Softdevice separate from SDK example built binaries?

[aabitria]

Do the examples in the SDK folder like ble_nus have their binaries with softdevice already? I'm a newbie in Nordic and using the BLE NUS example with nRF52-DK to learn as well as SDK 15. I can connect to the BLE chip using my smartphone and send data to it.

However, as I'm reading through the forum questions, I'm reading about softdevice being separate and has to be flashed separately or merged with something. AFAIK softdevice has the core BLE functionality but if it's not yet with my built ble_nus binary then how is it that my ble_nus firmware is working? I tried to read more from the forum about this but I've became more confused.  I don't understand. Is softdevice already in my ble_nus binary, or I have to take account of it separate from the ble_nus example project?  So aside from downloading (through SES) the project binary to the nRF52-DK I still have to do something regarding softdevice?

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

The prebuilt binaries (residing in folders called "hex" within each example folder) are merged with the correct SoftDevice for apps that need it in order to make it easier to use them. Also, of you are building an example in SES and programming from there, the SoftDevice will also be automatically programmed together with your application. With other IDEs that is typically not the case though, and in those cases you will have to program the SoftDevice yourself.

If needed you can easily see if the SoftDevice is included or not by opening a hex file in nRF Connect programmer and see which memory regions it contains data for.

[aabitria]

Thanks for the answer.  That somehow clarifies my doubts.