SDK 12.3.0 - why I must flash mbed build first to make SDK build work on nRF51 DK?

[carlche]

Hi there,

I wonder why I have to flash my nRF51 DK using mbed build first to make the SDK build work?

I received my 2 nRF51 DK today and I tried the first one in the following step using ble_app_proximity (vanilla example code)

1. make
2. make flash_softdevie
3. make flash

But I cannot see the BLE device advertise after power cycle, nor LED activities.

4. I copied the mbed build of the button example, I can see the button example works on the nRF51 DK.

5. I then run "make flash" again and I can see the ble_app_proximity working.

On the 2nd nRF51 DK, I observed the same behaviour.

I wonder why I have to flash the mbed build first? What's the implication here for flash empty nRF51822 during mass production?

Thanks for your attention, Carl

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

You should not have to flash any mbed build first. Which SDK version are you using? What is the output of the make commands?

[carlche]

As shown in the title: SDK 12.3.0. The problem was with the first time we flash the application only. The output of make is normal: a bunch of .c files compiled and then Linking target: _build/nrf51422_xxac.out

text data bss dec hex filename 50740 180 4244 55164 d77c _build/nrf51422_xxac.out

Preparing: _build/nrf51422_xxac.hex Preparing: _build/nrf51422_xxac.bin

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

Sorry, I did not check in the title. If you do not get any errors when flashing the softdevice, you should work when using make flash_softdevice and make flash commands. You could check this by first eraseing the chip by using the command make erase (note that there is a bug in the Makefiles for some of the examples in SDK 12.x.0), and then flash the softdevice and application. The erase command will erase all flash on the chip. The SDK examples should then work without any mbed firmware flashed.