Do I need to buy a Segger external debugger to get debug trace in Segger embedded studio?

[Jason]

Hello Nordic,

I hope you can help me. I'm using an NRF52840 DK development board. 

I followed the instructions on this video to enable debug trace in Segger embedded studio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP8RYgYGRvI)

When I debug I do not see any trace output. My build configuration is set to debug. 

I googled and found this page (https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/b/blog/posts/debugging-nrf52-series-devices-using-trace) which says

• IMPORTANT: To use trace you need to have an external debugger that supports trace (trace won't work using the on-board debugger on our development kits). www.segger.com/jlink-debug-probes.html (see debug probes with built-in trace memory). IAR and ULink also offer debuggers that support trace and work with our devices.

The Segger debug probes are over $500.

I then found this page (https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/b/blog/posts/programming-and-debugging-custom-nrf5x-devices) which says 

• When developing applications on a nRF5x Development Kit, you can program it by simply connecting it to your PC with a USB cable. This is possible because the Development Kit has an on-board debug unit supporting the JLINK debug interface.

I do not understand what I need to do to get debug trace in Segger embedded studio. 

My sdk_config.h has 

• #define NRF_LOG_BACKEND_RTT_ENABLED 1
  
• #define NRF_LOG_ENABLED 1

Thanks for your help,

-Jason

[SEGGER - Johannes]

Hi Jason,

There is an issue with the SDK that transforms \r\n into \r\r\n, which clears a line before doing a line break in the Debug Terminal.

See this thread: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/45985/nrf_log-not-working-on-segger-embedded-studio?ReplyFilter=Answers&ReplySortBy=Answers&ReplySortOrder=Descending

Is this the issue in your case, too?

Regards
Johannes

[Vidar Berg]

Thanks Johannes, it solved the problem on my side at least. However, is this expected to happen after updating the Segger driver? Also, the same FW (before applying workaround) worked with RTT viewer and was only able to reproduce it on 52840, not nrf52832.  

[SEGGER - Johannes]

Hi Vidar,

This is only related to Embedded Studio, not the J-Link Firmware or Software.
RTT viewer might behave differently then Embedded Studio.

I don't know if there is a difference between your nRF52840 and nRF52832 projects.
ES will always behave this way with \r\r\n and from our point of view this is an issue in the SDK.

Regards
Johannes

[Vidar Berg]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll report this as bug internally.

Regards,

Vidar