Datasheet

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How are Arduino sketches executed on the nRF52? Can I do hard real time processing (bit-banging

NeoPixels, Software Serial etc.)?

In order to run Arduino code on the nRF52 at the same time as the low level Bluetooth Low Energy stack, the

Bluefruit nRF52 Feather uses FreeRTOS as a task scheduler. The scheduler will automatically switch between tasks,

assigning clock cycles to the highest priority task at a given moment. This process is generally transparent to you,

although it can have implications if you have hard real time requirements. There is no guarantee on the nRF52 to

meet hard timing requirements when the radio is enabled an being actively used for Bluetooth Low Energy. This

isn't possible on the nRF52 even without FreeRTOS, though, since the SoftDevice (Nordic's propietary binary blob

stack) has higher priority than any user code, including control over interrupt handlers.