Make Your nRF52 Device OTA Capable with Barracks in 10 Mins

nRF52 Chipset

The nRF52 chipset from Nordic Semiconductor is pretty popular among makers and IoT companies. It’s an efficient chipset for Bluetooth Low Energy communications and one of the Bluetooth 5 enabled few mass production chip on the market. This is why the nRF52 is the chipset of choice of many board makers like the Arduino Primo and the Aconno.

However, like most chipsets in this world, the nRF52 doesn’t come with any device management solution. It is something that might become handy if you are on the verge of mass production, but also if you have a few devices being tested by different people in your company. This is why making it work with Barracks is a good idea: you’ll be able to update all your devices with the latest version of your IoT application.

You will also be able to provide your user with different version on your IoT device based on any criteria you want (Are they beta testers? Here is your version. Are they located in EMEA? Here is your version, …).

How easy is it to pluck it to the barracks?

It’s very easy and you can achieve a complete integration in three easy steps. The complete operation will only take 10 minutes of your time, and your tea will still not be cold enough for you to drink it

Step 1: Make sure the NRF52 firmware is DFU capable

Not all firmware is created equally. Depending on your manufacturer, it may or may not be included in the example code. If you’re using the nRF52 official developpment kit, we've got you covered anyway with this firmware you can download and flash on your board.

Step 2: Get a free demo account from barracks and get your API key

If you don’t have an account yet, create one right now and select the Free plan. It’s intended for developers to play and test Barracks, and includes communication with up to 50 devices for three months. Once it’s done, go to “My Account” and copy your API key. That’s what you’ll need to make our samples work.

Step 3: Get our sample app for Android and iOS, and...that's about it

We did two simple sample app for Android and iOS to communicate with the nRF52. Pull the code from GitHub here for iOS and here for Android. Put your API key in the proper file:

For iOS:

For Android:

Run the code and launch the app:

You’ll see the nRF52 pretty fast. Tap on it, manually insert the current versionId (we’ll let you automatise this) and check for update.

If you have a published update on Barracks, it will appear here on the application. By taping on proceed, you make the application download the update from Barracks then install it on your board. That’s it, your board is now up to date thanks to Barracks.

Feel free to inspire yourself from our sample application. If you have any question, we’re here to help.