How to download FW or application to my own device developed with NRF9160

[RogerYQ]

Sorry this might be a stupid question.

We are evaluating some modem to develop a IoT device, NRF9160 comes up to our list as its tiny size. 

In the design of IoT device, NRF9160 works as a host to read some data via I2C from a sensor, then calculate it and send result to cloud.

So we will develop an application running inside NRF9160 and below questions come up:

1. What IDE should I use to develop my application, I see there are three nRF SDK (connect SDK, connect for Desktop, connect for Cloud).

2. How to download my application (or say it FW)?

    I know there is an "interface MCU" in the DK of NRF9160, but in our IoT device, there is only nRF9160, no other MCU, how to download my application?

[Carl Richard]

Hi, Roger! 

There are no stupid questions  

1. For the nRF9160 you must use the nRF Connect SDK. This can most easily be installed using the Toolchain Manager of nRF Connect for Desktop. Installing through the toolchain manager will also include the Segger Embedded Studio (SES) which is the officialy supported IDE for the nRF Connect SDK projects. The necessary tool for command line development are also included with the installation, so that you easily can use something like Visual Studio Code.

2. To download FW to a custom device you must use a debugger. This enables you to flash and debug your device through the SWD interface. An example of such a debugger is the Interface MCU of the nRF9160DK and the DK can be used to flash and program custom devices through the Debug Out pin.

I hope this answers your questions!

Best regards,
Carl Richard

[RogerYQ]

Hi Carl,

Thank you so much for your reply!

Speaking of the debugger, any ARM SWD debugger is fine except nRF9160DK, right?

Regards,

Roger

[Carl Richard]

My pleasure! 

The debugger must be compatible with the nRF9160 M33 core. You can find an overview over compability in the J-Link model overview.

Best regards,
Carl Richard