nRF51822 Development kit

[Mario]

Hello,

I am starting a project related with BLE communications. In the future, I want to design my own board and to be able to program it. I am going to start with a development kit now. I found this one:

www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF51822-Development-Kit

I suppose I can use the "Segger J-Link Lite programmer" to program my own board in the future. However, it says it's no longer available, and it was replaced by this one:

www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF51-DK

I assume that board has a built-in Segger programer, and I'll be able to program it and to prototype my project. However I'm not sure if I'll be able to use that board to program my own board containing a nRF51822 chip.

In case I can't use it. Can anyone suggest the smartest way to do this? Segger programmers are quite expensive, and I do not understand why I have to pay that money if the last development kit included one (and it was $100 the whole kit)

Thank you.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

See this project a low cost jtag in the $40 range also module that you can put on your own board. Can also be used for production gang flashing. www.kickstarter.com/.../idap-link-a-low-cost-full-features-debug-jtag

[Charles Manning]

Although I have not used it, I'm pretty sure the new board's debugger has a "debug out" connector that allows you to use the board as a debugger for other boards so you should be able to do what you want to.

NB: The "real" Seggers have some features that the Lite version does not.

[RK]

Yes the new development board has an onboard JLink (JLink OB) and that supports debugging external boards, you just need a compatible cable. If you do a quick search here you'll find a few long discussions including pictures and pinouts for doing exactly that.

In the end the new kit is quite economic. You get the nrf51422 (so you can do ANT as well as BLE while still being BLE-only compatible), you get a segger you can use for external programming, it's JLink-OB but that's good enough for most things, and, unlike the previous discontinued dev kit you don't need to buy the (costly) base kit, the new board is entirely standalone.

[Mario]

Thank you. I searched here and I didn't find anything about it. Maybe I didn't take anough time. It sounds like a nice tool. I'll definetly buy it.

[Mario]

I understand the "real" ones will be more powerful, but what I meant is they should include a solution for students-hobbyist within their development board. (And they do)