Getting started with the nRF54H20 DK

This section gets you started with your nRF54H20 Development Kit (DK) using the nRF Connect SDK. It tells you how to install the Multicore Hello World application sample and perform a quick test of your DK.

If you have already set up your nRF54H20 DK and want to learn more, see the following documentation:

Installation and Configuration and building documentation to install the nRF Connect SDK and learn more about its development environment.
ug_nrf54 documentation for more advanced topics related to the nRF54H20.

If you want to go through an online training course to familiarize yourself with Bluetooth Low Energy and the development of Bluetooth LE applications, enroll in the Bluetooth LE Fundamentals course in the Nordic Developer Academy.

Minimum requirements 

Make sure you have all the required hardware and that your computer has one of the supported operating systems.

Hardware 

nRF54H20 DK
USB-C cable

Software 

On your computer, one of the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows
Ubuntu Linux
macOS

The operating system versions that support the nRF Connect SDK tools are listed in the Supported operating systems section.

You also need to install Git or Git for Windows (on Linux and Mac, or Windows, respectively).

Testing with the Blinky sample 

The nRF54H20 DK comes preprogrammed with the Blinky sample.

Complete the following steps to test that the DK works correctly:

Connect the USB-C end of the USB-C cable to the IMCU USB port the nRF54H20 DK.
Connect the other end of the USB-C cable to your PC.
Move the POWER switch to On to turn the nRF54H20 DK on. The switch is located in the top left corner of the DK PCB.

LED1 will turn on and start to blink.

If something does not work as expected, contact Nordic Semiconductor support.

Installing the required software 

On your computer, install nRF Connect for Desktop. You must also install a terminal emulator, such as nRF Connect Serial Terminal (from the nRF Connect for Desktop application) or the nRF Terminal (part of the nRF Connect for Visual Studio Code extension).

Programming the sample 

The Multicore Hello World application sample is a multicore sample running on both the Application core (cpuapp) and the Peripheral Processor (PPR, cpuppr). It uses the nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuapp build target.

To build and program the sample to the nRF54H20 DK, complete the following steps:

Connect the nRF54H20 DK to you computer using the IMCU USB port on the DK.
Navigate to the nrf/samples/multicore/hello_world folder containing the sample.

Build the sample for application and radio cores by running the following command:

west build -p -b nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuapp -T sample.multicore.hello_world.nrf54h20dk_cpuapp_cpurad .

Alternatively, build the sample for the application and PPR cores by running the following command:

west build -p -b nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuapp -T sample.multicore.hello_world.nrf54h20dk_cpuapp_cpuppr .

Program the sample using nrfjprog. If you have multiple Nordic Semiconductor devices, make sure that only the nRF54H20 DK you want to program is connected.
```
west flash
```

The sample will be automatically built and programmed on both the Application core and the Peripheral Processor (PPR) of the nRF54H20.

Reading the logs 

With the Multicore Hello World application sample programmed, the nRF54H20 DK outputs logs for the application core and the configured remote processor. The logs are output over UART.

To read the logs from the Multicore Hello World application sample programmed to the nRF54H20 DK, complete the following steps:

Connect to the DK with a terminal emulator (for example, nRF Connect Serial Terminal) using the default serial port connection settings.
Press the Reset button on the PCB to reset the DK.

Observe the console output for both cores:

For the application core, the output should be as follows:

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK zephyr-v3.5.0-3517-g9458a1aaf744 ***
Hello world from nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuapp
Hello world from nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuapp
...

For the remote core, e.g. PPR, the output should be as follows:

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK zephyr-v3.5.0-3517-g9458a1aaf744 ***
Hello world from nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuppr
Hello world from nrf54h20dk_nrf54h20_cpuppr
...

Note

If no output is shown when using nRF Serial Terminal, select a different serial port in the terminal application.

See the nRF54H20 logging page for more information.

Next steps 

You are now all set to use the nRF54H20 DK. See the following links for where to go next:

Architecture of nRF54H20 for information about the multicore System-on-Chip, such as the responsibilities of the cores and their interprocessor interactions, the memory mapping, and the boot sequence.
The introductory documentation for more information on the nRF Connect SDK and the development environment.