Which pins should I take out in order to program the board?

[Sivam]

Hi,

I am planning on using nrf52832 for a beacon application. I happen to get a schematic and layout from Nordic website for development.

I am attaching the schematic along,

I want to know why there is no ground pin and Vcc pin in the schematic ?

which pins should I take out in the schematic in order to be able to program the nrf52832 board ?

Will I be able to use it if I develop the board from that schematic and layout itself or should I add anything else to it?

nrf52832_qfaa_dcdc_schematic.pdf

nrf52832_qfaa_dcdc_pcb.pdf

I am new to this and I have no idea on BLE and programming so I appreciate if anyone can elaborate the steps.

Thanks in advance.

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

Hi,

Please have a look at the nRF52832 Pin assignments documentation. VDD is power supply pin, VSS is Ground pin. The bottom of the chip is alos used as ground pad.

For programming, you need SWDCLK and SWDIO pins, in addition to VDD and Ground. You need to connect these pins to an external programmer/debugger that supports SWD interface, like SEGGER J-Link, to flash the chip.

Best regards,
Jørgen

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

The chip is blank when delivered. You will need a programmer/debugger supporting SWD interface for flashing it the first time. You can flash the chip with our DFU Bootloader, to support upgrading the firmware through serial (UART or USB) or BLE.

[Sivam]

I have a ST nucleo board.

https://os.mbed.com/platforms/ST-Nucleo-L152RE/

Will i be able to program the chip with that ?

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

The page you linked say the board have a on-board debugger that can act as a standalone ST-LINK/V2 debugger:

Nucleo features

• On-board ST-LINK/V2-1 debugger/programmer with SWD connector
  • Selection-mode switch to use the kit as a standalone ST-LINK/V2-1

I know some people have been using this kind of debugger together with OpenOCD software to program nRF5x ICs, but this is not something we provide support on, and you will have to figure it out by yourself.

For getting started with our products, I would highly recommend getting a nRF52 DK or nRF52840 DK. These boards have on-board J-Link debugger, that can even be used to program external boards/devices.

[awneil]

Sivam said:

Will i be able to program the chip with that ?

As a beginner, no.

Again, you really need to get an nRF52DK - and learn the basics on that.

Then, once you have gained sufficient knowledge and experience on that, you will be in a position to work out how to hack a Nucleo board.

But hacking an unsupported, non-standard approach is really not a great way for a beginner to start!

Alternatively, you might want to start by learning the basics of microcontroller development on your Nucleo board. It is certainly a simpler platform.Then come back to Nordic & nRF52 when you've gained sufficient knowledge and experience on that.

As with anything, you need to learn to walk before trying to run a marathon!