Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

arsalanjun — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 07:29:24 GMT

What did you find out? Do you have to pay extra $100 in order to program it. I am a beginner and i will be working on a project soon. Please suggest what devices I need to buy in order to start the project? I am so confused.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

David Edwin — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 19:27:10 GMT

Updated information: since the softdevices and the SDK are freely available from developer.nordicsemi.com, the above recommendation should be modified.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

EUA — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 23:23:51 GMT

Thank you. Now it's possible to use JLink (and clones) SWD with openOCD using this patch

openocd.zylin.com/

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

efiLabs — Sat, 31 May 2014 04:02:08 GMT

i'm totally new to this ble ... bacon lettuce and eggs :)

and ordered an mbed eval board, hopefully arriving tomorrow ... so sorry if i'm not totally up on it.

i work now for more than a year on lpc1347 and lpc1549 parts in c++ with lpcxpresso ... FREE

lpcxpresso supports as a debug interface a CMSIS-DAP device and the mbed board supposedly also supports CMSIS-DAP

now the thought was, this could be a way to write code for the nrf51xxx in lpcxpresso (eclipse based ... runs on windows and even faster under linux).

this nrf51xxx eval board costs about $ 60 and lpcxpresso is free ... up to 256 k of code size or so and the code gcc produces is at least as good as the one from keil.

if you don't want to use this nrf51xxx mbde board and are just looking for a SWD debug jig, then the lpc-link2 cost about $25 and supports natively the lpc-link2 usb interface to lpcxpresso and if you want to use CMSIS-DAP you can download the free lpc-tool and load a CMSIS-DAP image as an alterantive solution into the lpc-link2 SWD debug jig ... this way you can run the keil compiler with it

as i said previously, i do not have the nrf51xxx mbde board yet and can't verify this claim

anyone already working with it could add a few comments to this post ... i will continue, once i have figured out more

one more thought without offending anyone i hope ... free ... what is it ... if you spend 2 days plus on getting some free debug stuff to work versus spending $ 25 or $ 60 (which you need to get the bt stack image) and compare this to going out a couple times for dinner :)

cheers, efiLabs

guess what, i got the board and here is the 1st part of the story ... not too glorious

i assumed that i would get a product key to be able to download header files and the sdk or whatever to be able to write code ... nada

yes you can make an led blink with using mbed to compile and receive a hex file to go-no-go test download like 30 years ago.

i'll see if nordic provides any usable customer support since i purchased a nordic semi product already.

is there a $ 100 price limit which you have to exceed to be allowed to download the necessary files to be able to write code and if you purchase a $ 60 nrf51822-mkit you do not qualify ...

i don't get it. i'm waiting and will see if it's worth to consider nordic as a vendor for ble enabled embedded products

cheers, efiLabs

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Chris Hodapp — Tue, 06 May 2014 20:33:50 GMT

A J-Link is not required. OpenOCD can speak SWD, given an appropriate adapter. I'm told that it can work with ST-Link, certain FTDI-based adapters, or a Linux system with accessible GPIO (say, a Raspberry Pi).

I have only used it with an ST-Link myself (in this case, the ST-Link on an STM32F429 Discovery). I disconnected the ST-Link half of the board from the STM32 half of the board by removing the jumpers at CN4, and I connected the pins from the SWD header at CN2 to the nRF51822. Specifically, CN2 pin 1 (VDD_TARGET) was connected to my power source, pin 2 (SWCLK) to SWCLK on the nRF, pin 3 (GND) to ground, and pin 4 (SWDIO) to SWDIO on the nRF.

Then invoke OpenOCD with:openocd -f interface/stlink-v2.cfg -f target/nrf51_stlink.tcl

Then tools like GDB may interface with OpenOCD. target remote localhost:3333 to point GDB to it, and load whatever.elf to flash it. (Not sure yet how to flash a softdevice from GDB, but I will look into it.)

Later update: For newer versions of OpenOCD (e.g. the git version as of right now) you need a line more like: openocd -f interface/stlink-v2.cfg -c"transport select hla_swd" -f target/nrf51.cfg. The section Flashing SoftDevice with OpenOCD at Hoan Hoang's page also gives the method he used to flash the SoftDevice using OpenOCD.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Christopher Mason — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 02:23:58 GMT

I believe the McHck folks are working on an [url=https://mchck.org/blog/2013-08-13-self_hosted_toolchain_the_mc_hck_as_swd_adapter/]Arduino sketch bitbang implementation[/url]. Personally, I'm adding the MKL2/MK20 chip to my existing design. The key in my mind is their SWD implementation is simple and readable, as compared with something like OpenOCD which has layers and layers of support for stuff like JTAG that I don't need.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Mad — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:29:33 GMT

Thats some commendable work you have done. Its awesome. The only problem with using mc hck is that you cant buy it off the shelf. You need to make the boards and then you have the chicken and egg problem and without having a bus pirate or bus blaster or Jlink lite there is no other way to program the Mc hck.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Christopher Mason — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 19:52:05 GMT

I've made some limited progress towards using the McHck to program and debug an nRF51822 dev board. I don't have breakpoints working yet, but I'm hopeful that with some help from the McHck folks, we'll get that working.

For those of you following along at home, however, I still recommend the Dev Kit as the best way to get started, and the only way to get legal access to the soft device BLE stack.

I'm hoping that Nordic will take notice of the fact that a fully-open-source toolchain exists for their great chip, and allow access to the soft device binary without a Dev Kit license.

I'll keep this updated as we progress.

Thanks,

-c

PS– @marc, you don't need special PHY, etc to write an open source BLE stack for the nRF51822. The existing, closed source stack uses the well documented radio, address resolver, etc features of the nRF51822 chip. It would be a lot of work though to reimplement this well.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Marc Nicholas — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:29:57 GMT

Because that's an API not a "stack". It relies on third party PHY and radio layers.

Of course, you're welcome to implement your own silicon, PHY and other radio components :)

-m

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Christopher Mason — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 01:03:53 GMT

In theory, I suppose you could write your own (or adapt an existing) stack for this chip. I'd guess it would a whole lot of work. The peripherals and setup of this chip are like nothing else I've ever seen.

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Mad — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 23:59:27 GMT

Thanks a lot for the reply. Also I was just curoius, cant we use some other open source Bluetooth stack instead of SoftDevice like https://code.google.com/p/btstack/wiki/BLE as long as we have access to the packet frame ?

RE: Can I directly start programming a nrf51822 breakout board

Christopher Mason — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 15:20:29 GMT

Yes and no.

You could buy a Segger programmer and flash the chip with it. I don't know of any open source debugger (like OpenOCD) that can yet flash/debug the nrf51822 part (it has some special characteristics like combining RESET and SWDIO). It would be awesome to make this happen though (I have high hopes for the mchck in this regard).

I have an example project here that demonstrates using the Segger programmer and GCC. You'll need to edit the Makefile to set NRF51_USE_SOFTDEVICE=0.

However, the soft device binary that includes the bluetooth stack is only available with the eval kit or dev kit. You need an alphanumeric product key from the kit to access the download links on Nordic's site (and the license prohibits redistribution) I've asked Nordic a couple of times to release the soft device freely on their web site and they've said they'd consider it but haven't done so yet. So as of right now, if you want bluetooth, you'll need a Nordic Dev or Eval kit.

Honestly, the Dev Kit is a pretty great deal: 5 chips, a Segger debugger (alone worth >$70) and a very convenient USB dongle, for $99. Until the open source community catches up with this chip (which I'm hoping will happen very soon), I'd recommend spending the $99.

Hope this helps. I'd really love to see a strong open source community around this awesome chip.

-c