do nrf51 and nrf52 series firmware and software can be protected from overriding, cloning, copying,erasing?

[Shway Pyi Thar]

Hi, I am mobile developer and very new to mcu programming. Due to our new product's requirements, I have to write program with new bluetooth chip. So if nrf51 and nrf52 series firmware and software can be protected from overriding, flashing, copying, cloning, deleting from other user? Thanks all

[Turbo J]

Read Chapter 16 in the NRF52 manual, or chapter 9 in the NRF51 manual. The NRF51 and 52 have diffrent protection mechanisms that can be configured via UICR.

[Turbo J]

Note: A full erase via the SWD pins (and a debugger like the JLink) is always possible as long as the user can access the physical pins somehow. You also need to look at the bootloader in case you require one for OTA firmware upgrades.

[Shway Pyi Thar]

Thanks Turbo J.

[Vladimir]

If you need only readback protection.

For nrf51: write in the NRF_UICR->RBPCONF register 0x00000000.

For nrf52: write 0xFFFFFF00 into NRF_UICR->APPROTECT register.

Only full chiperase will disable this protection (you can use nRFgo Studio to reset readback protection).