Arduino, Adafruit and Particle.io all use the nRF52840 SOC but none of them can be programmed through USB and the NRF Connect for Desktop

[rocksetta]

I have 3 Nordic nrf52840 USB dongles, several Particle Mesh Argons and have ordered an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense and have found the Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Express. All of these boards use the Nordic nRF 52840 SOC but the last three cannot be programmed using the "NRF Connect for Desktop".

I would like to be able to program these boards with one consistent method and the NRF Connect For Desktop would be the best approach. I get that it is not Nordic's responsibility to spend time to connect these products, but perhaps they could direct me to some possible solutions. Each of these boards have different strengths: The Nordic board is inexpensive, the Nano 33 BLE Sense has many sensors on board, the Particle Argon has built in Wifi, the Adafruit board allows CircuitPython. 

If anyone can connect these boards, it would be the technicians at Nordic. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can generate a .hex file but how do I get it onto the boards. Is there any bootloaders that might work on all three? Can that bootloader be loaded using only the USB connection? I do not want to use a JTAG connection.

The advantage to Nordic is that a large BLE network could have many Nordic boards, but could also have some of these specialty boards when needed. Being able to switch between the different platforms would also be very useful.

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

Hi,

From the schematics of the boards you mention, it looks like they all have the USB connector connected directly to the nRF52840 USB port. This means that you should be able to use the same bootloader that is running on the nRF52840 Dongle (USB Open bootloader). This should allow your to use nRF Connect Programmer app to program all boards. Most likely it is not possible to update from the existing bootloader to the Open Bootloader without using SWD interface, but this is something you need to check with the manufacturers of the boards. We do not have any knowledge of bootloaders developed/used by 3rd party vendors. You should also check that replacing the bootloader does not break any other functionality of the boards.

Best regards,
Jørgen

[rocksetta]

Thank you Jorgen for the informed reply.

I checked your link for the USB Open Bootloader and found lots of information about it, but could not actually find the download link for the " USB Open Bootloader" hex file. Is there a trick to finding it?

I would like to try to do things without a JTAG/SWD but will get one anyway, out of curiosity what setup do you guys at Nordic prefer for the nrf52840 boards. I have found several JTAG/SWD on Amazon, but never know if the cables are the right ones for the nrf52840 usb dongle, Particle Argon, Arduino Nano 33 BLE, Adafruit Feather nrf52840. 

I am beginning to think it might be cheaper and smarter just to stick with the Nordic product.