nrf51-dk practical differences between JLINK & mbed MCU interface firmware

[Jens Strümper]

Hi there, just wanted to know what the practical differences between the JLINK and mbed MCU interface firmwares are.

From what I experience I can only use the UART over USB (pc.printf) functionality on the mbed firmware. With the JLINK firmware a COM-Port is created but the terminal stays empty.

On the other hand if I want to flash an external board through the DK's JLINK port I can only do this with the JLINK firmware. If I use the mbed firmware I would always flash the nrf of the development kit.

This is bit annoying as I'd like to flash my external board and use the usb uart for debugging together without the need to swap firmware versions every time.

Is my understanding correct and are there potential workarounds for this?

Thanks a lot! Jens

[RK]

The UART over USB on the JLink version is most-definitely fully functional on the DK. I don't know what pc.printf() does, perhaps it doesn't use it correctly. If you set the UART up correctly with the correct pins, initialize it etc and run a suitable terminal session on the other end, it works.

[Jens Strümper]

All of a sudden, after a couple of failed tries serial usb is working now using JLINK interface firmware and mbed binary. My example code is:

    #include "mbed.h"              

   Serial pc(USBTX, USBRX);

   int main() {
     pc.printf("Echoes back to the screen anything you type\n");
       while(1) {
       pc.putc(pc.getc());
     }
   }

Thanks!!