Introduction

This is a short note on using the nRF51-DK to program an nRF51822 chip on an external board. So far I have (click to jump to section):

RedBearLab Nano nRF51822 modules with the dual 2×9 1.27 mm pins, on an adapter board designed by me in collaboration with Explore Embedded.

I will keep adding to this article as I try other boards.

Prerequisite

Before you read further, please take a look at my previous article on nRF51-DK programming using GCC, since we’re going to use the same setup here.

nRF51-DK SWD Interface

One of the major advantages of getting the nRF5-DK1 is that it has a built-in JTAG adapter and hence can be used to program external chips. The standard 10-pin adapter is shown below in red. But there’s also a more convenient way to get the debug output using the P20 pin headers to the right of it. The P20 uses standard pin spacing of 2.54 mm which makes it easy to hook up some wires to a breadboard.

The complete hardware files for the nRF51-DK are available from Nordic, and the schematic has the P20 connections used above. (Look for nRF51-DK-HW in the Downloads section.)

Programming the RedBearLab Nano

Let’s first look at how to program the RedBearLab Nano, which seems to be a popular BLE board.

Software

To program the RedBearLab Nano, you need to make a couple of changes in the toolchain. The Nano has less memory compared to the chip on the nRF51-DK, so you need to make a corresponding change in ble_app_uart_gcc_nrf51.ld. (The RAM LENGTH below is decreased to 0x2000.)

/* Linker script to configure memory regions. */ SEARCH_DIR(.) GROUP(-lgcc -lc -lnosys) MEMORY { FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x18000, LENGTH = 0x28000 RAM (rwx) : ORIGIN = 0x20002000, LENGTH = 0x2000 } INCLUDE "gcc_nrf51_common.ld"

The second change is really not necessary unless you want to use Nordic’s BSP (Board Support Package) but I am including it in this project since you are likely to encounter it. Save the contents below to a file named custom_board.h in the examples/bsp folder in the SDK.

/* Copyright (c) 2012 Nordic Semiconductor. All Rights Reserved. * * The information contained herein is property of Nordic Semiconductor ASA. * Terms and conditions of usage are described in detail in NORDIC * SEMICONDUCTOR STANDARD SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT. * * Licensees are granted free, non-transferable use of the information. NO * WARRANTY of ANY KIND is provided. This heading must NOT be removed from * the file. * */ #ifndef REDBEAR_NANO_H__ #define REDBEAR_NANO_H__ #define LEDS_NUMBER 1 #define LED_START 19 #define BSP_LED_0 19 #define LED_STOP 19 #define BUTTONS_LIST {} #define LEDS_LIST { BSP_LED_0 } #define BSP_LED_0_MASK (1<<BSP_LED_0) // bsp.c assumes BSP_LED_1_MASK always exists #define BSP_LED_1_MASK (1<<BSP_LED_0) #define LEDS_MASK (BSP_LED_0_MASK) #define LEDS_INV_MASK LEDS_MASK // there are no buttons on this board #define BUTTONS_NUMBER 0 #define BUTTONS_MASK 0x00000000 // UART pins connected to J-Link #define RX_PIN_NUMBER 11 #define TX_PIN_NUMBER 9 #define CTS_PIN_NUMBER 10 #define RTS_PIN_NUMBER 8 #define HWFC true #endif /* REDBEAR_NANO_H__ */

You can read more about custom_board.h at the nRF51 SDK documentation on this topic.

Hardware

Here are the pin connections for the Nano:

Hook up the SWD interface as follows (Thanks to Lijun’s write-up on this topic.):

nRF51-DK RBL Nano SH_VTG VDD SH_SWDIO SWDIO SH_SWDCLK SWCLK SH GND DETECT GND GND GND

If you are powering the Nano externally, connect VDD to the power supply – it has to be less than 3.3 V. Or you can power it from the VDD of nRF51-DK itself.

Here is a photo of how I hooked it up:



To program the board, just go into the rbl_nano/s110/armgcc and build like before. The nRF51-DK will automatically detect the external target and upload the code.

There are some slight changes I made for the Nano compared to my previous project, and I use the same main.c for both projects by using an #ifdef BOARD_CUSTOM:

The Nano has its built in LED on pin 19, so I used that instead of 22. For some reason I could not get ADC input 2 to work, hence I am using ADC input 5 for the Nano. So the LDR resistor divider output need to go into pin P0_4 (RedBearLab calls it A3 which is inconsistent with Nordic’s numbering of the same pin as Analog input 5.)

RebBearLabs has brilliantly placed the LED under the Nano board, so you just need to turn off all the lights in the room to check if it’s blinking. (Or ask your pet ant to check under the board.)

Once you have everything hooked up, the board will appear as “ADC-UART-Nano” on your BLE app and you can get the LDR light values over NUS (Nordic UART Service) as before.

Programming nRF51822 Modules with Dual 2×9 1.27mm Headers

There are several inexpensive (≈USD 5) nRF51822 modules available on sites like aliexpress. But these usually come with a dual 2×9 1.27 mm pitch headers, making it very difficult to work with them. In collaboration with Explore Embedded, I have designed a breakout board with these adapters, and that’s what I will be using for this article. (Note that what I say is valid whether you use this breakout board or not.)

Here is the backside of the board. (We plan to offer these boards for sale soon.)

Now, let’s take a look at the chip that’s on the module. To find out the variant of nRF51822 chip, you can look at the Product Anomaly Notice from Nordic, which has the following:

In my case, the chip says QFAAG0 and 140888. So it has 256 kB flash, 16 kB RAM, and it was made in 2014. What we’re really interested is in flash and RAM, since we need to put that into our build files. So what we find is that in this case, I can use the same configuration as for the RedBearLab Nano.

The SWD connections for the breakout board are as follows:

nRF51-DK nRF51 Breakout SH_VTG 3.3 V SH_SWDIO SWDIO SH_SWDCLK SWCLK SH GND DETECT GND GND GND

In my breakout board, there’s an LED on P0.21, and accordingly I have the following code:

<br />#ifdef BOARD_CUSTOM // custom board // ExploreEmbedded/Electronut breakout board #ifdef BOARD_E3BO // set LED connected to P0.21 as output uint32_t pinNum = 21; #else // for RedBearLab Nano, LED is on P0.19 // set LED connected to P0.19 as output uint32_t pinNum = 19; #endif #else // nRF51-DK // set LED2 connected to P0.22 as output uint32_t pinNum = 22; #endif

BOARD_E3BO is defined in the Makefile.

To build the code, go into the nrf51_breakout/s110/armgcc and build as follows. First, build the code:

make

Then, erase the chip:

make erase-all

Upload the Softdevice as follows:

make flash_softdevice

Finally, upload your code:

make flash

Downloads

You can find files for this project at the github link below. Do your builds in the rbl_nano/s110/armgcc folder or nrf51_breakout/s110/armgcc as appropriate.

https://github.com/electronut/nRF51-adc-test

References