9 years, 7 months ago.

program production nRF51822

Once an application is developed on mbed BLE for nRF51822, how would I program a production part? Can I used the mbed board itself and tap off the SWD signals or use a JTAG programmer like the one that comes with the development kit? If JTAG, then do I use Keil and the mbed output file to program?

Thanks, Tom

2 Answers

9 years, 7 months ago.

Hi,

I'm not sure it's what you ask but I've read something about creating Custom PCB with mbed.
http://mbed.org/users/chris/notebook/prototype-to-hardware/

Hope it helps,

Romain

My question was more specific to the mbed BLE board and chip. How do you program the nRF51822 in production using the mbed compiled file?

posted by Tom Russell 04 Sep 2014

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Does "production" mean your own PCB ? Does "program" mean to push the binary code into the flash of the MCU ? If yes, the answer is in the end of the link I sent (using Bin2Hex & Flash Magic).

Sorry not getting to the point.

posted by Romain Berrada 05 Sep 2014

Yes I do mean my own PCB and a new (blank) nRF51822 chip, but this applies to other platforms as well. The mbed BLE board has an Atmel chip providing the Open SDA interface. My final product will have just the nRF51822. It looks like I would need to generate a hex file from the mbed .bin and then use a Nordic tool (J-link lite) to program the chip.

posted by Tom Russell 07 Sep 2014

That is precisly what the link talk about. It tells everything on how to program chips without OpenSDA. Basically, it uses a board with OpenSDA as a bridge and some softwares to create a .hex and how to flash it.

posted by Romain Berrada 08 Sep 2014
9 years, 7 months ago.

Modifying the mKIT to bring out the SWDIO and SWDCLK can be done. Could have been easier if the U3/U4 connections were done differently to allow switching between the on-board and an off-board nRF51822. But since it wasn't, the option is to make sure to disconnect the InterfaceMCU switch to OFF and not power the onboard chip with the TargetPower switch to OFF. And tap off the traces to to gain access to the SWDIO and SWDCLK signals.

More details here...

https://mbed.org/forum/platform-39-Nordic-nRF51822-community/topic/4849/

http://thomasolson.com/PROJECTS/BLE/mKIT/mKITmod2.jpg

http://thomasolson.com/PROJECTS/BLE/mKIT/mKITtop.jpg