Is there provision for a serialization application processor to control GPIO on a nRF51822 used in serial connectivity mode?

[rsmith5066]

Is there provision for a serialization application processor to control GPIO on a nRF51822 used in serial connectivity mode? Can the nRF51822 be used as an I/O expander?

[Charles Manning]

It is not very clear what you mean by this.

Do you mean: Can the nRF51822 be used as an IO expander where I can send commands via the serial port to do things like set/clear/read GPIO?

If that is what you mean, then the answer is Yes. Fundamentally the nRF51822 is a (almost) general purpose micro-controller that also has a radio peripheral and can run the BTLE (or other) radio stacks.

If you want to add software that does things like listen to the UART/SPI/whatever and sets/clears GPIOs, reads ADCs... then you can do that.

In the application I am working on, we're using the nRF51822 as a supervisory micro for a main (Linux capable) CPU. The NRF51822 controls system power, monitors batteries and buttons and communicates back to the main CPU via SPI. And the NRF51822 also provides a BTLE link for other sensors...