This post is older than 2 years and might not be relevant anymore
More Info: Consider searching for newer posts

NRF52 dk to 52810 - basic setup help... please

Hey, 
Brand new to this but long time programmer and I sware I have been trying tons of stuff for 4 days straight now and only posting because I am out of options. 

My goal is just to get blinky working on my custom 52810 board, using the NRF52dk using Segger (5.30a) and NRF Connect (1.4.1). Simple right... AHHHHH 

I can compile Blinky, using the simulation 810 settings and get it to work on the 52dk just fine.  
Using a JAG interface, I can download the code, with the two variables removed (DEVELOP_IN_NRF52832 and NRFX_COREDEP_DELAY_US_LOOP_CYCLES) and it appears to load the code on my custom board. I can see that something is loaded on the chip through the Programmer interface tool (read). And that is where I got after 4 days (well learned a ton but still). 

I can not figure out:
1. How to get changes I make to the dts file, for led pin assignments to be included in the compiled code. I see that the file is changed, but when I build the project and even just download it to the 52dk, the pin assignments don't change. In nrf52dk_nrf52810.dts I change "led0 gpios = " to <&gpio0 18 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW> (instead of 17) and the LED that blinks on the 52dk is still the same one. Is there some other place to change the pin assignment? Do I need to do some sort of compile on the dts file separately from SEGGER? This doesn't feel like it should be so hard. 

2. With the above item figured out, I believe I can create a custom board definition for my 52810, just changing up the pin, button and io assignments in the nrf52dk_nrf52810.dts. Is that correct or do I need to make a custom_board.h file, like the older SDK documentation says? It looks like the new dts file stuff has taken over the need to do the board.h file, but I really can't find good documentation about this. 

3. WHY DOES the blinky example open in Segger (Open NRF SDK PROJET) with all the include directories and just weirdly, such that you can't access the pre-processor options stuff, like you can when opening the nRF_Samples project. I SEARCHED FOREVER to find the segger options menu that included the pre-processor options (and a ton of other stuff) that are in a lot of videos. The nrf samples projects has multiple configurations and gives you a ton more project options (like easily removing the DEVELOP_IN_NRF52832 and NRFX_COREDEP_DELAY_US_LOOP_CYCLES pre-processor options instead of having to manually edit the project make file - which I am not sure worked correctly). Please tell me I can use a structure like the NRF_Samples project and not blinky to develop in.  

4. What UART terminal interface and software stack changes or examples do I need to use to connect directly to my 52810 board that I can send and receive UART coms from just to know if the chip is working? I see a lot of BLE debug tools (which look great), but I need to do some very basic checking to see if any of my code is even running on the chip. I have the UART interface setup mechanically. But don't know if there is an example program you would recommend to just be able to do very basic call and response messages to the chip to see if it is working. I am assuming the same code would work on the 52dk, correct?

THANK YOU SO MUCH for helping me with this. I am sorry to ask such basic questions but I am starting to pull what little hair I have left out and I am betting it is something really basic that I am missing. 

  • Thank you again Carl. I installed and played with the nRf5 SDK last night and was able to setup my custom and get blinky to run on it, in just under 2 hours. It took over 5 days with the nRf Connect SDK and me being a complete noob. That the nRf5 SDK install tool chain includes installing nRf Connect for the programmer, is probably a place where confusion can happen pretty easily. Unless you really read closely, it does look like the nRf Connect SDK is your latest and greatest and recommended for new development. Again, thank you for your feedback and the incredible work the Nordic team is doing.      

  • Good to hear. I agree that the liknes between the "nRF Connect Programmer" and "nRF Connect SDK" probably is a source of confusion that should be dealt with. 

    It was my pleasure. Good luck with your project and happy new year!

    Best regards,
    Carl Richard

Related