Sparkfun NRF52832 Technical document

nRF52832 Breakout Board Hookup Guide

Introduction

The nRF52832 is Nordic Semiconductor’s latest multiprotocol radio system-on-chip (SoC). It’s half

microcontroller, with a list of features including 32 configurable I/O pins, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM,

ADC’s, 512kB flash, and 64kB RAM. And, it’s half 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio, supporting Bluetooth

low energy (BLE), ANT, and Nordic’s proprietary 2.4GHz ultra low-power wireless communication –

it even features on-chip NFC tag support.

SparkFun nRF52832 Breakout

WRL-13990

SparkFun’s nRF52832 Breakout provides easy access to all of the chip’s features. It breaks out all of

the nRF52’s I/O pins, provides a 32.768kHz RTC crystal, a user-programmable button and LED, and

a trace antenna to send and receive those 2.4GHz transmissions. Plus, to make the chip as easy-to-

flash as possible, the breakout comes pre-programmed with a serial bootloader.

Covered In This Tutorial

This tutorial is a comprehensive getting started guide for the SparkFun nRF52832 Breakout. It

documents hardware features of the board, and includes tips on getting a computer set up for

nRF52832 software development. Programming the chip via the serial bootloader using the Arduino

IDE is the primary focus of the latter half of the tutorial.

Bill of Materials

To follow along with this tutorial – and to get your nRF52832 Breakout up-and-running – you’ll need

a few additional components.

To program the board, we recommend interfacing the breakout board with a SparkFun Beefy 3 -

FTDI Basic Breakout. In addition to providing a USB-to-serial programming interface, this board will

also be able to fully-power the nRF52832 breakout. The less-beefy 3.3V FTDI Basic can also be

used to program the board, but we recommend finding an alternative power supply to power the

nRF52832 board. Whichever USB-to-serial converter you go with, don’t forget the USB cable!

SparkFun Beefy 3 - FTDI Basic Breakout

DEV-13746

USB microB Cable - 6 Foot

CAB-10215

To interface the nRF52832 Breakout with the FTDI, you’ll need to solder a 6-pin strip of headers to

the board’s serial interface. We recommend right-angle headers for this job, but the straight or long

headers can also get it done. Grab some extra male headers – or even female headers – if you plan

on connecting to any of the I/O pins.

Break Away Headers - Straight

PRT-00116

Break Away Male Headers - Right Angle

PRT-00553

Break Away Headers - 40-pin Male (Long Centered, PTH, 0.1")

PRT-12693

Finally, to complete the Bluetooth connection, you’ll need a BLE-equipped smartphone. This

tutorial documents how to use the nRF52832 with Nordic’s free, open-source nRF Toolbox and nRF

Connect apps, which are available on both iOS and Android devices.

nRF Toolbox

nRF Connect

Suggested Reading

The nRF52832 Breakout is an intermediate-to-advanced level board, but don’t let that scare you off!

This tutorial should be able to walk you through getting started with the board regardless of your skill

level. That said, we do recommend that you’re familiar with the topics covered in these tutorials:

Serial Communication

Asynchronous serial communication concepts: packets, signal levels, baud rates, UARTs and more!

Using the Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V

This tutorial is your guide to all things Arduino Pro Mini. It explains what it is, what it's not, and how

to get started using it.

Bluetooth Basics

An overview of the Bluetooth wireless technology.

SparkFun USB to serial UART Boards Hookup Guide

How to use the SparkFun FTDI based boards to program an Arduino and access another serial

device over the hardware serial port, without unplugging anything!

Hardware Overview

Nordic’s nRF52832 is a system-on-chip (SoC) that combines an ARM Cortex-M4F microprocessor

with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio. In addition to providing access to all of the chip’s I/O pins, the

breakout board also includes a handful of external components. The annotated image below

summarizes the breakout board’s features:

Powering the nRF52832 Breakout Board

The nRF52832 can operate on a power supply between 1.7 and 3.6V. The board also includes a

3.3V regulator with a maximum input of 6V, in case you want to power the board with batteries or a

regulated wall supply.

The power input pins are located toward the bottom side of the board. Each of the header rows

includes a “GND”, “VIN” and “3.3V” supply input. The “VCC” and “GND” pins on the 6-pin serial

header can also be used to power the board (assuming the jumper is closed, more on that later).

The VIN pin feeds into the on-board regulator, which brings the voltage down to 3.3V to supply the

nRF52832. The regulator can supply up to 600mA – way more than the nRF52832 should ever

need. If you’re powering via regulator, you can use the 3.3V pins as outputs to supply external

components.

Note that the maximum input to the 3.3V regulator (into the VIN pin) is 6V!

Alternatively, you can skip the regulator and supply the nRF52832 directly by using the 3.3V pin.

Voltage supplied here doesn’t necessarily have to be 3.3V – it can be anywhere between the SoC’s

1.7V and 3.6V operating range – so you can use a coin cell battery, or a pair of alkaline batteries to

power the chip.

The red power LED is tied to that “3.3V” bus as well. If it’s lighting up, your nRF52832 should be

getting power.

32 Multipurpose I/O Pins

The nrF52832’s microprocessor features an array of hardware peripherals, including three SPI –

configurable as either master or slave, two I2Cinterfaces, and a UART (with optional flow control).

On top of the serial interfaces, the chip also features 8 ADC pins and three hardware PWM outputs.

Each of the 32 I/O pins can be assigned almost any function, so you can move those interfaces

around the board as you see fit.

Serial Communication

Asynchronous serial communication concepts: packets, signal levels, baud rates, UARTs and more!

Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)

SPI is commonly used to connect microcontrollers to peripherals such as sensors, shift registers,

and SD cards.

Analog to Digital Conversion

The world is analog. Use analog to digital conversion to help digital device interpret the world.

I2C

An introduction to I2C, one of the main embedded communications protocols in use today.

There are just a few functions that are assigned static pins:

For your real-time counting (RTC) needs, a 32.768kHz crystal is connected to pins 0 and 1.

Pin 6 is connected to a momentary push-button, which serves an important function during

bootloading.

Pin 7 is tied to an LED. It’s active-low, so pull the pin to ground to turn the LED on.

Pins 26 and 27 were chosen as the RX and TX UART pins. They can be re-assigned in a user-

application but are stuck as the serial pins during the bootloader’s operation.

Pin 21 also doubles as an active-low reset input.

The nRF52832’s NFC capability can be supported by an antenna connected to pins 9 and 10.

Setting the Solder Jumpers

The back side of the nRF52832 Breakout is filled with jumpers to help you customize the operation

of your board. They’re labeled with an abbreviation of their purpose.

The jumpers that default closed can be sliced open with a hobby knife, while those jumpers that

default open can be closed with a small application of solder.

Jumper Label Default Notes

FTDI VCC-EN Closed Connects 6-pin serial header VCC to 3.3V bus.

PWR-LED Closed Enables or disables the red power indicator LED.

1/2 (NFC) Open Connects GPIO 9 and 10 to NFC antenna tuning capacitors.

RTC-EN Closed Connects GPIO 0 and 1 to a 32.768kHz RTC crystal.

FTDI VCC-EN - Power via 6-Pin Serial Connector

This jumper controls whether or not an FTDI Breakout connected via the 6-pin serial connector can

supply power to the nRF52832. By keeping this jumper to closed, you’ll be able to power the

nRF52832 with the same device used to program it.

You may want to cut the jumper if you’re powering the board externally. Also consider opening the

jumper if you’re using a 3.3V FTDI Basic (the non-“beefy” version), which may not be able to source

enough sustained power to supply the chip.

PWR-LED - Turn Off the Power LED

One of the nRF52832’s most important features is its low-power capability. If your application needs

to run for months on a single battery and you’re making full-use of the nRF52832’s ultra-low power

sleep modes, the 1-2mA of current pulled by the LED may relatively dwarf the current draw of the

microcontroller.

Cutting this jumper will effectively disable the power LED. You won’t always have a visible power

indicator, but you’ll be able to save a lot of power!

1 & 2 - NFC Antenna Tuning Capacitors

One of the most unique features of the nRF52832 is its NFC tag support – it can transmit data to a

nearby NFC-compatible device, or even be programmed to wake-from-sleep in the presence of an

NFC field.

To use the NFC feature, a 13.56 MHz antenna must be connected to GPIO pins 9 and 10. Most NFC

antennae also require a pair of tuning capacitors between the antenna pins and ground. The NFC

jumpers can be closed to connect each of the NFC antenna pins to a 180pF capacitor.

NFC tuning caps and enable jumpers, from the nRF52832 Breakout schematic.

This cap value may not be perfect for every antenna, but it should support a relatively wide range of

antenna inductances. We tested it successfully with an Abracon ANFACA-4545-A01 and a Pulse

Electronics W7001.

RTC-EN - Connect/Disconnect the 32.768kHz Crystal

The nRF52832 Breakout equips the chip with a 32.768kHz crystal – connected to GPIO pins 0 and

1. Unfortunately, those pins make up a quarter of the available ADC inputs. So, if your application

doesn’t require an RTC – and you need those pins to for another purpose – grab a hobby knife and

cut the two traces between their pads to disconnect the crystal.

Hardware Assembly

To program the chip, and to use any of the nRF52832’s 32 I/O, you’ll need to solder something to its

headers. In the least, we recommend soldering right-angle male headers or straight male headers

onto the six-pin serial header. Either of these will interface easily with the FTDI Basic and Beefy

Breakouts.

Solder a six-pin right-angle header into the serial port to interface it with an FTDI Beefy 3.

The remaining two rows of vias are breadboard-compatible, so you can solder male pins into both

and have it straddle a breadboard.

Solder straight male headers into the pair of header rows to make the breakout breadboard-

compatible.

Or you can solder wire, female headers, or anything else your project requires into those remaining

holes.

Adding Arduino Compatibility

Arduino isn’t the most powerful IDE out there, nor is it the most versatile, but it does make things

easy if you’re just getting started with a new platform. Fortunately, there’s an nRF52 Arduino board

addon available for just that purpose! This section details how to install the nRF52 Arduino libraries,

cores, and tools.

Download and Install the Board Package

The nRF52 Arduino cores are based on the great work by sandeepmistry. We’ve added nRF52832

Breakout Board compatibility to his board files, and added an extra tool to enable serial bootloading.

To install support for the nRF52 board in Arduino, begin by opening your Arduino preferences (File

> Preferences). Then copy and paste the URL below into the “Additional Board Manager URLs” text

box.

CopyCode

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparkfun/Arduino_Boards/nrf5/IDE_Board_Manager/package_spark

fun_index.json

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparkfun/Arduino_Boards/nrf5/IDE_Board_Manager/package_spa

rkfun_index.json

Then hit OK, and navigate to the Tools > Board > Boards Manager… tool. A search for “nRF52”

should turn up a SparkFun nRF52 Boards result. Select that and click install.

The install may take a few minutes – the package includes arm-gcc and a few other tools totaling

around 100 MB. Once the installation is complete, go to Tools > Board and select “SparkFun

nRF52832 Breakout” under the “Nordic Semiconductor nRF5 Boards” section.

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