💻 USB Dongle for nRF52840 Micro Development Kit Review

I wanted to use this as a Nordic BLE sniffing tool. I was hoping I could plug it into a USB port and use nRF Connect to program the hex file. Unfortunately this is not compatible. What a pain to reprogram. Next time I will buy the official version from Nordic Semiconductor.

Not working properly. Nrf Connect doesn't identify it, so you can't program it. Jlink won't connect. It seems to turn on and switch to developer mode, but I can't connect. It is best to buy Scandinavian branded products.

The dongle comes with a UF2 bootloader which is not compatible with the nRF toolkit. You have the option to flash the Open Bootloader, but I've had a lot of problems with it and the manufacturer hasn't been helpful in solving the problems. I ended up having to reinstall nfutil a few times. If you're looking to buy an nRF52840 to work on a project, I'd recommend a dongle or development board from Nordic Semiconductor.

Failed to flash Adafruit Circuit's Python firmware, updated UF2 bootloader, or even nRF Connect software to do anything with it ("Unidentified Hardware"). After I flashed the open bootloader from the git repo makerdiary/nrf52840-mdk-usb-dongle, nRF Connect saw it fine and I was able to use nRF Programmer to download the Python stuff for the Adafruit schema.

Great microcontroller for the price. The only major issue is that the UF2 bootloader installed with it didn't work properly. Luckily I've found it works great now when I replaced it with Open-Bootloader which has files and instructions on the manufacturer's GitHub page!

I've probably gone from "amateur" to "beginner" at this microchip thing and I agree with the comment "Incredibly difficult to "fully use". It says it's supported by PlatformIO, but real-world testing seems to have proven this wrong. I've even spent hours attempting a cubeless manual build -Chain set up for it.Nordic Tools wouldn't even recognize its own device.I (think?) I was able to update the UF2 bootloader, but it's debatable at best if it actually worked because I have no idea how to…

At first glance the board looks great but I've spent 2 days downloading it with no success so far. The repo associated with the board has very bad and outdated instructions, I spent a lot of time reading them. I could not load the Zephyr or nRF5 SDK onto the board. PlatformIO says it supports the board, but it definitely doesn't. I would recommend getting a board with better support - this board is not recommended for hobbyists.

The key comes with a UF2 loader which is not compatible with the nRF toolbox. You have the option to flash the Open Bootloader, but I've had a lot of problems with it and the manufacturer hasn't been helpful in solving the problems. I ended up having to reinstall nfutil a few times. If you're looking to buy an nRF52840 to work on a project, I'd recommend a dongle or development board from Nordic Semiconductor.

I've probably gone from "amateur" to "beginner" in this microchip business, and I agree completely agree with the comment " Incredibly difficult to use". It says it's supported by PlatformIO, but real-world testing seems to have proven this wrong. I even spent hours setting up a cubeless manual build chain for it. Nordic Tools wouldn't even recognize their own device. I (think?) was able to update the UF2 bootloader, but it's debatable at best if it actually worked because I have no idea how to