Bringup

How to get the board from being assembled to being functional

nRF Command Line Tools + Segger J-Link

Note that Nordic encourages the use of the nRF Util over nrfjprog. I’ve found nrfjprog to be more reliable in the past and haven’t migrated to nRF Util, but it’s probably not too hard to figure out the equivalent commands.

Prereqs

• Obtain a Segger J-Link debugger
• Download the nRF Command Line Tools
• Download the SoftDevice s113 from https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-software/S113

Instructions

1. Connect your debugger.

2. Flash the SoftDevice. This generally only needs to be done once.

   nrfjprog --family nrf52 --program s113_nrf52_7.2.0_softdevice.hex --chiperase --verify --reset
   

   Your .hex filename may differ.

3. Flash the hangman firmware:

   DEFMT_LOG=info cargo run --release --bin proto1_0 --features nrf52832
   

Windows + ST-Link

Instructions using Windows, WSL and a ST-Link

Requirements

• Working WSL2
• ST-Link, with installed drivers (I used a ST-Link V2-1, borrowed from a Nucleo Board)
• Install usbipd-win on windows: run winget install --interactive --exact dorssel.usbipd-win in a windows terminal
• Install required packages in wsl: sudo apt install build-essential
• Install rust: https://rustup.rs/
• Install probe-rs: https://probe.rs/
• Install OpenOCD in WSL: sudo apt install openocd in wsl
• Download the SoftDevice for the chip from NRF (I used s113_nrf52_7.3.0_softdevice.hex)

Flashing

• Connect the ST-Link
• Follow these instructions to get the ST-Link connected to WSL: https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/wsl/connect-usb
• usbipd list
• usbipd bind --busid <busid>
• usbipd attach --wsl --busid <busid>
• Connect the board to the ST-Link correctly
• Power the board
• Run openocd -f /usr/share/openocd/scripts/interface/stlink.cfg -f /usr/share/openocd/scripts/target/nrf52.cfg
• In a seperate terminal run telnet localhost 4444
• Use targets you can check that you can see the nrf52 target
• Run init, halt, nrf5 mass_erase, program /full/path/.../s113_nrf52_7.3.0_softdevice.hex verify
• Run exitin telnet shell
• Exit OpenOCD with CTRL+C
• Build and flash the code with cargo run --bin proto1_0 --release
• Done! Further flashing etc. should not require reflashing the SoftDevice

Notes

• If you just want to flash the softdevice in one command you can do it like this: openocd -f /usr/share/openocd/scripts/interface/stlink.cfg -f /usr/share/openocd/scripts/target/nrf52.cfg -c "init; halt; nrf5 mass_erase; program /full/path/.../s113_nrf52_7.3.0_softdevice.hex preverify verify; shutdown"

Sources

• https://www.jentsch.io/nrf51822-flashen-mit-st-link-v2-und-openocd/
• https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack/wiki/Flashing-nRF-with-OpenOCD—ST-Link
• https://github.com/lupyuen/stm32bluepill-mynewt-sensor/blob/nrf52/scripts/nrf52/flash-boot.sh
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5wub5ywzTU&t=197s
• https://www.reddit.com/r/embedded/comments/1k9v4vr/stm32_cmake_stlinkv3pwr_on_windows_in_2025/?show=original
• https://github.com/dorssel/usbipd-win/wiki/WSL-support
• https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/help-setting-up-openocd-with-st-link-in-wsl2/112271
• https://hackmd.io/@aeefs2Y8TMms-cjTDX4cfw/r1fqAa_Da
• https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/wsl/connect-usb