issue with nRF connect getting started and Embedded Studio

[Allen]

Hello,

I have installed Embedded Studio and acquired a Nordic license. However the Tools/Options... nRF Connect menu option does not appear. I tried creating a dummy Nordic project but that didn't fix the problem. Here are the instructions from the Getting Started guide. What did I miss?  

BTW, I submitted this as a Segger support issue and they sent me back here.

Navigate to the folder where you extracted SEGGER Embedded Studio. Double-click SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM.app.

Click Tools > Options and select the nRF Connect tab.

To load and build a project in SES, you must specify the following information:

• Additional CMake Options - -D WEST=<path to west executable>, for example -D WEST=~/Library/Python/3.7/bin/west

• Zephyr Base - the location of your cloned Zephyr repository (the full path to ncs/zephyr)

• GNU ARM Embedded Toolchain Directory - the location of your GNU ARM Embedded Toolchain installation (for example, /opt/gnuarmemb)

• CMake - the path is /usr/local/bin/cmake by default

• DTC - the path is /usr/local/bin/dtc by default

• Ninja - the path is /usr/local/bin/ninja by default

• Python - the path is /usr/local/bin/python3 by default

Mark done

[Simon]

What version of the Getting Started Assistant did you follow? I am looking at v1.0.2 and I'm seeing the following message:

"Navigate to the folder where you extracted SEGGER Embedded Studio. In the bin subfolder, run emStudio."

Not the following:

"Navigate to the folder where you extracted SEGGER Embedded Studio. Double-click SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM.app."

Try opening the execuable <..>/arm_segger_embedded_studio_v420a_win_x(86 or 64)_nordic/bin/emstudio.exe

Best regards,

Simon

[Allen]

Hello Simon,

Here is the version information.

MacOS 10.14.6

Getting Started Assistant 1.0.2

nRF Connect 3.2.0

SES 4.22

I don't have an "emstudio" in the bin directory.

[Allen]

I don’t remember if I downloaded SES directly or used the Getting Started link. If this is a special version of SES to support Nordic, it should be in big letters EVERYWHERE. The Segger site and everywhere else on the Nordic site, you are told you only need a license, not a special version. 

Note, I am on a Mac not Windows. 

[Simon]

To my knowledge it is stated quite clearly that the Nordic Edtition of SEGGER Embedded Studio should be used when developing an NCS application.

In the NCS documentation it says the following:

"The recommended way of building and programming an nRF Connect SDK sample is to use the Nordic Edition of the SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES) IDE."

After this, in the documentation, download links for Windows, Mac and Linux are provided for the Nordic Edition of SES.

Also, the different getting started tutorials (NCS tutorial & Getting Started with nRF9160 DK) all points to the Getting Started Assistant in the nRF Connect App, and tells the user to complete this first. In that app, the following is stated:

"The recommended way of building and programming an nRF Connect SDK sample is to use the Nordic Edition of the SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES) IDE. SEGGER Embedded Studio is free of charge for use with Nordic Semiconductor devices."

However, you are the customer, and I would like to hear your opinion. How did you approach it when learning/setting up NCS? Did you follow the Getting Started guide? If so, how should we improve it in order to avoid confusions like this? Did you mix the Nordic Edition with the regular one? I can see that we are only providing download links for windows. I am not sure why this is, I will look into it and get back to you.

However, here is the MAC download link for SES (Nordic Edition): SEGGER Embedded Studio (Nordic Edition) - Mac OS x64

Good luck with your project and developing with the nRF Connect SDK

Best regards,

Simon

[Allen]

Well, this is interesting.

The link you provided definitely specified "nordic" in the URL. If you go to the Embedded Studio Downloads page on Segger.com, these links are not available. You must follow the tutorial or getting started guides to download the right version. Since that is the case and the Mac OS download link was not provided in the Getting Started guide, I was a clever developer and went to Segger and downloaded SES for Mac. (Please remember to add the link to the Linux version too. Most of my development is done in Linux. I work natively in MacOS when possible.)

I am sorry but it was not obvious to me that this was a special SES version for Nordic. Running the non-Nordic specialized version still gives you the option to download an activation key from Nordic. Having the wrong version installed was not apparent until the options were missing in the GUI.

Thanks

[Allen]

It appears that this version is only required for the new "nRF Connect SDK"? 

I have used the non-Nordic specific version of SES to work with SDK 15.x examples. 

[Simon]

Allen said:

It appears that this version is only required for the new "nRF Connect SDK"? 

 Yes, this is correct. The Nordic Edition of SES is intended to be used with the nRF Connect SDK. If you are working with the SDK 15.x examples, you should use the version of SES that is available for download on https://www.segger.com/downloads/embedded-studio.

However, I talked to another colleague, and he said that the Getting Started Assistant App should automatically detect the operating system and provide the appropriate download links. Could you double check this once more? Try opening the newest version of nRF Connect and the Getting Started Assistant on your Mac and check what download links shows up. If it's only the windows versions, there is a bug with the app and I will report it.

Best regards,

Simon

[Allen]

Verified that the Mac version is downloaded when installing from the Getting Started application.

Thanks