Various problems with flashing the Dongle with Softdevice using Keil

[horacelai]

Hi,

I have a few issues with flashing the dongle. I am using [ \nRF5_SDK_12.3.0_d7731ad\examples\peripheral\blinky\pca10031\s130\arm5_no_packs ]

• When flashing the soft device (pressed load after selecting flash_s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice for the target), I get the error [ Error: Flash Download failed - Could not load file '..\..\..\..\..\..\components\softdevice\s130\hex\s130_nrf51_2.0.1_softdevice.hex' ]
  • I have double checked the path and can confirm it is correct
• When compiling the application, I get no error. When I press load, I also get no error. However, the leds are also not blinking. Below is the output
  Erase Done.
  Programming Done.
  Verify OK.
  * JLink Info: Reset: Halt core after reset via DEMCR.VC_CORERESET.
  * JLink Info: Reset: Reset device via AIRCR.SYSRESETREQ.
  Application running ...
  Flash Load finished at 10:33:02

Some extra info: When I use the example without softdevice - [ \nRF5_SDK_12.3.0_d7731ad\examples\peripheral\blinky\pca10031\blank\arm5_no_packs ], the leds actually blink. I can also adjust the code in main.c and see the blinks change according to my changes. But in the softdevice example, the blinking does not work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Horace

[horacelai]

Hi,

I found this thread that suggested to use nrf go studio instead. The instructions were to:

1. Erase everything on the dongle using nrfgo studio
2. Flash the softdevice using nrfgo studio.
3. Flash the code using Keil to the dongle.

Is this the only way? Is it impossible to get Keil to work for flashing the softdevice?

Also, I suppose I only need to flash the softdevice once, correct? Now that the blinky example is working with this method, I can see that my changes to main.c is reflecting on how the led is blinking, without any reflashing of the softdevice

[Kenneth]

There should be various ways (even possible from Keil, but you may want to check the softdevice hex file is not read or write protected in some way, I have seen that may cause issue):

https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v15.3.0/nrf51_getting_started.html?cp=5_1_1 

Click on the "run an example that uses the SoftDevice."