Nordic Semiconductor has launched a dongle for its nRF Connect tool for desktop PCs, enabling developers to instantly connect wireless devices to a PC using just one end of the wireless link.

Developers can see exactly how the wireless device works on their PC without using a full development kit, making it easier to design applications and simplifying the program development process.

The 'nRF52840 Dongle' supports all major wireless standards including Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE), Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, ZigBee, 802.15.4, ANT, and proprietary 2.4GHz applications running on Nordic's nRF52840 multiprotocol SoC. It also features a user-programmable RGB LED, a mechanical push-button, a green LED, and 15 GPIO-accessible solder points around the edge. In addition, an example application is provided under the board name 'PCA10059' within the Nordic nRF SDK to help users get started quickly.

“The nRF52840 Dongle is a very smart little piece of hardware designed to act as a front-end, physical gateway for the nRF Connect tool for desktop PCs,” says Pål Kastnes, Technical Marketing Manager at Nordic. “It supports all the major short-range wireless standards that can run on the multiprotocol Nordic nRF52840 SoC and can also be used as a basic development kit.”

He added, "This product has a retail price of only about $10, but it is very functional. For example, if you are developing a product such as a smartphone app that communicates with a separate piece of hardware, such as an activity tracker, you can save money because you don't have to buy two separate development kits."

The nRF52840 dongle can also be programmed via Nordic Semiconductor’s nRFutil utility, a Python package and command-line utility that supports Device Firmware Update (DFU) and encryption functions.