If you want to use a BLE SoftDevice in applications that cannot be ported to nRF51, 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 nRF51 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 nRF51 chip is provided as a reference only. You will need to port the serialized application to the microcontroller in the target system.

Serialization hardware setup

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 1: Serialization UART

Figure 2 illustrates how to connect two development boards as an application board and a connectivity board supplying an SPI connection.

Figure 2: Serialization SPI

Serialization software setup

Prepare the connectivity board by performing the following steps:

Connect the board to the computer and make sure that the RESET wire is disconnected.
Program the S110 SoftDevice on the connectivity board. See Running examples that use a SoftDevice for instructions.

In Keil, open the Connectivity Example for the physical transport layer that you want to use:

Physical transport layer	Example name
UART	ble_connectivity_ s110_uart_pca10028
SPI	ble_connectivity_ s110_spi_pca10028
HCI (reliable UART)	ble_connectivity_ s110_hci_pca10028
STM_UART (only available for Heart Rate Application)	ble_connectivity_s110_uart_stm_pca10028

If you are not using the Keil Pack Installer, you can find all examples in the following folder: <InstallFolder>\Nordic\nrf51\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_connectivity

Compile the application and download the created .hex file to the connectivity board.

The application board does not need a SoftDevice. Prepare the application board by performing the following steps:

Connect the board to the computer and make sure that the RESET wire is disconnected.
Erase the chip on the application board as described in the nRF51 DK User Guide.

In Keil, open one of the following serialized example projects:

Example	Example name	Physical transport layers
Alert Notification Application	ble_app_alert_notification_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Beacon Transmitter Sample Application	ble_app_beacon_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Blood Pressure Application	ble_app_bps_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Cycling Speed and Cadence Application	ble_app_cscs_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Blood Glucose Application	ble_app_gls_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	SPI
HID Keyboard Application	ble_app_hids_keyboard_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
HID Mouse Application	ble_app_hids_mouse_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Heart Rate Application	ble_app_hrs_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI, UART_STM
Health Thermometer Application	ble_app_hts_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Proximity Application	ble_app_proximity_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Proximity Application (Low Power)	ble_app_proximity_low_power_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Power Profiling Application	ble_app_pwr_profiling_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Running Speed and Cadence Application	ble_app_rscs_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI
Experimental: Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS) Client Application	experimental_ble_app_ancs_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	SPI
Direct Test Mode	ble_dtm_s110_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI

Choose the example project for the same physical transport layer as on the connectivity board.

Compile the application and download the created .hex file to the application board.

See BLE Serialization for further documentation on serialization.