Re:Nordic Is Getting Involved in RISC-V
by fullstop on Friday November 10, 2023 @10:26AM
(#38220000)
> No, the official Nordic devkits comes with a built-in debugger. Same for micro:bit. It's just plain USB.
Right, the devkits can do this. If you want to go past that, like making your own PCB with a NRF52 on it you need JTAG, which is not a requirement for esp32.
Maybe the NRF52 has some sort of ROM serial loader that I've missed though.
Re:Nordic Is Getting Involved in RISC-V
by SwaraLink on Friday November 10, 2023 @10:32AM
(#38220076)
It’s actually possible to use the debugger on the NRF dev kits to flash/debug custom PCBs with NRF chips. So a separate (more expensive) JTAG debugger is in fact not required.
Yes nrf dev boards have an on board j-link, and Nordic provides instructions on how to turn the board into a programmer. Their licensing with segger explicitly allows this as long as you use it for other Nordic devices. Much cheaper than a standalone j-link.
Where are the nRF52 usb dongles for $10?
Have you looked at Mouser or Digikey? $9.60 for per unit, in single unit quantities, heaps in stock as of today.
You've also got the nRF52 USB dongle which seems similar to those cheaper ESP32 kits, for around $10.
> and going past that requires a JTAG programmer
No, the official Nordic devkits comes with a built-in debugger. Same for micro:bit. It's just plain USB.
That said, I do think Nordic could be better at penetrating the hobbyist/student market. I think one problem is the lack of a combined BT/WiFi chip.
I think once Zephyr becomes more mature and there's more tutorials/guides around it, a good BT+Thread+WiFi solution from Nordic could become very popular. Zephyr is a bit hard to get into, but incredibly powerful once you get used to it.