Can't flash nRF52840 dongle with nRF Connect Programmer

[sonus89]

Dear Nordic Team,

I can not flash my nRF52840 USB dongle with the nRF Connect Programmer application.

The window looks like this:

Erase / Read / Write functions on the right are greyed out.

As you can see the hex file contains a software which begins at 0x00026000 HEX 
Is it a problem? Suggested begin value is 0x00001000

How can I change the begin value?

I am trying to flash my USB dongle with nRF Connect programmer because SEGGER Embedded Studio neither worked for me.
I received an error message like:

1. I select Build & Run
2. I receive this message:

3. When I select YES ( or NO ):

So... How can I flash my USB dongle?

Thank you very much!

Matthew

[awneil]

The dongle doesn't have a J-Link on it - so you need a separate J-Link (possibly the one on a DK)

[sonus89]

I don't really understand. Sorry.
What do you mean by "separate J-Link" ?
What is a DK ?
Can you please give a more detailed description?
Thanks!

[sonus89]

I forgot to mention one question:
The dongle programming tutorial says that the compiled
HEX files FLASH_START parameter should be 0x1000

How can I set this parameter if I use ARMGCC instead of SEGGER emStudio?

Thanks!

[awneil]

sonus89 said:

1. where to find the softdevice hex
2. what is the softdevice ID of the nRF52840 dongle

Neither of these is specific to the Dongle - they relate to the SoftDevice itself, irrespective of what board is used.

The SoftDevice hex files are under components\softdevice in the SDK folder tree

sonus89 said:

I can't use SEGGER Embedded Studio because I can simply not get a license

You don't actually need one - just click 'Continue' on the licence nag screen and it will all work!

You know that you are entitled to a licence, so there's no problem there - it's just Segger's administrative ineptitude!

sonus89 said:

There is a folder called hex here:
... \NRFSDK\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky\hex\
That folder contains HEX files. Are these the "SoftDevice" files ?

No - they are the pre-built hex files just for the project.

[sonus89]

Thanks very much! Now I can compile and upload all my project using ARMGCC + nRF Connect.
The issue with SEGGER emStudio is that I simply don't have a DEBUG section ( no Linker options! ) in the emStudio. 

My Project options look like this:

There is only 'Code' section. I thought this is because of the license. Maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks anyways! 
You answer was super useful!! I think the softdevice location should be part of the Dongle Programming Tutorial to help others as well!

Cheers

[Bjørn Kvaale]

That's weird. I have opened the ble_app_blinky for pca10059 (the 52840 dongle) (path: nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky\pca10059\s140\ses) & I receive a code & a debug section:

I am using v4.12 of SES. It should also appear in newer versions of SES AFAIK. Beware that the dongle does not have an unboard debugger, as it does not have the Segger J-Link chip like the DKs have. If you want to debug, you'll need to do this via a JLINK.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

sonus89 said:

How can I set this parameter if I use ARMGCC instead of SEGGER emStudio?

 See this link.