Nordic nRF5 Series: nRF52 User manual

nRF5 Series: Developing with
SEGGER Embedded Studio
Getting Started Guide
v1.1
1159720_163 v1.1 / 2018-10-16

Contents
Revision history.................................. iii
1Introduction................................... 4
2Minimum requirements............................ 5
3Related documentation.............................6
4Development kits, boards, and chips..................... 7
5SoftDevices................................... 8
6Running a first test............................... 9
7Setting up your toolchain........................... 10
7.1 Nordic tools and downloads ........................... 10
7.2 Setting up the nRF5 SDK ............................. 13
7.3 Installing SEGGER tools ..............................13
7.4 Installing the nRF5x Command Line Tools ...................... 14
8Programming an application......................... 15
8.1 Erasing the board ................................ 15
8.2 Importing Keil projects .............................. 16
8.3 Compiling the application ............................ 20
8.4 Configuring placement of the SoftDevice ...................... 21
8.5 Programming the firmware ............................ 24
8.6 Adding files .................................. 24
8.6.1 Adding source files ............................. 24
8.6.2 Including header files ............................ 25
9Communicating with the board....................... 27
9.1 Connecting via RTT ............................... 27
9.1.1 Connecting via RTT on Windows ........................ 27
9.1.2 Connecting via RTT on Linux ..........................28
9.2 Connecting via CDC-UART ............................ 28
10 Testing the application............................ 30
10.1 Testing with a mobile device ........................... 30
10.2 Testing with a computer ............................ 31
11 Debugging................................... 33
Glossary ..................................... 34
Acronyms and abbreviations............................35
Legal notices................................... 36
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Revision history
Date Version Description
October 2018 1.1 Added Adding files on page 24
July 2018 1.0 First release
1159720_163 v1.1 iii

1Introduction
This guide will help you get started with your nRF5 Series Development Kit (DK) and developing your
application with SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES).
If you have worked with any of Nordic Semiconductor's products before, you are probably familiar with
the required software tools. In this case, this guide will mostly provide reference information.
If this is your first time developing software for a Nordic Semiconductor System on Chip (SoC), this guide
will help you set up your development toolchain and guide you through all the steps that are necessary to
develop, program, test, and debug your application.
This guide describes how to work with SES. SES is a cross-platform Integrated Development Environment
(IDE), so you can run it on different operating systems. For use with Nordic Semiconductor devices, you
can get a free license that has no limitations.
There are two Getting Started Guides that show how to work with different IDEs:
•nRF5 Series: Developing with SEGGER Embedded Studio (this document)
•nRF5 Series: Developing on Windows with ARM Keil MDK
Check out the Nordic DevZone for additional setup information and help.
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2Minimum requirements
Ensure that you have all the required hardware and that your computer fulfills the software requirements.
Hardware requirements
• One of the following nRF5 Series development kits:
• nRF52840 DK
• nRF52 DK
• nRF51 DK
• Micro-USB 2.0 cable
• Personal computer (PC) or Mac
• Smartphone or tablet that supports Bluetooth® Low Energy
• Optional: nRF52840 Dongle or nRF51 Dongle
Software requirements
One of the following operating systems:
• Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10
• macOS
• Linux
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3Related documentation
This guide is a starting point and gives essential information for getting started with software development
on nRF5 Series devices. For more detailed information, check the documentation of the separate
components and tools.
Development Kit User Guides
nRF52840 Development Kit
nRF52 Development Kit
nRF51 Development Kit
Dongle User Guides
nRF52840 Dongle
nRF51 Dongle
Compatibility Matrices
nRF52840 Compatibility Matrix
nRF52832 Compatibility Matrix
nRF52810 Compatibility Matrix
nRF51 Series Compatibility Matrix
nRF5 SDK documentation
nRF5 SDK
Tools User Guides
nRF5x Command Line Tools
nRF Connect Bluetooth Low Energy
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4Development kits, boards, and chips
Each nRF5 Series DK contains a board, which in turn contains a chip. Some of Nordic Semiconductor's tools
target the chip, while others target the development board or the development kit. Therefore, you must
be aware of the relation between the different components.
You can find all compatibility information in the compatibility matrix for each chip. The following table
summarizes the information that you must be aware of for programming your development board.
Development kit Development board Chip
nRF52840 DK PCA10056 nRF52840
nRF52840 Dongle PCA10059 nRF52840
nRF52 DK PCA10040 nRF52832
Note: This kit is also used for
nRF52810 development. See
nRF52810 Development Kit for
more information.
nRF51 DK PCA10028 nRF51422
nRF51 Dongle PCA10032 nRF51422
Table 1: Relation between development kits, boards, and chips
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5SoftDevices
A SoftDevice is a wireless protocol stack that complements an nRF5 Series SoC. Nordic Semiconductor
provides them as qualified, precompiled binary files. While it is possible to build applications without
using a SoftDevice, all nRF5 SDK example applications that use Bluetooth Low Energy or ANT™ require a
SoftDevice.
See the compatibility matrices for detailed information about which SoftDevice versions are supported for
each chip. The following table summarizes the usage scenarios for each SoftDevice.
Protocol Role Chip SoftDevice
• nRF51422
• nRF51822
S110Peripheral
• nRF52810
• nRF52832
S112
Central or Peripheral • nRF51422
• nRF51822
S120
• nRF51422
• nRF51822
S130
• nRF52832 S132
Bluetooth Low Energy
Central and Peripheral
• nRF52840 S140
• nRF51422 S210
ANT
• nRF52832 S212
Peripheral • nRF51422 S310 Bluetooth Low Energy and ANT
Central and Peripheral • nRF52832 S332
Table 2: SoftDevice overview
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6Running a first test
Before you start developing, program and run a simple application on your development board to
ensure that the board functions as expected and the communication between your computer and your
development board works.
Before you begin, download the latest compatible version of the nRF5 SDK. For information about which
SDK supports which IC revisions, check the compatibility matrices.
The nRF5 SDK contains precompiled HEX files of the most common examples. Extract the zip file into a
folder of your choosing.
1. Power up the nRF5 Series development board:
a) Connect one end of a micro-USB 2.0 cable to the USB connector on the board and the other end to
one of your PC's USB host ports.
b) Slide the power switch to "ON".
Observe that LED1 starts blinking.
2. Open a file explorer and confirm that the development board has appeared as a removable drive
named "JLINK".
3. In the folder where you extracted the nRF5 SDK, navigate to examples\peripheral\blinky
\hex.
4. Select the HEX file that corresponds to your development board and copy it to the JLINK drive.
The development board will now restart and run the application.
If the LEDs on the board start blinking, you have successfully programmed your first application! Next,
continue to set up your development toolchain and program a more advanced application.
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7Setting up your toolchain
Before you can start developing, you must install the required software. This software includes tools
to connect to your development board, an IDE for developing your application, and the nRF5 SDK that
provides libraries and example applications.
See Nordic tools and downloads on page 10 for an overview of available tools and the links to
download the latest versions for your operating system.
The following tools are required:
•nRF5 SDK
•SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES)
•SEGGER J-Link Software and Documentation Pack
The following tools are optional:
• nRF5x Command Line Tools for Windows, Linux32, Linux64, or macOS (all including nrfjprog)
See the following sections for installation instructions.
7.1 Nordic tools and downloads
This overview lists all available Nordic Semiconductor tools and supported IDEs. Not all of these tools are
required. To help you pick the IDE and tools you want to use, see the following sections for common setup
scenarios.
Development IDE
Pick one of the IDEs with a compiler supported by Nordic:
IDE Windows Linux OSX
SEGGER Embedded
Studio (SES)
Yes Yes Yes
MDK-ARM Keil µVision Yes No No
GNU/GCC Yes Yes Yes
IAR Yes No No
SES is the recommended platform. It is free for use with nRF devices.
Essential tools
You need to download these Nordic tools to develop with our devices.
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