program the adafruit nrf52840 with a j-link programmer using the SWD interface

[abdelali]

hi,

is it possible to use a j-link programmer like this one in the photo, to program the adafruit nrf52840 board ? is the development procedures will be same as using a nrf52840 dk ?

will also use the SES IDE for that !

- if so,  is that we need an adapter or, for the JTAG to SWD ? or there is another version that comes with the SWD ?

please kindly guide !

[awneil]

If the board provides access to the SWD pins, then of course you can.

It probably comes with a Bootloader - so you'd probably want to do a full chip erase first.

abdelali said:

is the development procedures will be same as using a nrf52840 dk

It's the same chip. The chip neither knows nor cares what board it is on.

However, you will have to adapt your code to account for the different connections outside the chip.

These questions suggest that you are not very familiar with this?

If so, I would strongly recommend that you start on a Nordic DK - that will be a far easier place to learn & get familiar with the chip and the tools

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/52269/my-first-test-with-nrf52840-on-ms04sf7_v1-0-from-minew-dongle/211367#211367

abdelali said:

is that we need an adapter or, for the JTAG to SWD ?

The nRF52 have SWD only - not JTAG.

Again, getting a DK will take care of all this for you!

abdelali said:

there is another version that comes with the SWD

Version of what?

For details about Adafruit products, you will need to contact Adafruit.

[Jayben]

Your board has the standard 10-way 0.05" pitch Cortex Debug Connector, see http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.faqs/attached/13634/cortex_debug_connectors.pdf

Your JLink should work fine, but unfortunately it has a 20-way 0.1" pitch connector (see 'legacy connector' in that document), so you'll need an adaptor between the two.

If you don't have one of those, either trawl the Internet, or make one yourself - the easiest way to do that is to get ribbon cables for the two connectors (a 0.05" pitch 10-way to 10-way, and 0.1" pitch 20-way to 20-way), chop both in half, then solder the necessary wires together; you'll need to heatshrink the connections for mechanical strength. The only signlas you need are SWDCLK, SWDIO, 3.3V supply, and ground.

To learn more about SWD on the NRF52 (albeit using OpenOCD), see https://iosoft.blog/arm-gcc-lean-nordic-nrf52/

[abdelali]

thanks a lot Jayben for the guidelines !

[abdelali]

thanks a lot awneil for the clarifications , and the link !

ok, so getting a DK would be far easier then using these boards . we're using this board cause of it's small factor , and it easily fits on our prototype , we also don't need much pins !  

ok , i think will try to get a nrf52840 DK , rebuild the firmware test it then flash it to the adafruit nrf52840 board .

thanks again .

[awneil]

Jayben said:

Your JLink

abdelali - it's not clear if you already have a J-Link, or were just posting the picture for illustration?

Note that the Nordic DK comes with a built-in J-Link.