Can I port pc-ble-driver code directly to the NRF52840?

[brianreinhold]

I have written several health device peripheral simulations on the pc using Visual Studio and the pc-ble-driver. There are a few bugs in the driver, but basically it works well. That means I make calls directly to the soft device, sd_* and do not use the SDK. Could I use the same code (clearly I would need to change timer code and things like that) to create a simulator that runs on the dongle or the development kit instead of the PC? In other words, can I make calls directly to soft device and skip the SDK?

[Stian Røed Hafskjold]

Hi, the pc-ble-driver just acts as a bridge between the Softdevice and the PC software. You can access the same sd_* functions in the FW that runs on the chip. The API is documented here: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.s112.api.v7.0.1/index.html?cp=4_7_0_1

For example here are the GAP related calls: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.s112.api.v7.0.1/group___b_l_e___g_a_p___f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n_s.html?cp=4_7_0_1_2_1_3

I would not skip the SDK completely as it contains the Softdevice header files and the necessary startup files. You can base your application on e.g. the ble_app_blinky example and just remove all the code (maybe except the timer code which you probably need)

[brianreinhold]

Thanks, that's what I needed to know. I understand I will need all the initialization files for the chip and the timer code but I was hoping to be able to reuse the code for the peripheral itself.