nRF5 SDK v14.2.0
Using the SDK with other boards

The nRF5 SDK supports the current Nordic Semiconductor development board. You can also enable support for another board by selecting a specific supported Nordic Semiconductor board or by defining a custom board. In this way, you can run the SDK examples on any target board.

Supported boards

By default, the SDK project files must be used with specific Nordic Semiconductor boards, usually the most current board. However, the SDK provides support for other boards as well.

The following boards are supported:

Board #define
nRF6310 (part of nRFgo Starter Kit) BOARD_NRF6310
PCA10000 (nRF51822 USB dongle) BOARD_PCA10000
PCA10001 (part of nRF51822 Evaluation Kit) BOARD_PCA10001
PCA10002 (nRF51422 USB dongle) BOARD_PCA10002
PCA10003 (part of nRF51422 Evaluation Kit, BLE + ANT) BOARD_PCA10003
PCA10028 (part of nRF51422 Evaluation Kit, Arduino form factor) BOARD_PCA10028
PCA10031 (nRF51422 USB dongle) BOARD_PCA10031
PCA10036 (part of nRF52832 Preview Development Kit) BOARD_PCA10036
PCA10040 (part of nRF52832 Development Kit) BOARD_PCA10040
PCA10056 (part of nRF52840 Preview Development Kit) BOARD_PCA10056
PCA20006 (nRF51822 Beacon board) BOARD_PCA20006
D52DK1 (Dynastream D52 Starter Kit) BOARD_D52DK1
WT51822 (Wavetek shield) BOARD_WT51822
Custom board (definition in custom_board.h) BOARD_CUSTOM

Enabling support for a board

To enable support for an older Nordic Semiconductor board or a custom board, you must include a define statement for the board that you want to use before you compile the code.

According to the define statement, the suitable board support file is selected. The board support file defines the peripherals, thus the location of LEDs and buttons, for the selected platform. The header files for supported boards are located in the directory examples\bsp. The actual selection of the file according to the define statement is done in boards.h.

Depending on the device on the legacy board, you might need to change the memory layout. In Keil, click Project > Options for Target '...' and modify the values for "Read/Write Memory Area". For GCC, change the linked *.ld file in the Makefile.

Adding support for a custom board

To add support for a custom board, you must create a custom board support file with the name custom_board.h. This file must be located in a directory in the Include path. You can then select to use the custom board by adding the define statement #define BOARD_CUSTOM.

The easiest way to create the custom_board.h file is to start with an existing platform definition file (for example pca10040.h) and adapt it to your needs.


Documentation feedback | Developer Zone | Subscribe | Updated