segger licenses required but no commercial use allowed

[dewid2]

It seems nordic devices can not be programmed without certain segger software.

In order to set up my toolchain, I had to install SEGGER Embedded Studio IDE (although i dont use it) and the J-Link Software seperately. Regarding the IDE, I read this announcement

https://www.segger.com/news/segger-embedded-studio-ide-now-free-for-nordic-sdk-users/

but this does not seems to be valid anymore. Was the collaboration cancelled? When I downloaded it a few days ago, the license mentioned nordic with not a single word. Also J-Link does effectively prohibit me from commercial use of anything I do with my nrf52832 DK.

While that is not the case right now, I'd still like to keep that option open for the future.

Now I want to know if there is a way to avoid segger software (i dont even use the debug right now, just programming). Or some very recent solid and verified official statements that allow me to use the segger software described.

[RK]

No the collaboration has not been cancelled, Segger Embedded Studio is licensed for commercial use for the nRF51 and nRF52 series. If you check the licensing menu (different  places depending on platform) you'll find a place you can register and you'll get a downloadable and installable license which, whenever you're working with a Nordic device in the project settings will show in the title bar that it's fully registered and will suppress any of the dialog boxes about being a trial. If you work with other chips (which I do) you get the nag boxes back again and the title bar shows the software is only trial. I believe there's a video somewhere on the Nordic site showing this registration process, a search in the forums ought to find it. 

You don't need to install SES to set up the toolchain at all. You can download the SDK and GCC or use Keil or Eclipse or anything  else you  can make work. People have used Visual Studio Code and Qt. SES is recommended because it's a good IDE, but you aren't required to download or use it at all if you object to it. 

The JLink software (not the IDE, but the tools like JLink and JLinkGDB) are required if you want to use the embedded JLink  on the DK to program it, or debug it. The license for that doesn't allow you to use it for commercial mass programming of devices, but you can use it to develop software on that board or use it as as programmer for another Nordic chip (eg if you make your own board). So basically any practical development on the DK is covered, you only need a commercial programmer to mass program devices, and if you get there you're going to want a better solution anyway. 

So you can develop, even for commercial use, on your DK using the JLink software to upload code and debug. If you use SES and obtain the free license you can use that IDE for commercial development. 

If you don't want to use either, the board has a standard ARM debug header on it and you can use an SWD programmer with OpenOCD or CMSIS DAP or anything else you like which speaks SWD to program the board. 

[dewid2]

Thanks for your answer, that clears up my doubts. Since I've only worked with Atmel MCUs before I did not know about a native way to program that ARM inside. I currently use the SDK with GCC only, but to flash the device I first installed the segger IDE for libjlinkarm.so, which worked but other stuff was also required so I got the J-Link software afterwards. Well, now I guess with J-Link alone the IDE would not have been required and i got confused by the fact that the "install license" does not cover nordic chips at all. Found out the specific nordic license can be requested here https://license.segger.com/Nordic.cgi in case anyone wants it as well.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

SES is a custom version of Eclipse that is limited to Segger and Nordic.  You can use regular Eclipse & GCC too and without limitations.  I used it for many ARM based development with the same Eclipse, not just nRF5x.  Follow this blog for Eclipse installation.  

nRF5x Development with Eclipse & GCC

[Bjørn Kvaale]

I can confirm what RK said. You can still use SES for free on Nordic nRF51/52 chips. I would recommend taking a look at our getting started tutorials on youtube.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Nordic also has an Eclipse/GCC tutorial, but we have had many customer complaints regarding eclipse unfortunately (just take a look at all of the comments below the tutorial). I have not used eclipse/gcc personally (apart from SES), so I cannot comment on this. Most likely if you know what you are doing, Eclipse/GCC is a great solution.

All I know is that many support engineers at Nordic use SES & you will most likely get better support if you use SES instead of Eclipse. At the end of the day, @dewid2 , you need to decide for yourself what development path you want to take.