that it could be possible to use the programmer from the NUCLEO (ST-LINK) to program nRF52.

Is it a good idea ?

I also downloaded "SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM 3.34" and "MDK-ARM Keil". It seems to be two good software. Which do you recommend ?