Cannot program 52840-DK with nrfConnect

[Niramas]

I have a 52840-DK  (PCA10056) connected over USB on Windows 10.   I am using IAR and can build and run demos from EW in this configuration but am having no success with nrfConnect.

nrfConnect v3.2.0 sees the board but does not load any info about the connected device nor does it allow any programmer functions.  I can load hexfiles (shown) but no programming.   I have just started with the Nordic tools so I am probably missing something basic (a driver maybe?).   How else would I get S140 onto the board?

[Keith Brafford]

> I have just started with the Nordic tools ...How else would I get S140 onto the board?

I would install nrfjprog (the command line tools) and make sure its bin directory on your path, so you can run nrfjprog from the command prompt:

https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-Tools/Development-Tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools

once you have that, then you can erase the chip install the SoftDevice one time:

nrfjprog --program sdk\components\softdevice\s140\hex\s140_nrf52_6.1.1_softdevice.hex --verify --chiperase

then you can flash your application code:

nrfjprog --program myfile.hex --sectorerase

If you do it this way you don't need to program the softdevice over and over again.  But do keep in mind if you go back and forth trying out different nordic demos, if you load a demonstration program that doesn't use the BLE, you will be erasing the SoftDevice to load that, therefore you WILL need to re-program the softdevice before you run another BLE program.

FYI, if you look at the end part of any of the Makefiles for the "armgcc" builds of the example programs, it shows you how Nordic recommends using nrfjprog to flash the boards.

Also, if you build a development process that uses nrfjprog to program your boards, this part of your process will also be portable to Linux and the Mac.