hi guys, I'm pretty new to nordic ble development, but I have a fair idea of the differences between EK, DK and the mbed enabled MKIT.
I'm trying to build a deploy about a 100 beacons (as a startup prototype) based on the nrf51822. Which is why, I want to spend on something that will let me do it ... rather than spend 99$ on the DK and then having to buy the "actual programmer". I'm admittedly clueless about some of this, and I will be sourcing some PTR9018 based beacons from Alibaba and then programming them myself. I need to be able to do this because we will make our mistakes and need to correct them on the field. Cant afford to take a long time to spec and code out everything perfectly before deployment.
Searching the forums here brings up posts where people have used an expensive ARM Flasher, ST-Link + OpenOCD/gcc-arm-none-eabi toolchain... even some have used arduino and nrfjprog. I have looked at CrossWorks (and am liking it), but cant seem to find anyone who has used it.
My question is this : what is the cheapest programming stack that I can buy right now that lets me use the S130 SD to develop, debug and program about 100 beacons. I will prefer being able to do it using Linux (maybe Crossworks or something?), but can use Windows if needed.