UART pass-through for communication between iOS app and controller board

[KenL]

Hi,

My desire is to connect a BC832 module (with nRF52832 on it) to a UART on a controller board and then send data from an iOS app (programmed in Swift) through the BLE module to the controller board.  I'm not really in a position to write any firmware myself, but the iOS development will be my work.  As I am completely new to this arena, I need assistance in finding documentation and resources to do this and to learn the basics of how to navigate through this project.  Some specific questions include:

1) Will this SoC have firmware on it already to do this, or can I download it somewhere?  How would I get this firmware onto the board?

2) Are there resources available for how to interface with the nRF52832 from the iOS device?

3) Are there specific settings for setting up the data pass-through?

Specific answers would be amazing, but even getting to the proper documentation/downloads would be very helpful.  Being so new makes it difficult to even find the right resources.

Thanks,
Ken

[Bjørn Kvaale]

1) You can download the firmware from the Nordic SDK download page (use the latest SDK). This link might be useful for programming the FW onto the board. I don't think you will need the Fanstel evaluation board like described in this link.

2) There are multiple resources available for interfacing the nrf52832 from the iOS device. I would definitely download the nrf toolbox app from the app store, including the swift source code. I would take a look at the UART app inside the nrf toolbox app. You can test this iOS app with the nordic uart example in the nordic sdk.

3) Take a look at this documentation for setting up serialization (i.e. using the nrf52832 as BLE connectivity between the iPhone & the controller board.

Hope that helps!