Running a serialized application

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:

1. Connect the board to the computer and make sure that the RESET wire is disconnected.
2. Program the S120 SoftDevice on the connectivity board. See Running examples that use a SoftDevice for instructions.
3. In Keil, open the Connectivity Example for the physical transport layer that you want to use:

   Physical transport layer	Example name
   UART	ble_connectivity_s120_uart_pca10028
   SPI	ble_connectivity_s120_spi_pca10028
   HCI (reliable UART)	ble_connectivity_s120_hci_pca10028

   If you are not using the Keil Pack Installer, you can find all examples in the following folder: <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_central\ble_connectivity
4. 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:

1. Connect the board to the computer and make sure that the RESET wire is disconnected.
2. Erase the chip on the application board as described in the nRF51 DK User Guide.
3. In Keil, open one of the following serialized example projects:

   Example	Example name	Physical transport layers
   BLE Heart Rate Collector Example	ble_app_hrs_c_s120_TransportLayer_pca10028	SPI
   BLE Multi-link Example	ble_app_multilink_central_s120_TransportLayer_pca10028	UART, SPI, HCI

   Choose the example project for the same physical transport layer as on the connectivity board.
4. Compile the application and download the created .hex file to the application board.

See BLE Serialization for further documentation on serialization.