How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

HILO — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:29:29 GMT

Pre-programming could be an option for you in production. Please check the blog 'Programming services, HI-LO Electronics in corporation with Nordic Semiconductor AS' for more info.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

David Smoot — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:44:51 GMT

We implemented a "panel tester" test fixture that does multiple tests on each panel of boards at the production house. We use an FPGA in the design to have enough GPIO for our panel tester. We also use a multiplexer to mux a single Segger to all 10 positions on our board. We had to slow the speed down to half normal to work but it works and we can test, program, and serialize all before depanelization. David

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

RRRR — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 09:18:50 GMT

How is gong with your Mass production tools ? I hope to hear your reply.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Anne van Rossum — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:00:09 GMT

On Linux you can also use srec_cat, which is quite powerful. Of course setting UICR bytes is possible as well. You don't want to flash 4 different things to your production chip.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

JPH — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:56:21 GMT

BeeHive208S from Elnec seems to support nrf51 parts but it is quite expensive. I have investigated a less expensive solution from Equinox (ISPnano-MUX8) but they do not support the processor and there are development costs to do so. Anyone willing to share ? :-)

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

EUA — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:45:25 GMT

Yep. I program nrf51822 with stlink+openocd v0.8 without problem.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Ole Morten — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 17:40:30 GMT

As far as I know, it should be possible to also use other tools to flash the nRF51, but Seggers are the ones we use internally and have most experience with. You should take a look at the Debug Interface chapter in the Reference Manual, which explains how to enable the debug interface. From that point on, I'd expect any SWD device to be able to flash code.

To merge hexfiles, you can either whip up your own Python script or similar, using the IntelHex module, or use the mergehex utility we provide in C:\Program Files (x86)\Nordic Semiconductor\nrf51\bin after having installed the SDK.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

John Kelley — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:58:03 GMT

It bears mentioning that neither of these should prevent using a JTAG programmer other than Segger

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

John Kelley — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:57:15 GMT

Yes, nRESET and SWDIO is somewhat annoying and SWO would be handy but we're doing the same and working around with a UART as well.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:56:08 GMT

My comment is related to tying together nRESET and SWDIO, which is not the 'classic' implementation of SWD.

Also, the lack of SWO may hinder some when it comes to test firmware. Luckily, it's pretty easy to create to create a UART on the nRF51 and compensate.

-m

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Dan Danknick — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:48:11 GMT

I'm not real keen on what I'm learning from this thread! I naively assumed that when it came time for our first batch of 1000 nRF51s to be programmed I'd have Arrow's Reno NV facility do them before they were put down on the PCB.

Ole is it true what Marc says that the SWD implementation on this chip is "slightly peculiar?" I've used a Segger interface for expediency in development but I always assumed that a uLINK-II or ST-LINK would work just as well to put a chunk of hex data into a specific spot in Flash. Is that not the case?

Does nRF Studio do anything special when flashing the SoftDevice into the part? Ultimately I will need to form a composite image of the SD + my .hex file to deliver to a programming facility. Is there anything I should start worrying about now?

Thanks, Dan Danknick

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:14:53 GMT

Haven't tried myself. The nRF51 is a slightly peculiar SWD implementation, but I have no doubt that some of the work done with FTDI and SWDlib could be adapted (if it doesn't work out of the box).

-m

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

John Kelley — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 04:59:01 GMT

Is anyone using something other than a Segger to program their nRF51822's in production?

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 16:44:35 GMT

We actually considered exactly that as we have a ShapeOko not doing much right now.

Accuracy/repeatability were a concern.

It was at that point that we considered that pogo pins and PCBs are relatively cheap and we could use a mux/demux chip to switch between a single SEGGER.

The $0.95 chips we bought multiplex 16 channels in both directions. So, for our panels, we'd still need two SEGGERs (which luckily we have) but that's a whole bunch better than 25 :D

-m

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

roger hayes — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:40:36 GMT

a cute approach would be the thought of using a Techno-Isel (or like) CNC router frame with a nest fo the pvb's and "toolhead" thats composed of a Bed of Nails fixture. One could easily use the "spindle"/"toolchanger" controls to trigger a flash go..(click of the mouse button.). If your product has an LED, a light sequence on program,reset could give you a go/no signal.

We have one that's used for light stuff and prototyping and certainy has the speed and accuracy of about.0004" repeatability, to hold a BoN. Our 10-year old machine has travel movement of 1200ips. Newer ones are probable faster. The movement is very reliable.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 18:07:26 GMT

Our solution right now (still being built):

Some Sparkfun Koala protoboards to supply an FTDI for testing UART
Same board provides ~100mA 3.3vdc
Prototype area on board houses a TI CD74HC4067 multiplexer chip

If I can get the SEGGER working with a Beaglebone Black, then I'll have that orchestrate the test firmware flash, testing of the device, success alert (Super Mario theme song), incrementing the multiplexer to the next device, and visual display of which devices have failed.

If that doesn't work, the same protoboard will just become a single programming and testing station :)

Will let you know how we get on (and post pics!).

-m

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

John Kelley — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:44:07 GMT

I've been developing a similar jig using pogo-pins and a custom board with a FT2232H to power each board and provide serial communications. I'm also planning on using the second channel of the FT2232H to program the nRF51822 using JTAG but I haven't developed the software for this yet.

Our panelization is 2x8 which makes it a bit easier to develop an affordable solution - especially if we can use the FTDI chip for both serial and JTAG.

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 15:15:18 GMT

What we've decided to do is build a custom programming rig with nRFjprog on a PC, an Arduino and some Python to control everything.

As we'll be post-programming, the rig will have pogo pins that interface with standardized set of contacts on each of our five different nRF51-containing boards.

The rig will both program and exercise our board (we'll emulate a battery connection, check peripherals work).

I'll post some pictures when we get everything working! :)

Which brings me up to the next question: any suggestions on code to "exercise" an nRF51822 to check that it's functioning? We can write something, but figured I'd ask...I'll post it in a separate topic.

Cheers,

-m

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:32:10 GMT

Thanks, Ole!

Unfortunately, our manufacturing partner has already built our radio modules, so we're going to have to go the "post programming" route.

If I build a "flying programming head", I will be sure to post a video of it!

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Marc Nicholas — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:32:09 GMT

Thanks, Ole!

Unfortunately, our manufacturing partner has already built our radio modules, so we're going to have to go the "post programming" route.

If I build a "flying programming head", I will be sure to post a video of it!

RE: How are you going about Production Programming for nRF51 parts?

Ole Morten — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:58:02 GMT

Since it doesn't really seem like any other customers have anything to say on this, I thought I'd let you know our normal recommendations.

There are basically two ways to program the nRF51 series devices in production:

Use a production programmer from Segger, for example a Flasher-ARM. This can be set up to either program standalone, or from a PC using nrfjprog or one of Segger's tools.
Program the chips before mounting. This can be done with a production programmer from for example Elnec or Hi-Lo Systems.

Which one of those to choose is mostly a matter of personal preference as far as I can see. :)

Edit 02.08.16: This topic can also be found on our infocenter, section "production programming and testing".