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Compiling Applications with nRF Connect SDK for VS Code

To make zephyr-based application development a breeze, the Stratus board is also compatible with the newly released nRF Connect SDK extension for the VS Code. Please refer to this blog on how to get started with nRF Connect for VS Code and its powerful features or watch the walk-through video tutorials from Nordic Semi on YouTube.

Adding an existing application to nRF Connect for VS Code

Once you are all set with the nRF Connect Visual Studio Code Extension Pack installation, start the extension in the VS Code.
Installing nRF Connect Visual Studio Code Extension Pack will also install all the required dependencies.
Next, click the Open welcome page on the left pane and you will be greeted by the nRF Connect VS Code Home Screen. The Home screen presents step by step walkthrough to link the toolchains and the nRF Connect SDK version.
Expand the Quick Setup configuration menu by clicking on it. Then select the nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0 that’s already on your machine followed by the associated NCS Toolchain version. Here, the nRF Connect SDK version is v1.7.0 and the corresponding toolchain that comes with it.
Click on these images to view the steps properly
We will now add the Conexio Stratus sample application by first clicking on Add Application. This will open the file browser on your machine. Navigate to the location where the led_blink resides (ncs/v1.7.0/conexio_stratus_firmware/samples/led_blink) and click add.
On the left pane, under APPLICATIONS, you should now see the ported application.

Compiling an application using nRF Connect Extension

Prior to compiling our sample application, we need to first generate the device build configuration for our project, by clicking on Click to create one option as shown below:
This opens a new tab, asking the user to select the board for which the build configurations will be generated. In our case, we will select the board as conexio_stratus_ns for the non-secure domain with the Build directory name as build.
Next, click Build Configuration to start the Zephyr application build process. Now, you should see the build process kicking in the background and generating the required files and binaries for the led_blink sample application.
Once the project is compiled successfully, in the project navigation panel, you will see all the generated files.
Well done! You have successfully managed to compile the sample application within the nRF Connect extension.

Flashing an application

To update the Conexio Stratus firmware, we now have two options at this point:
  • Open the terminal within the nRF Connect extension and invoke the newtmgr -c serial image upload build/zephyr/app_update.bin as shown, making sure the device is in DFU mode or
  • Upload the firmware using the Flash button in the nRF Connect SDK for VS Code. For doing so, we will need to connect a JTAG programmer. The easiest way is to connect one of the Nordic developer kits, here, the nRF5340 DK from Nordic which will be used to flash the Conexio stratus kit connected via the JTAG SWD interface. Once the board is connected and recognized, it will get listed under the CONNECTED DEVICES tab as shown.
Next, click on the Flash button. nRF Connect for VS Code will upload the compiled code to the Stratus board after which it will then reset the device. Once again, you should see the LEDs blinking.