nrf52840 custom board production programming

[karthikeyan]

Hi team,

       i am having a custom board i want to program soft device and application using external j link. i came across nordic website in this page http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.nordic.infocenter.gs%2Fdita%2Fgs%2Fprod_test_prog.html&cp=1_6 and in that i found a link for segger j link https://www.segger.com/products/production/flasher/

in this which flasher is best. give me suggestions which one is user friendly, cheap and best. using sdk 14.1

regards

[ketil]

Hi,

Are you going to program a lot of boards or just the one?

The most popular approach is to use a SEGGER J-Link programmer. Please see these DevZone posts for more information:

• J-Link options
• J-Link nRF52

You may also find some low cost alternatives in this blog post.

Ketil

[karthikeyan]

waiting for a valuable answer. somebody help?

[ketil]

Hi,

1. Just to clarify, are you asking if you can use the nRF52840 as a programmer for nRF52832?
2. This will depend on the design of your board. I recommend you create a private case and upload the schematics.
3. Thanks, was not aware of this.
4. I can't tell you which flasher is the cheapest, best and most user-friendly. We often use SEGGER J-Link Pro, but you could contact SEGGER directly to get more information. 

Ketil

[karthikeyan]

hi ketil,

    the price of segger j-link pro is high. may be i can buy that. my doubt is the custom board i designed is having the debug in with 10 pin. where as j link from segger comes from 20pin connector. how can i connect the j link directly to my custom board. can i able to program my nrf52840 pdk using the segger j-link seperately. if yes guide me?

[ketil]

Hi,

Please check out the adapters and cables available for SEGGER programmers. If you do not have headers soldered you could use the J-Link 10-Pin Needle Adapter which has pogo pins.

Ketil

[karthikeyan]

hi thank you very much ketil. this was the thing i was expecting. i didnt made headers soldered so go to 10-pin needle adapter. so with this i can use my dk to load my custom board. am i correct?

[ketil]

Hi,

This adapter works with the J-Link programmers. 

Since the pitch and pin-out of the pins on the DK is different it will not work if you try to use it for programming one DK with another. See this schematic for the pin-out on the DK. Pins 3, 5 and 9 are connected to GND and pin 7 is not connected.

If you want to use the nRF52840 DK to program the nRF52832 DK (or your custom board) you will have to make an adapter between the 10-pin connector (black end, without the pogo pins) and the DK. I have not seen this kind of adapter sold anywhere.

Ketil

[karthikeyan]

ok now i came conclusion. for my production programming i will buy a segger j link edu and 10 pin needle connector. for testing i will make a 10 pin adapter to connect my dk and custom board. thanks for your valuable time.