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Loading ble_app_beacon to Smart Beacon Kit

Greg Winn

Hello, I have the Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit along with the Dev kit (J-Link Lite and other eval boards). I am using the nrf51 SDK version 6.1.0.0 in eclipse along with GNU Tools 4.7 2013q1.

My development env is setup and working (tested with a simple blink script compiled to the same smart beacon i am testing with here).

Smart Beacon: www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF51822-Bluetooth-Smart-Beacon-Kit

Dev Kit: www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF51822-Development-Kit

I have the example project "s110/ble_app_beacon" project compiling, and writing to the Smart Beacon from Nordic but when looking for the BLE devise (with an app on my phone along with one on my computer) it is not showing up.

When I open nRFGo and look at the device it shows nothing in "Reagan 1 (Bootloader) along with nothing in (Application) or (SoftDevice)"...

I must be missing some critical step, please any help would be awesome!

Please let me know if you need any additional information!!

  • 0

    Hi

    The beacon kit originally was shipped with Beacon kit firmware 1.0.0 which contained SDK v5.2.0 bootloader (to use with S110 v6.0.0) as well as the ble_app_beacon_bcs firmware. Later, the beacon kit was whipped with Beacon firmware 1.1.0 which contained bootloader from SDK 7.1.0 (to use with S110 7.1.0) and the ble_app_beacon firmware.

    For information on how to program the Beacon kit with a smartphone, look at this thread. This thread and this thread also contain info on how to program the beacon kit with arbitrary softdevice, bootloaders and firmware.

    So I understand that you have already soldered headers to the P2 connectors on the Beacon kit and connected the Beacon kit to your programmer, in order for you to program arbitrary softdevice, Bootloader and application.

    If you see nothing in Region 0 or Region 1 when you select the Beacon kit in nRFgo Studio, then your Beacon kit is blank. To get the original Beacon kit firmware to the Beacon kit, do the following:

    • Press the Program Softdevice tab in nRFgo Studio and program the S110 v6.0.0 softdevice.
    • Press the Program Application tab in nRFgo Studio and program the bootloader.hex file located in nRF51822 Beacon v1.0.1\Source Code\Nordic\nrf51822\Board\nrf51_beacon\pca20006\bootloader\arm_build. Prior to that you must build the bootloader project to generate the bootloader.hex file
    • Then with your Android phone, upload ble_app_beacon.hex from the \nRF51822 Beacon v1.0.1\Source Code\Nordic\nrf51822\Board\nrf51_beacon\pca20006\ble_app_beacon_bcs\arm_build. Prior to that you need to compile the ble_app_beacon_bcs project to generate the ble_app_beacon.hex file.

    If you want to flash applications from nRF51 SDK v6.1.0 to your beacon kit, you must choose compatible softdevice with that version of the SDK, see SDK release notes for list of compatible softdevice versions for different nRF51 SDK versions. Non of the examples in the nRF51 SDK have examples ported to the Beacon kit. The BLE examples in the nRF51 SDK will advertize on the Beacon kit but the led and button mapping is different. You will not see the led light up when advertising because the mapping is different and the Beacon kit also has RGB led but the development kit has normal leds. In order to have that to work, you will have to mimic the RGB functionality in the ble_app_beacon_bcs firmware (more particular: main.c->leds_timer_handler) to the nRF51 SDK firmware examples. So to run SDK 6.1.0 example on your Beacon kit, do the following:

    • Flash softdevice S110 v7.0.0 to the Beacon kit
    • Flash nRF51 SDK v6.1.0 firmware to the Becon kit

    or

    • Flash softdevice S110 v7.0.0 to the Beacon kit
    • Flash bootloader from nRF51 SDK v6.1.0 to the Beacon kit
    • Upload nRF51 SDK v6.1.0 BLE application to the becon kit via MCP DFU function, or via nRF toolbox DFU app for IOS or Android.

    Update 12.11.2014 The ble_app_beacon_bcs example is part of the "nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit Firmware Files" available here

  • 0

    @Stefan: we try to run the nRF51 SDK's ble_app_uart example on the Beacon Kit. the Example worked on the Development Kit. But on Beacon Kit, after flashing the SoftDevice and the uart application, the beacon Kit are not broadcasting BLE signals. In the answer you posted, you said that the LED might not work, however it would still advertise. How can we make the beacon kit advertise ? Thanks.

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