Tools and software versions that are required for developing BLE products with nrf51822 modules.

[SChary]

Hi,

I have purchased an nRf52DK set for developing BLE applications. I am using the Segger Embedded Studio (SES) with GCC and SDK version 16 for development.

I have two questions:
1. I have a few nrf51822 modules that I bought a while ago.  Can I develop code for these modules in the setup that i have ? If not, could you please let me know the setup - Soft device version, SDK version and programmer that I will need to use these modules.

2. How can i check if these modules have a boot loader inside ? If that exists, can i program them over serial port and how to it?

Thanks and Regards

[SChary]

Oops, Sorry for my mistake - the chip on my module has the number N51822 QFAA H 01518 EE.

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello Sreenivasa Chary,

SChary said:

Just wanted to know how to find out my chip revision number.

You can check the part number against the IC revision and variants matrix to figure out which revision you are working with.

Do not hesitate to let me know if you should encounter any other issues or questions.

Good luck with your development!

Best regards,
Karl

[SChary]

This is the board i am using. - https://www.waveshare.com/core51822.htm

under the heading "Revision History", it says

"2015.06, Core51822 upgrades the onboard chip to Rev3, features 32kB RAM, supports higher version SDK, and all the demo codes are still compatible with the Rev2 ones."

So i guess i need not worry about the compatibility issues, hopefully..

Regards

Sreenivasa Chary

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello again, Sreenivasa Chary

SChary said:

So i guess i need not worry about the compatibility issues, hopefully..

Now that you know which IC revision you are working with then you may confer with the Compatibility matrix I referenced you earlier, to see which SDK and SoftDevice versions your SoC is compatible with. If you use the versions as documented in the matrix then you will not see any compatibility issues between IC Rev, SDK and SoftDevice version.

Best regards,
Karl

[SChary]

Hello Karl,

For my project with the 51822, i need touse the BLE UART service. So I began with testing the ble_app_uart example of the nrf52832, since that is directly available on the nrf52DK. As i mentioned earlier, i am using the SDK16 and i chose the app_ble_uart for the PCA10040 with soft device 132.

But I am not able to get it to run. It is not advertising at all. To make sure the board does not have a problem I ran the LED Blinky app and that is running fine, i am able to discover it on the nRF Blinky app on my iPad and see the button and LED status.

So i switched back to the UART example and looked at debugging the code. I find that it is getting stuck in the uart initialization. I am running the default example code, no modifications. During uart_init() in main(), it is landing at  atapp_error_weak.c, line 100 ,

in function __WEAK void app_error_fault_handler(uint32_t id, uint32_t pc, uint32_t info):

    NRF_BREAKPOINT_COND;

The call stack shows  it arrived here from the function

static void buttons_leds_init(bool * p_erase_bonds)
{
    bsp_event_t startup_event;

    uint32_t err_code = bsp_init(BSP_INIT_LEDS | BSP_INIT_BUTTONS, bsp_event_handler);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);   /// <<<<<<THIS IS THE PLACE IT IS FAILING

.........

When i checked inside button init, but couldn't catch the problem....

Any tips on checking the source for the problem or known issues information would help....

Thanks and Regards

Sreenivasa Chary