BBC micro:bit J-Link OB firmware upgrade

Hey!

Wanted to tell you about this free J-Link upgrade for the BBC micro:bit.

With the firmware upgrade your micro:bit DAPLink will be transformed into a J-Link OB (on board), while still maintaining the Drag and Drop capabilities that developers currently use with the online tools.

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So what do you need to do the upgrade? A micro:bit board, USB cable, the latest J-Link software installed, the upgrade HEX file containing the upgrade firmware.

It's really easy to do the upgrade, just have to put the micro:bit into Maintenance mode (see the video on the SEGGER page), it then enumerates as a Mass Storage Device on the connected machine, next drag and drop the J-Link firmware to the drive. Then you are good to go.

A short video walks through the steps - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM2KUQLK2cM

Adding J-Link support will allow programmers to jump into a new world of development with the Embedded Studio IDE (or other IDE's that support J-Link).

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Users can take advantage of all J-Link features such as ultra fast flash download and debugging speeds and the free-to-use GDBServer.

The page here has all the details and there are a couple of simple Embedded Studio projects to get you running.

More adventurous micro:bit-ers could possibly use the code base exportable from mbed platform - https://developer.mbed.org/platforms/Microbit

Happy coding! Ken