nRF52 DK

Overview

The nRF52 Development Kit (PCA10040) hardware provides support for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 ARM Cortex-M4F CPU.

More information about the board can be found at the nRF52 DK website [1]. nRF52832 Product Specification [2] contains the processor’s information and the datasheet.

Hardware

nRF52 DK has two external oscillators. The frequency of the slow clock is 32.768 kHz. The frequency of the main clock is 32 MHz.

Supported Features

The nrf52dk board supports the hardware features listed below.

on-chip / on-board
Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
2 / 2
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files.
vnd,foo
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.

See nRF52 DK website [1] and nRF52832 Product Specification [2] for a complete list of nRF52 Development Kit board hardware features.

Connections and IOs

LED

  • LED1 (green) = P0.17

  • LED2 (green) = P0.18

  • LED3 (green) = P0.19

  • LED4 (green) = P0.20

  • LD5 (red/green) = OB LED 1/2

Push buttons

  • BUTTON1 = SW1 = P0.13

  • BUTTON2 = SW2 = P0.14

  • BUTTON3 = SW3 = P0.15

  • BUTTON4 = SW4 = P0.16

  • BOOT = SW5 = boot/reset

External Connectors

J-Link Prog Connector

PIN #

Signal Name

1

VDD

2

IMCU_TMSS

3

GND

4

IMCU_TCKS

5

V5V

6

IMCU_TDOS

7

Cut off

8

IMCU_TDIS

9

Cut off

10

IMCU_RESET

Debug IN

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

VDD

N/A

2

SWDIO

SWDIO

3

GND

N/A

4

SWDCLK

SWDCLK

5

GND

N/A

6

P0.18

P0.18 / TRACEDATA[0] / SWO

7

Cut off

N/A

8

Cut off

N/A

9

GND

N/A

10

P0.21

P0.21 / RESET

Debug OUT

PIN #

Signal Name

1

EXT_VTG

2

EXT_SWDIO

3

GND

4

EXT_SWDCLK

5

GND

6

EXT_SWO

7

Cut off

8

Cut off

9

EXT_GND_DETECT

10

EXT_RESET

Shield Debug and Current measurement

PIN #

Signal Name

1

VDD_nRF

2

VDD

3

SH_VTG

4

SH_SWDIO

5

SH_SWDCLK

6

SH_SWO

7

SH_RESET

8

SH_GND_DETECT

Auxiliary

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

P0.00

P0.00 / XL1

2

P0.01

P0.01 / XL2

3

P0.21

P0.21 / RESET

4

P0.05_C

P0.05 / AIN3

5

P0.06_C

P0.06

6

P0.07_C

P0.07

7

P0.08_C

P0.08

8

P0.09

P0.09 / NFC1

9

P0.10

P0.10 / NFC2

Arduino Headers

P1/P7 Power

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

VDD

N/A

2

VDD

N/A

3

RESET

P0.21 / RESET

4

VDD

N/A

5

V5V

N/A

6

GND

N/A

7

GND

N/A

8

VIN

N/A

P2/P8 Analog in

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

A0

P0.03 / AIN1

2

A1

P0.04 / AIN2

3

A2

P0.28 / AIN4

4

A3

P0.29 / AIN5

5

A4

P0.30 / AIN6

6

A5

P0.31 / AIN7

P3/P9 Digital I/O

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

D0 (RX)

P0.11

2

D1 (TX)

P0.12

3

D2

P0.13

4

D3

P0.14 / TRACEDATA[3]

5

D4

P0.15 / TRACEDATA[2]

6

D5

P0.16 / TRACEDATA[1]

7

D6

P0.17

8

D7

P0.18 / TRACEDATA[3] / SWO

P4/P10 Digital I/O

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

D8

P0.19

2

D9

P0.20 / TRACECLK

3

D10 (SS)

P0.22

4

D11 (MOSI)

P0.23

5

D12 (MISO)

P0.24

6

D13 (SCK)

P0.25

7

GND

N/A

8

AREF

P0.02 / AIN0

9

SDA

P0.26

10

SCL

P0.27

P5/P11

PIN #

Signal Name

NRF52832 Functions

1

D12 (MISO)

P0.24

2

V5V

N/A

3

D13 (SCK)

P0.25

4

D11 (MOSI)

P0.23

5

RESET

N/A

6

N/A

N/A

Programming and Debugging

The nrf52dk board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

flash debug

Flashing

Follow the instructions in the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page to install and configure all the necessary software. Further information can be found in Flashing. Then build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

First, run your favorite terminal program to listen for output.

$ minicom -D <tty_device> -b 115200

Replace <tty_device> with the port where the board nRF52 DK can be found. For example, under Linux, /dev/ttyACM0.

Then build and flash the application in the usual way.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b nrf52dk/nrf52832 samples/hello_world
west flash

Debugging

Refer to the Nordic nRF5x Segger J-Link page to learn about debugging Nordic boards with a Segger IC.

Testing the LEDs and buttons in the nRF52 DK

There are 2 samples that allow you to test that the buttons (switches) and LEDs on the board are working properly with Zephyr:

samples/basic/blinky
samples/basic/button

You can build and flash the examples to make sure Zephyr is running correctly on your board. The button and LED definitions can be found in boards/nordic/nrf52dk/nrf52dk_nrf52832.dts.

nRF52805 emulation on nRF52 DK

The nrf52dk/nrf52805 board is a modified version of the nRF52 DK that enforces the limitations imposed by the nRF52805 IC, which is a cost-reduced variant of the original nRF52832. Since Nordic does not offer a development kit for the nRF52805, you can use this board to develop for this IC while using the nRF52 Development Kit (PCA10040).

See nRF52805 website [3] for the official reference on the IC itself.

nRF52810 emulation on nRF52 DK

The nrf52dk/nrf52810 board variant is a modified version of the nRF52 DK that enforces the limitations imposed by the nRF52810 IC, which is a cost-reduced variant of the original nRF52832. Since Nordic does not offer a development kit for the nRF52810 you can use this board to develop for this IC while using the nRF52 Development Kit (PCA10040).

See nRF52810 website [4] for the official reference on the IC itself.

References