JTAG Programmer (under $100, not a DK)

[rshankle]

Hi Folks,

We have 6 factories that will be programming custom boards that use the nRF52832.  I'm one of the software developers and have been using a dev kit to program and debug the boards.

We want to now create a commissioner for the board and want to use something more "factory ready" for programming the boards via the JTAG port other than a development kit.

I've looked at: https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/model-overview/   And all the options seem to be an order of magnitude more expensive than the DK.  (Except for the education units which are off limits to us since we don't qualify.)

Has anyone found a programmer that is under $100?  Seems silly that there isn't one available.  (The factory workers don't need debug capability.)

thanks,

Bob

[koniho]

The Black Magic Probe is an opensource programmer than can be used to program nrf52 series chips.

https://github.com/blacksphere/blackmagic/wiki

We have successfully used a design based on the black magic probe to program nrf52832's in production.

[rshankle]

Koniho,

We picked up a couple of the BlackMagic devices.  I updated the firmware and installed the drivers on my PC.  Unfortunately I can't see the device when I do "nrfjprog -i"   What application are you using to program your nrf52832's?  Can you send me a link to the firmware you loaded onto the blackmagic device (maybe I grabbed the wrong one.)

Also does the blackmagic device work with SES (Segger Embedded Studio)?

thanks again,

Bob

[wpaul]

rshankle said:

Unfortunately I can't see the device when I do "nrfjprog -i"

rshankle said:

Also does the blackmagic device work with SES (Segger Embedded Studio)?

As previously stated, SES only works with J-Link debuggers. I believe the same is also true of nrfjprog (hence the 'j' in the name).

The Black Magic Probe has firmware running on it which provides a GDB backend server. You can therefore use it with GDB, Eclipse, or any IDE that has a "GDB server" option as a debug target. When you plug the Black Magic Probe into your host system's USB port, two virtual serial port devices should appear. One of them is the GDB server interface. The "getting started" page shows an example of how to use it with GDB:

github.com/.../Getting-Started

By contrast, if you use the Olimex or ST-Link V2 debuggers, you then need to run OpenOCD to connect to them, and it is OpenOCD which provides the GDB backend server interface. You also need to use GDB or a GDB-compatible IDE in this case. However OpenOCD also includes a built-in command line interface which can be either accessed via telnet or (to a certain extent) scripted from the command line.

Here is a link to an example provisioning script I wrote that uses OpenOCD to erase and flash a nrf52 device and then program a few areas in the UICR:

github.com/.../provision-nrf52-olimex.sh

-Bill

[rshankle]

Thanks Bill.  I was hoping the dependency stopped at SES and didn't flow through to nrfjprog.

Bob