Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Mon, 04 May 2015 11:23:23 GMT

@RK: If I understand you correctly I believe you are looking at Compatibility Matrix v1.2, but there is a new matrix in town :)

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

RK — Fri, 01 May 2015 05:39:56 GMT

You say in your comprehensive (and thanks for that) answer that SD8.0 is tested and proven to work on the rev 2 ICs. In which document can I find that information? The compatibility matrix I found shows nothing after 7.0.0 for rev 2, possibly because each line refers to an SDK revision which then infers the SD revision and the last SDK for rev 2 is 6.1.0.

Where, for instance, can I find whether 7.1.0 is compatible with rev 2 ICs? I'm assuming if 7.0.0 is and 8.0.0 is that 7.1.0 is but I can't really prove it.

I don't have SDK compatibility issues because I have my own library routines for just about everything from timers to I2C to SPI etc. Even if I did need some SDK stuff it's quite easy to use one SDK but pull in the SD headers from the SD release you want to use instead of those in the SDK.

So where's the information about pure SD compatibility with different chip revisions?

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 13:29:04 GMT

I think I will leave it up to you to decide what's best for you. I guess it all depends on your available resources and timespan. I agree with you with regards to the SDK 6.1.0, SD 7.1.0 and SD1.0.1.

There is a release note in the SDK .zip files, but I'm afraid it's quite superficial. It might not be most of the drivers and libs, but some drivers are rewritten to take advantage of the bugfixes in rev 3. There is also a release note and a migration document bundled in the SoftDevice .zip file.

Yes, the examples are written for an old dev kit, but this is mostly a matter of GPIO pin numbers defined to LEDs, buttons etc, and most examples are perfectly usable with the latest dev kits with some minor tweaking if you are like me and love blinking LEDs.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

muhkuhns — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 11:40:21 GMT

Thank you so much for your detailed edits! Too bad there is no way in the short time to make our own revision 3 based board that would be small enough to fit for the usecase. So we must stick to revision 2 for the time being.... If you had to deal with this situation: What SD and SDK combination(s) would YOU use? As far as I understand the PAN and Combatibility Matrix and your answer. SDK 6.1 with SD7.1.0 and SD1.0.1 would be the only combination that are guaranted to work for both revisions? But the examples would be for an older developement kit.

I could also use the latest SD on both revision but not the SDK8 for the revision 2.. Where can I find a changelog for the SDK? I can't believe most of the drivers/libs won't work on the revision 2 chip..

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 10:50:03 GMT

I answered your questions in my answer above.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

muhkuhns — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 09:21:26 GMT

I'm still a little confused by the compatibility matrix v2.pdf..

Revision 2 chips can:

be used with the latest Softdevices (S110 v8.0.0 and S120 v2.0.0)
but only with SDK 6.1.0 - and this only supports the Softdevices one version earlier??

And the nRF51-DK can only be used with SDK v8+

So there is no way for me to use the same SDK+Softdevices on the nRF51-DK and my revision 2 based modules? :( What is the least problematic SDK/Softdevices combination for my hardware mix? I'll probably have to use SPI or I2C + Timer + Bluetooth Multilink Example on 4 peripherals and Multilink Example + UART on 1 central.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 06:28:26 GMT

No more changes than those that are mentioned in the product change notifications and softdevice specifications.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

muhkuhns — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 16:28:13 GMT

As far as I read all the PDFs... (PAN, Series Reference,..) there is a good chance that my applications I am going to write for the nRF51-DK will also work on my revision 2 based modules or are there any general changes I've missed?

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:40:41 GMT

Yes, correct on both counts. Just keep in mind that SDK 8 and 7 are not tested on rev 2 IC. So if you choose to use SDK 6.1.0 you should use S110 v7.1.0 or earlier or S120 v1.0.1.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

muhkuhns — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:06:00 GMT

Thanks for your answer! I already read the documents regarding the changes between the different revisions. As from the combatibility matrix it seems to me: I can use the newest S110 and S120 Softdevices for both, my revision 2 modules and the nRF51-DK.

But I have to use the SDK v6.1 for my nRF51822 modules and the SDK v8 for my nRF51-DK.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MartinBL — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:22:28 GMT

Hi. In addition to Mangos comment: This document describes what's new in the third revision and hence what you "miss out on" using revision 2. In the release notes bundled with the various softdevices you will also find a chapter on new functionality for that particular Softdevice. We don't recommend using incompatible Softdevices, SDKs and IC revisions. Maybe it works for you and maybe it doesn't. What is sure is that we have not tested it and won't make any guarantees.

Answer to comments below:

The SD 8.0.0 is tested and proven to work on rev 2 ICs. The SDK, on the other hand (which is just a set of libraries, drivers and examples), is not tested. Hence you can safely use SD v8, but you can't base your application on SDK v8 and expect it to work. You will have to write your own drivers, libraries and application from scratch, which is a lot of work.

In other words, the SDK is dependent on the SD, as it uses a lot of the functions in the SD, but the SD is not dependent on the SDK.

The nRF51 DK can be used with any SD and SDK compatible with revision 3 ICs.

You can use SDK 6.1.0 and SD 7.1.0 on both IC revision 2 & 3 according to the compatibility matrix. Revision 2 ICs have some issues with the I2C (aka TWI) and UART. Check out the Product Anomaly documents to learn more. To accommodate for these anomalies you should use the latest SDK, SD and IC revision if you can.

RE: Can I only use modules based on revision 3 nRF51822 with nRF51-DK ??

MANGO — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 01:36:50 GMT

Hi muhkuhns. What SoftDevice you are using? S110, S120 ?

I do not exactly know what you miss when you use SDK 6.1.

However, I was told from the Nordic employee that there was a bug in device manager when you use SDK 6.1.

Also I tried SDK 7.2 and SoftDevice S110 7.1 on the revision 2 chip.

I used HID keyboard service and NUS and it did worked.