Programming 3rd party modules - General Workflow?

[glycylalanin]

Dear Forum, I just unwrapped my new nRF51 DK board and already played with some mbed example programs which worked beautifully! So first of all - thank you Nordic & mbed team for making this so easy!

The next question which comes up of course is - how to deal with third party modules like the very interesting Insight ISP130301 module?

1. I've heard it is possible to use the nRF51 DK as a programmer. In the easiest of ways, would it be possible just to solder some enameled copper wire strips to the pins of the module and to some pins on the board and program the module?

2. Do I have to disconnect the nRF51 DK on-board nRF51422 somehow to achieve this?

3. Is there somewhere a guide to decipher the right pin connections?

Best + many thanks, glycylalanin

[Stian Røed Hafskjold]

Yes, you can use the nRF51 DK as a programmer.

You should check out this thread regarding the pinout of the programmer. This is for programming the beacon kit with a dedicated programmer, but the pinout is the same for the Debug out port on the nRF51 DK. You should have a look at the PCA10028_Schematic_And_PCB.pdf on page 4, located in this zip-file, for the complete pinout specification. So you should be able to just solder a few wires on to the ISP130301 in order to program it. Go to the ISP130301 datasheet to find the pin configuration for that module.

You do not have to disconnect the on-board nRF51422 on order to activate the Debug out port. It will detect the supply voltage of the external module and switch to that target. See the nRF51 DK user guide section 5.10

[glycylalanin]

Dear Stian, thank you very much for your help. This was desperately waiting for! Best, Glycylalanin