BLE USB Dongle

April USB Dongle 52840

A small and low-cost nRF52840 USB Dongle Form Factor with external antenna

USB Dongle nRF52840

Key Features For Dongle 52840

  • nRF52840 flash-based ANT/ANT+™, BLE SoC solution
  • Button and LEDs for user interaction
  • Super Small Form Factor
  • Onboard USB bootloader with buttonless support (Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader)
  • Onboard external antenna
  • USB support

Hardware Description For Dongle 52840

The nRF52840 Dongle can be used as a development platform for the nRF52840 SoC. It features user configurable LEDs and a button. In addition to radio communication, the nRF52840 SoC can communicate with a computer through USB.

The USB dongle is very similar with Nordic's USB dongle PCA10059. But it has less pinouts and button.

Buttons And LEDs For Dongle 52840

The nRF528540 Dongle is equipped with a LED (LED1), a multicolor RGB LED (LED2), a user configurable button (SW1)

The LEDs and button are connected to dedicated I/Os on the nRF52840 SoC.

  • SW1 - P1.06
  • LED1 - P0.06
  • LED2
  • Red - P0.08
  • Green - P1.09
  • Blue - P0.12

SWD Interface For Dongle 52840

On the front side of the nRF52840 Dongle, there are connection hole for the SWD interface.

Pinouts P1 (from square soldering hole)

  • GND
  • VCC
  • SWDIO
  • SWDCLK

Firmware For Dongle 52840

The USB dongle nRF52840 is flashed with firmware nRF Sniffer for BLE from Nordic.

Note: The April USB dongle 52840 is shipped with the Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader after Jan 17 2025. The bootloader is a CDC/DFU/UF2 bootloader.

Last Updated:
Contributors: yanc