Running nRF52811 on nRF52832 Development Kit via Soldering nRF52811 chip onto Development Kit

[Ameer Usman]

So I want to run the nRF52811 chip so I removed the nRF52832 chip from its development kit and soldered the nRF52811 chip but I cannot seem to program it. What are the required settings I would be needing to change to make it work, for starters, a simple 'ble_app_beacon' example.

I am using Segger Embedded Studio (SES).

[Heidi]

Hi!

The nRF52811 and nRF52832 are pin-to-pin compatible with a slight schematic difference (the 832 has two capacitors extra for P0.25 and P0.26), and programming the nRF52811 on the 832 development kit should work with no changes to the code. 

I suggest you use a multimeter to make sure none of the pins have been shorted during the soldering.

Then measure the voltage from the DEC1 to DEC4 pins. Use the product specification for the chip for voltage reference, chapter 7, but really you're just checking that they're not at zero.

Also, could you switch to programming with nrfjprog and make sure to program with the --log flag. This way, it's easier to see what's going wrong. 

Best regards,

Heidi

[Ameer Usman]

Also I tried running the exact same code of the nRF52832 (without changing any other properties) and it gives the below error while debugging (the program downloads fine):

[Heidi]

Could you try running one of the PCA10056e-examples on your DK?

[Ameer Usman]

Gives this error in using PCA10056e:

[Heidi]

Hi, can you try the procedure described here. 

 

Ameer Usman said:

Are you confident that there is a hardware issue?

 No, I'm not confident it's hardware. If you did all the tests I suggested, then it probably isn't hardware.

[Ameer Usman]

I am using it on the PCA10040 Development Kit to program the nRF52811, could it be that is the problem? That if I programmed it using the PCA10056 board it would work?

But the problem is that the nRF52840 pin-out does not match to nRF52811 so I cannot solder it onto that board.

Like the below link, it says he used a PCA10056:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/48516/transferring-the-project-to-nrf52811-hardware---fpu-error/192748#192748

Also is it sure that programming a custom board of nRF52811 using the PCA10056 development kit as the programmer will work?

[Heidi]

Ameer Usman said:

I am using it on the PCA10040 Development Kit to program the nRF52811, could it be that is the problem?

 No.

Ameer Usman said:

That if I programmed it using the PCA10056 board it would work?

That should also work, but that is not the root cause of the issue.

Ameer Usman said:

Also is it sure that programming a custom board of nRF52811 using the PCA10056 development kit as the programmer will work?

 Yes, use P19 or P20 to program the nRF52811, see here, or just use the on-board programmer that is present on the PCA10040.

Did you follow the steps in the link I provided? Make sure to use PCA10056e as the base, and then modify it according to the steps in the link.

Are you able to run nrfjprog -e on your custom board?

[Ameer Usman]

Heidi said:

Did you follow the steps in the link I provided? Make sure to use PCA10056e as the base, and then modify it according to the steps in the link.

I tried using it as the base and doing the modifications on the nRF52811 soldered on the PCA10040 nRF52832 development kit but it gives the below error:

Ameer Usman said:

Gives this error in using PCA10056e:

As for this:

Heidi said:

Are you able to run nrfjprog -e on your custom board?

I need to make a few modifications to my other board to have the nRF52811 on it.

But the nrfjrpog -e command is working on the nRF52811 soldered on PCA10040.

[Heidi]

Ameer Usman said:

it gives the below error:

Which error did you get? 

[Ameer Usman]

It gives the error:
'Failed to download application
Generic Error
Please Check J-Link and target Connection'

Also I tried to run a fresh PCA10056e project on the nRF52840 development kit but it also gave the same Generic Error as mentioned before.

[Ameer Usman]

Finally, it worked. The issue was that when I opened the PCA10056e project it opened in the Non-commercial license of Segger Embedded Studio and did not even work with the nRF52840 whereas when I opened PCA10056 it showed licensed version of Segger Embedded Studio.

So I reinstalled Segger Embedded Studio and it started to give licensed version also in the PCA10056e projects in SES.

So in a nutshell, soldering nRF52811 onto the nRF52832 Development Kit board works with running the PCA10056e project with modifications in:

If you have developed your application using the emulated project as a starting point, there is only one step you need to perform before you can run it natively on nRF52811: In your IDE, remove the DEVELOP_IN_NRF52840 and NRFX_COREDEP_DELAY_US_LOOP_CYCLES defines from the compile flags.

Thanks Heidi