Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Christopher — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:00:41 GMT

You can install the J-Link software for Mac in order to use the Segger probe. You can srec_cat to merge hex files, yes. To begin, my advice is to install the nRF5x-Command-Line-Tools-OSX so you can use the mergehex and nrfjprog tools directly. I have no experience with Mac but I did the same on Linux.

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Ady — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 16:52:44 GMT

Yes, I have a nRF52 DK on the way. However, I'm on a Mac so nRF GO Studio is not going to work. Can I just manually merge the .hex files using srec_cat.

Any comments on this Mac port of nRF GO Studio? sourceforge.net/.../

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Peter Kmet — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 13:16:33 GMT

Well, I am using MK-20 dongle to program bare nRF51822 chips with mbed the same way as if you have original readbear nano attached. No problem. Didn't use with debugger the same way like your J-Link, though.

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Christopher — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 11:24:49 GMT

No, the MK-20 dongle has no on board programmer. You cannot use it to program other boards. See my answer below.

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Christopher — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 11:20:54 GMT

If you want to use the Nordic nRF Go Studio software to program your chip (SofDevice, bootloader, application), you will need a J-Link (Segger probe). I would recommend to buy an nRF 51 or 52 DK and use the J-Link available on it to program your custom board, or you can buy a Segger tool.

I you are looking for another (cheapest) alternative, you can buy a ST-LINK/V2 probe. many of them are availanle at very low cost (~ 10$). Then, you can use for instance OpenOCD to program you chip, but this is not as easy as the Segger tools and you cannot use the software provided by Nordic.

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Ady — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 03:54:53 GMT

RedBearLab's MK-20 dongle is also a cheap alternative to programming custom boards isn't it?

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Berk Soysal — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:51:54 GMT

I really appreciate your concern, thank you for the detailed explanation :)

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Ole Morten — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 07:08:16 GMT

The pins are correct, but the protocol is not. See my other answer.

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Ole Morten — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 07:08:01 GMT

The programming pins are 23 and 24, SWDIO and SWDCLK. As the name suggest, these pins implement the Serial Wire Debug (SWD) interface defined by ARM.

We normally recommend using Segger's programmers with our kits, and with the Development Kit we deliver a small programmer that can be used to program also custom boards. Also have a look at these questions: What's the difference between nRF51822 Evaluation and Development kits? Can I use my nRF51822 EK (PC10001) to debug a custom PCB board?

RE: Programming pins of the nRF51822 chip ?

Sébastien Despont — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 06:48:14 GMT

Pin 23 (SWIO / nReset) and 24 (SWDCLK). It is using Two Wire Interface protocol also called I2C : en.wikipedia.org/.../I²C