User Manual
nRF51 Development Kit User Guide v1.0
Page 12
5.3 Power supply 
The nRF51 DK board has several power options:
 Figure 7 Power supply options
The 5 V from the USB is regulated down to 3.3 V through an on-board voltage regulator. The battery and 
external power supply are not regulated. The power sources are routed through a set of diodes (D1A, D1B, 
and D1C) for reverse voltage protection, where the circuit is supplied from the source with the highest 
voltage.
Note:  When not USB powered, the Interface MCU is in dormant state and will draw an additional 
current of ~ 20 μA in order to maintain the reset button functionality. This will affect board 
current consumption, but will not affect the nRF51 current measurements as described in 
Section 5.7 “Measuring current” on page 18.
USB
External
power supply
Coin cell
battery
