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Use Adafruit nRF52832 Feather Board as Custom Board for Development

Hello,

I am working in a Windows 10 environment with the latest SDK 14.  I use the Segger IDE and the various support tools from Nordic (nRFGO, nRF Connect, nRF Master Control Panel, etc.

I believe I am in urgent need of help loading a bootloader onto the Adafruit nRF52832 Feather board. My desire is to use the Nordic Development SDKs with the Segger IDE to load/debug programs developed in the Nordic SDK environment directly with the nRF52832 Feather as a custom board when tethered to the nRF52 DK board. I need to do the development in the Nordic IDE environment (Segger IDE) and program the Feather as a "Custom Board".

I have connected the signal lines with the Feather and nRF52 DK board via the SWDIO, SWCLK, GND, VDD/VTG like this post https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic ... 3755#53755 

Tether Connection to nRF 52 DK board



When attached like this, I was able to program the Feather but the program does not launch and it is indicated in the Segger IDE that the target is "Not Attached". The SWDIO and SWDCLK lines are active so the DK board is talking to the Feather board. I can see script commands go out to reset the board and start but there is no response/action from the Feather. 

If anyone has any idea which bootloader to use from the long list of bootloaders in the SDK please let me know. Or if there is something else I need to do to get the Feather working as a target custom board.

Below is what I get when I "Build and Debug" using the Segger IDE.  The small window at the bottom of the screen says "Not Attached" after the load.  I believe the load is successful in the target Feather board since the DK board does not is not the target for a "Start Debug" using the small green arrow near the top of the screen (the green start arrow does not show up when I load the Feather).  The Feather also does not react anymore to connecting with the USB (I do not really care right now).  If I press the reset arrow at the top left of the menu bar, the script in the window sends out a command to reset but the board does not react.  I therefore suspect I need a different bootloader.  If I find a bootloader, do I use nRFGO to program it?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Gary

Build and Debug output.PNG (56.8 KiB) Not viewed yet
  • the latest SDK 14

    The latest SDK is 15.3 !

    If you've got a Nordic DK for programming, why do you want a bootloader at all?

    Adafruit nRF52832 Feather board

    This: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3406 ?

  • I have developed an app in SDK 14.2 - that is the last revision of SDK14 before going to 15.  

    I followed the instructions to load the target board with the proper connections but the device does not launch the app in the target custom board (Feather nRF52832.  It appears to load the firmware but does not run the app.

    Maybe I will try a simple (Blinky) app first.

  • The blinky app loads and runs fine so it has to do with the softdevice.

    I found that if I load the S132 softdevice I can start the debug on the target board.  However, I am now getting a 3735928559 unknown error in the in the timer init routine for ADC sampling.  This does not occur on the DK development board - only on the target custom board - why would there be a difference?

  • Hi Gary,

    Sorry for the late reply. Just to clarify, did you try the ble_app_blinky app under the "peripherals" folder with softdevice s123? Did this example run in the DK but not in your custom board?

    The 3735928559 error is usually an assert, maybe you are using TIMER0 together with the softdevice? But then you would also have an error when using the DK.

    Could you try explaining more in detailed the steps you have done so far?

    Best Regards,

    Marjeris

  • Marjeris,

    Thank you for your reply.  I found my issue yesterday.  The Feather board apparently has a different version or customized version of the softdevice.  I was able to connect and program my application but it would not launch.  I used nRFGO to program the softdevice S132 that my app was developed with on the nRF DK board, loaded my app again, and it started running the app in debug mode with the Segger IDE.  

    This combination works great and I can use the off the shelf Feather board nRF52832 as if it were my own custom board and rapidly build prototypes for my customers in a small, wearable package.

    Again, thanks for your support and you can close this ticket out.

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