If you want to use a BLE SoftDevice in applications that cannot be ported to nRF5, for example because they use specific peripherals or need more resources like RAM, flash memory, or CPU speed, you should consider using serialization.
The SDK provides a sample serialization setup consisting of two nRF5 Development boards. One of these boards serves as application board and hosts the actual Bluetooth application. The other board serves as connectivity board and supplies the radio connection. The application board with an nRF5 chip is provided as a reference only. You will need to port the serialized application to the microcontroller in the target system.
The sample serialization setup supports two physical transport interfaces: UART and SPI. See Figure 1 for an illustration of how to connect two development boards as an application board and a connectivity board supplying a UART connection.
Figure 2 illustrates how to connect two development boards as an application board and a connectivity board supplying an SPI connection.
Shorting SB17 will connect the reset on the nRF5 IC with the Arduino RESET signal. Together with the wire between P0.12 (nRF51) or P0.11 (nRF52) on the application board and the RESET on the connectivity board, shorting SB17 makes it possible to reset the connectivity chip from the application CPU.
Prepare the connectivity board by performing the following steps:
Physical transport layer | Example location |
---|---|
UART | <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_central_and_peripheral\ble_connectivity\board\ser_s13x_uart |
SPI | <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_central_and_peripheral\ble_connectivity\board\ser_s13x_spi |
HCI (reliable UART) | <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_central_and_peripheral\ble_connectivity\board\ser_s13x_hci |
The application board does not need a SoftDevice. Prepare the application board by performing the following steps:
ser_s13x_transport
folder. The following serialized examples are available: Example | Physical transport layers |
---|---|
Alert Notification Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Beacon Transmitter Sample Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Blood Pressure Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Cycling Speed and Cadence Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Glucose Application | SPI |
HID Keyboard Application | SPI |
HID Mouse Application | SPI |
Heart Rate Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Health Thermometer Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Power Profiling Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Running Speed and Cadence Application | UART, SPI, HCI |
Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS) Client Application | SPI |
Direct Test Mode | UART, SPI, HCI |
BLE Heart Rate Collector Example | SPI |
BLE Multi-link Example | UART, SPI, HCI |
See BLE serialization for further documentation on serialization.