Updating to new SDK and SoftDevice: What happens on the Development Kits

[brianreinhold]

I just downloaded the latest SDK 17.1.0. My previous version was 17.0.2. I am using SoftDevice 140 that comes with the package,

My application uses just SoftDevice, at least for writing and reading flash and BTLE.

I took my project which was in 

examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_ghs_epoch\pca10056\s140\ses

and copied it into the new unzipped SDK. That included all the settings in the completers (in this case SES and Keil).

I opened up the project in SES, built it without an error and downloaded it onto the nRF52840 DK which I had been using with the previous SDK.

It ran without a problem.

Though it is nice that it ran without an issue, I would have expected something to be incompatible with the updated SoftDevice. The question I have, is when I installed my application onto the DK, did the new version of SoftDevice 140 get installed as well or is the old version still on the DK (and thus no issue). If the old version of S140 is not overwritten, how do I update the DK to the latest version of SoftDevice? Do I have to go through the NRF connect process?

[Marte Myrvold]

Hi,

The S140 SoftDevice versions used in nRF5 SDK v17.0.2 and v17.1.0 are the same, namely v7.2.0. You can see the supported SoftDevices in the introduction of a SDK versions documentation, see nRF5 SDK v17.1.0 and nRF5 SDK v17.0.2. We also have a compatibility matrix where you can see the compatibility between SoftDevices and SDKs, see Compatibility Matrix > SDKs and SoftDevices for more information.

When building and flashing a project in SES where the SoftDevice is configured to be used the SoftDevice will be programmed together with the application. This is by default the case for the Bluetooth examples, so it should be programmed in your case as well unless you have removed this configuration. If you want to program the SoftDevice separately you can find the firmware in <nRF5_SDK_root>/components/softdevice/s140/hex, or you can download it from here: S140 Download. You can program the SoftDevice using nrfjprog (nrfjprog --family nRF52 --program HEX) or with the Programmer app in nRF Connect for Desktop.

Best regards,

Marte

[brianreinhold]

Okay, so that answers both cases. The update to 17.1.0 made no difference in my case, and if it had, the correct version of SoftDevice would be deployed.

[Marte Myrvold]

Yes, that is correct.