Unable to view printk() output in Visual Studio Code for Arduino Nano 33 BLE (nRF52840)

[ipener]

Hi everyone,  I’d like to build native code on my Arduino Nano 33 BLE on a Mac, i.e. using the nRF Connected SDK and avoiding the Arduino Core/Mbed OS. I’ve followed zephyr’s Getting Started with nRF Connect for Visual Studio Code guide and am able to build the samples. However, the board doesn’t appear under the CONNECTED DEVICES section in VC Code although it's connected via USB. I’m able to flash the board using Arduino’s bossac tool but the problem is that no prints appear in the nRF Terminal (e.g. for the zephyr/samples/hello_world project). What's the simplest way to make this work?

[Marte Myrvold]

Hi,

Please see Simon's answer here: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/84448/no-devices-connected/351559#351559

There is no debugger/JLink device on the Arduino Nano 33 BLE board. In order to communicate with the nRF Connect for VS code you will need either a J-Link debugger or an nRF52 series DK.

According to the Arduino Nano datasheet (chapter 8, board operation), it's recommended using the Arduino Desktop IDE or Web editor.

Best regards,

Marte

[ipener]

Thank's for the quick reply. Bummer that this doesn't work out of the box, however, I'm able to view prints over the USB following this example from zephyr. For those developing on a Mac, after flashing the board, open a Terminal and run:

screen /dev/tty.usbmodem* 9600

where usbmodem* is the port connected to your board and 9600 the desired baud rate. No need to use the Arduino IDE.