Loading a Program to the nRF51 DK

Question

I'm having a bit of trouble getting a program downloaded onto my development board. I've been using Keil 5 to program and I haven't had a problem until I started experimenting with examples that use Softdevices. When I was just working with GPIO stuff, like with the Blinky example, I could just press Load in Keil and it would work. When I tried to do the same thing with the Heartrate Sensor example, it didn't seem to work because the program didn't startup. I was able to get the Heartrate example on the board by dragging the hex file from a downloaded copy of the SDK, but now I want to try modifying the example in Keil and redownload it to the board to help figure out how BLE works. Is there a way to generate a hex file from Keil? How should I go about downloading my project to the board? Any help would be appreciated. 
 
 Thanks!

jmgeyster · Accepted Answer

UPDATE: 
 
 I figured it out, I didn't realize I had to Load to the Softdevice, and then Load the program regularly afterward.

Jay Tyzzer · Answer

Hi Joshua, 
 The Keil compiler will generate a hex file. If you to go the target section and then output you can rename it what you want. remember that you need to keep the start locations the same so you don't write over (or attempt to) the softdevice.

If you are using the dev kit and the drag and drop feature, remember that when you use that it erases all the flash. I normally use the drag and drop to load the softdevice and then load the application in with Keil. 
 If later you want to make a single file with the application and the softdevice included you can use a utility called Mergehex.exe. 
 https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fug_nrf5x_cltools%2FUG%2Fcltools%2Fnrf5x_mergehex.html 
 This utility may be found in the nRF Command Line Tools downloadable on the Nordic site. 
 Have Fun! 
 
 Jay

Loading a Program to the nRF51 DK

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