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nRF52832 Breakout Board Hookup Guide
Introduction
The nRF52832 is
Nordic Semiconductor's
latest multiprotocol radio system-on-chip (SoC). It's half
microcontroller, with a list of features including 32 configurable I/O pins, SPI, I
C, UART, PWM,
2
ADC's, 512kB flash, and 64kB RAM. And, it's half 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio, supporting Bluetooth
low energy (BLE), ANT, and Nordic's proprietary 2.4GHz ultra low-power wireless communication –
it even features on-chip NFC tag support.
SparkFun nRF52832 Breakout
WRL-13990
SparkFun's
nRF52832 Breakout
provides easy access to all of the chip's features. It breaks out all of
the nRF52's I/O pins, provides a 32.768kHz RTC crystal, a user-programmable button and LED, and
a trace antenna to send and receive those 2.4GHz transmissions. Plus, to make the chip as easy-to-
flash as possible, the breakout comes pre-programmed with a serial bootloader.
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Summary of Contents for sparkfun nRF52832
- Page 1 Breakout Board Hookup Guide Introduction The nRF52832 is Nordic Semiconductor’s latest multiprotocol radio system-on-chip (SoC). It’s half microcontroller, with a list of features including 32 configurable I/O pins, SPI, I C, UART, PWM, ADC’s, 512kB flash, and 64kB RAM. And, it’s half 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio, supporting Bluetooth low energy (BLE), ANT, and Nordic’s proprietary 2.4GHz ultra low-power wireless communication –...
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Page 2: Bill Of Materials
SparkFun Beefy 3 - FTDI Basic Breakout DEV-13746 USB microB Cable - 6 Foot CAB-10215 To interface the nRF52832 Breakout with the FTDI, you’ll need to solder a 6-pin strip of headers to the board’s serial interface. We recommend right-angle headers for this job, but the... - Page 3 Break Away Headers - 40-pin Male (Long Centered, PTH, 0.1") PRT-12693 Finally, to complete the Bluetooth connection, you’ll need a BLE-equipped smartphone. This tutorial documents how to use the nRF52832 with Nordic’s free, open-source nRF Toolbox Connect apps, which are available on both iOS and Android devices.
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Page 4: Serial Communication
Suggested Reading The nRF52832 Breakout is an intermediate-to-advanced level board, but don’t let that scare you off! This tutorial should be able to walk you through getting started with the board regardless of your skill level. That said, we do recommend that you’re familiar with the topics covered in these tutorials:... - Page 5 Powering the nRF52832 Breakout Board The nRF52832 can operate on a power supply between 1.7 and 3.6V. The board also includes a 3.3V regulator with a maximum input of 6V, in case you want to power the board with batteries or a regulated wall supply.
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Page 6: Serial Peripheral Interface (Spi)
1.7V and 3.6V operating range – so you can use a coin cell battery, or a pair of alkaline batteries to power the chip. The red power LED is tied to that “3.3V” bus as well. If it’s lighting up, your nRF52832 should be getting power. - Page 7 The nRF52832’s NFC capability can be supported by an antenna connected to pins 9 and 10. Setting the Solder Jumpers The back side of the nRF52832 Breakout is filled with jumpers to help you customize the operation of your board. They’re labeled with an abbreviation of their purpose.
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Page 8: Hardware Assembly
1 & 2 - NFC Antenna Tuning Capacitors One of the most unique features of the nRF52832 is its NFC tag support – it can transmit data to a nearby NFC-compatible device, or even be programmed to wake-from-sleep in the presence of an NFC field. - Page 9 Download and Install the Board Package The nRF52 Arduino cores are based on the great work by sandeepmistry. We’ve added nRF52832 Breakout Board compatibility to his board files, and added an extra tool to enable serial bootloading.
- Page 10 The install may take a few minutes – the package includes arm-gcc and a few other tools totaling around 100 MB. Once the installation is complete, go to Tools > Board and select “SparkFun nRF52832 Breakout” under the “Nordic Semiconductor nRF5 Boards” section.
- Page 11 FTDI Basic -like device) to set up a serial interface between your computer and the breakout. Connecting the FTDI to the Breakout The FTDI Basic mates up with the nRF52832’s 6-pin serial header. Match up the “BLK” and “GRN” labels, and slide the boards together.
- Page 12 GPIO 6 when it boots up. If pin 6 is LOW, it enters the bootloader, otherwise it boots into its programmed application So, to boot the nRF52832 into its bootloader you must reset the chip while holding down the pin 6 button. In step-by-step form, the trick to resetting into the bootloader is: 1.
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Page 13: Troubleshooting
FTDI Basic. BLEPeriphial Arduino Library The nRF5 board definitions will allow you to program the nRF52832 and toggle its GPIO, but it doesn’t include any Bluetooth support. For that, we recommend grabbing the BLEPeripheral Arduino library. - Page 14 BLE Blink Example Here are a few examples that show as bare-bones as possible what it takes to turn your nRF52832 Breakout into a BLE peripheral. This first example allows you to control the board’s pin 7 LED from your smart phone –...
- Page 15 SparkFun offices – or otherwise surrounded by coworker’s with way too many Bluetooth devices – your list may include page(s) of device names. Look for “nRF52832 LED”, and click the “Connect” button next to that. (Note: until you connect to the breakout, it may, instead, advertise the name “Arduino”.)
- Page 16 BLE Button Example This example demonstrates how to use the BLE read and notify features. It monitors the button on pin 6 of the nRF52832 Breakout. When the button state changes a BLE notification is sent. The Code Using the BLEPeripheral library, upload this code to your Breakout: Copy Code ...
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Page 17: Hardware Resources
Use the nRF Connect to Test Use nRF Connect to connect to your nRF52832 Breakout – just like last time. This time the name of the device should change to nRF52832 Button (if it’s still “LED”, try connecting anyway – sometimes the local ID doesn’t change until you’ve connected to it). -
Page 18: Software Resources
For faster programming, an nRF52832 Development Kit can be used to program the nRF52832 Breakout Board. (The nRF52832’s single-wire debug – SWD – pins are broken out to test points near the NFC antenna pads – labeled “C” and “D” for SWDCLK and SWDIO.)
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