nRF51822 for new design

[DanKA]

Hello,

we plan to develop an BLE-application that needs to be as low cost as possible. One of my favourite BLE-SoCs in regard of pricing is the nRF51822-QFAB with 128kB Flash and 16kB RAM. I read here in the DevZone and the Infocenter about this SoC but i need to remove the concerns left.

In general, the nRF51822 supports the SoftDevices S110, S120, S130. Since I want the device to be either Central or Peripheral, i will have to use S120 or S130. I have seen in the Infocenter, that nRF51 SDK v10.0.0 is the latest SDK that supports all of these SoftDevices (S110. S120. S130). Futher releases support the S130 up to nRF5 SDK v12.3.0.

Is the nRF51822 deprecated? Do you know an End of Life/Production? Price is the most important aspect to me, so I do not want to use a nRF52.

Also, the SoftDevice (S130) uses 108kB+4kB of Flash. I guess the application will be rather small (mainly advertising after event occurs).
Do you think the nRF51822-QFAB is suitable to use S130?

We use IAR Embedded Workbench. So all I would have do to is to download the latest SDK that supports my SoftDevice and start the installer?

Kind regards and thank you in advance

DanKa

[Andreas]

Hi DanKa,

 

The nRF51822 is not deprecated, it is still in production and probably will be for quite some time still. We do not have a habit of EOL-ing our devices as you can see from our product pages, some devices have been available for a long time and still are.

 

You should be aware though that while still a fine device, the nRF51 series is a generation older than our nRF52 series and e.g. does not support some of the features in Bluetooth 5.

 

If nRF51822-QFAB is suitable or not for using with the S130 depends the flash/RAM requirements of you rapplication. You might be able to squeeze a very simple application in, but maybe not as central. The nRF51-DK has the QFAC chip so you will know when you have finished developing and optimizing if you can go with the QFAB or need the QFAA. Some margin can possibly be gained by using an older SD/SDK.

 

The hot tip from me though is to actually consider the nRF52810. You will get the latest features and the best performance. The pricing should not be too different, but you should contact your distributor for this.

 

Best regards,

Andreas

[DanKA]

Hello and thanks for your answer.

The nRF52810 Looks interesting. Do you simply recommend the nRF52-DK for developing the nRF52810? I will order both: nRF51-DK and nRF52-DK. Since the nRF52-DK uses a nRF52832, can I restrict the board to simulate the nRF52810?

Kind regards

[Andreas]

Hi DanKa,

 

Yes, the nRF52-DK is used as a DK for both nRF52832 and nRF52810. There is a user guide in the SDK (v14.1.0 and onwards) on how to use the nRF52-DK to develop for the nRF52810, see this link.

Best regards,

Andreas

[awneil]

Andreas said:

The nRF51822 is not deprecated

But it is no longer recommended for new BLE designs:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../169728