Feather nRF52840 (Express, Sense)
Overview
The Adafruit Feather nRF52840 provides support for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4F CPU and the following devices:
ADC
CLOCK
FLASH
GPIO
I2C
MPU
NVIC
PWM
RADIO (Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4)
RTC
Segger RTT (RTT Console)
SPI
UART
USB
WDT


Hardware
nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4F processor at 64 MHz
1 MB flash memory and 256 KB of SRAM
Battery connector and charger for 3.7 V lithium polymer batteries
Charging indicator LED
2 User LEDs
1 NeoPixel LED
Reset button
SWD connector (Express only)
SWD solder pads on bottom of PCB (Sense only)
LSM6DS33 Accel/Gyro (Sense only)
LIS3MDL magnetometer (Sense only)
APDS9960 Proximity, Light, Color, and Gesture Sensor (Sense only)
MP34DT01-M PDM Microphone sound sensor (Sense only)
SHT3X Humidity sensor (Sense only)
BMP280 temperature and barometric pressure/altitude (Sense only)
Supported Features
The adafruit_feather_nrf52840
board supports the hardware features listed below.
- on-chip / on-board
- Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
- 2 / 2
-
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files. -
vnd,foo
-
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.
Type |
Location |
Description |
Compatible |
---|---|---|---|
CPU |
on-chip |
ARM Cortex-M4F CPU1 |
|
ADC |
on-chip |
Nordic Semiconductor nRF family SAADC node1 |
|
ARM architecture |
on-chip |
Nordic UICR (User Information Configuration Registers)1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic EGU (Event Generator Unit)6 |
||
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family ACL (Access Control List)1 |
||
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family MWU (Memory Watch Unit)1 |
||
Audio |
on-chip |
Nordic PDM (Pulse Density Modulation interface)1 |
|
Clock control |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF clock control node1 |
|
Comparator |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF COMP (analog COMParator)1 |
|
Counter |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF timer node5 |
|
Cryptographic accelerator |
on-chip |
Nordic ECB (AES electronic codebook mode encryption)1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family CCM (AES CCM mode encryption)1 |
||
on-chip |
ARM TrustZone CryptoCell 3101 |
||
Debug |
on-chip |
ARMv7 instrumentation trace macrocell1 |
|
Flash controller |
on-chip |
Nordic NVMC (Non-Volatile Memory Controller)1 |
|
on-chip |
Properties defining the interface for the Nordic QSPI peripheral1 |
||
GPIO & Headers |
on-chip |
NRF5 GPIOTE1 |
|
on-chip |
NRF5 GPIO2 |
||
on-board |
GPIO pins exposed on Adafruit Feather headers1 |
||
I2C |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family TWI (TWI master)1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family TWIM (TWI master with EasyDMA)1 |
||
I2S |
on-chip |
Nordic I2S (Inter-IC sound interface)1 |
|
IEEE 802.15.4 |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF IEEE 802.15.4 node1 |
|
IIO |
on-board |
Description for a voltage divider, with optional ability to measure resistance of the upper leg1 |
|
Input |
on-board |
Group of GPIO-bound input keys1 |
|
Interrupt controller |
on-chip |
ARMv7-M NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller)1 |
|
LED |
on-board |
Group of GPIO-controlled LEDs1 |
|
Miscellaneous |
on-chip |
Nordic FICR (Factory Information Configuration Registers)1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family PPI (Programmable Peripheral Interconnect)1 |
||
MTD |
on-chip |
Flash node1 |
|
on-chip |
Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1 |
||
on-board |
QSPI NOR flash supporting the JEDEC CFI interface1 |
||
Networking |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family RADIO peripheral1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family NFCT (Near Field Communication Tag)1 |
||
Pin control |
on-chip |
The nRF pin controller is a singleton node responsible for controlling pin function selection and pin properties1 |
|
Power management |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF power control node1 |
|
PWM |
on-chip |
nRF PWM4 |
|
on-chip |
nRFx S/W PWM1 |
||
Regulator |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF5X regulator (fixed stage of the core supply)1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF52X regulator (high voltage stage of the main supply)1 |
||
Retained memory |
on-chip |
Nordic GPREGRET (General Purpose Register Retention) device2 |
|
RNG |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family RNG (Random Number Generator)1 |
|
RTC |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF RTC (Real-Time Counter)3 |
|
Sensors |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family TEMP node1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF quadrature decoder (QDEC) node1 |
||
Serial controller |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family UART1 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family UARTE (UART with EasyDMA)1 |
||
SPI |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family SPIM (SPI master with EasyDMA)3 |
|
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family SPI (SPI master)1 |
||
SRAM |
on-chip |
Generic on-chip SRAM description1 |
|
Timer |
on-chip |
ARMv7-M System Tick1 |
|
USB |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF52 USB device controller1 |
|
Watchdog |
on-chip |
Nordic nRF family WDT (Watchdog Timer)1 |
Connections and IOs
The Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Express Learn site [1] has detailed information about the board including pinouts (Express) [2] and the schematic (Express) [3].
The Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Sense Learn site [4] has detailed information about the board including pinouts (Sense) [5] and the schematic (Sense) [6].
LED
LED0 (red) = P1.15 (Express)
LED0 (red) = P1.9 (Sense)
LED1 (blue) = P1.10
Programming and Debugging
Flashing
Flashing Zephyr onto both the Feather nRF52840 Express and Sense is possible using the SWD headers. Only the Express board has an SWD connector however.
Both the Feather nRF52840 Express and Sense ship with the Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader [7] which supports flashing using UF2 [8]. This allows easy flashing of new images, but does not support debugging the device.
Build the Zephyr kernel and the Blinky sample application.
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840 samples/basic/blinky
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/uf2 samples/basic/blinky
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/sense samples/basic/blinky
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/sense/uf2 samples/basic/blinky
If using UF2, connect the board to your host computer using USB.
Tap the reset button twice quickly to enter bootloader mode. A mass storage device named
FTHR840BOOT
for (Express) orFTHRSNSBOOT
(Sense) should appear on the host. Ensure this is mounted.Flash the image.
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840 samples/basic/blinky
west flash
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/uf2 samples/basic/blinky
west flash
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/sense samples/basic/blinky
west flash
west build -b adafruit_feather_nrf52840/nrf52840/sense/uf2 samples/basic/blinky
west flash
You should see the red LED blink.