Monthly Archives: April 2013

Serial Bootloader for the Freedom Board with Processor Expert

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Bootloaders are a very useful thing: it allows programming an application file without a debugger. This makes it ideal for upgrading a system in the field.

Usually, there are application notes and examples from silicon vendors available. But typically they are for a certain microcontroller, and hard to change it to another system without a lot knowledge about its implementation. What I need for a project based on the FRDM-KL25Z is a bootloader which shall be small and portable. As I’m using Processor Expert to keep my applications portable across different microcontroller families: why not create a bootloader with Processor Expert components?  With the Processor Expert drivers available, things can get a lot simpler compared to the ‘traditional’ approach. With less than 10 KByte footprint?

Serial Bootloader made with Processor Expert

Serial Bootloader made with Processor Expert

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USB CDC with the FRDM-K20D50M

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Good news for everyone owning the FRDM-K20D50M board: I have extended the FSL_USB_Stack with USB CDC device class support for the K20D50M :-).

USB CDC Test Application with the FRDM-K20D50M

USB CDC Test Application with the FRDM-K20D50M

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Debugging FRDM-KL05Z with USBDM

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I mentioned in “Debug External Processors with USBDM and Freedom Board” post that I had a problem to debug the FRDM-KL05Z with USBDM. Well, after a long night with some sleep, with more thinking and searching, finally I have it resolved: I can debug my FRDM-KL05Z with USBDM 🙂

FRDM-KL05Z Debugging with USBDM

FRDM-KL05Z Debugging with USBDM

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Debug External Processors with USBDM and Freedom Board

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Teaching at a university means to work in a very special environment. What students love is ‘Open Source’: because it allows them to ‘see’ things and learn from the technology. The other thing is: students have a low budgets, so they appreciate if they can use inexpensive or low-cost hardware and software. The FRDM-KL25Z Freedom board for sure meets that low price, and no extra programming device needed.

Now they are building their own boards, and they wish to program and debug it. They can borrow the Segger J-Links and P&E Multilinks we have available at the university. But why not use the Freedom board as ‘hobby’ debug and programming solution? As explored in “Using the Freedom Board as SWD Programmer“, they can use the default factory installed OpenSDA to program another microcontroller of same type. But not to debug it.

While writing the “Using the Freedom Board as SWD Programmer” article, I was looking into USBDM. USBDM has added in January 2013 support for OpenSDA. But at that time, it was somehow not working for me, and I had not enough time to find out what the problem was. Time to get that fixed. Good news: With help and tips from the USBDM community, I have it finally working 🙂

USBDM Debugging another FRDM-KL25Z

USBDM Debugging another FRDM-KL25Z

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Using the Freedom Board as SWD Programmer

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I love the Freescale Freedom boards because they are low-cost, and I do not need a special debug device, as they have the on-board OpenSDA. It is using a small Kinetis-K20 which acts as JTAG SWD debugging probe. Why not using the Freedom board to program another board?

FRDM-KL25Z board programs another board

FRDM-KL25Z board programs another board

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Red Suite 5: Eclipse Juno, Processor Expert and unlimited FRDM-KL25Z

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❗ UPDATE: Code Red Technologies have been acquired May 1st 2013 by NXP, see this press release. According to this, they will not continue to support non-NXP architectures after May 2014. 😦

You probably know this already: I’m a fan of Eclipse, Processor Expert and the Freedom board. As for tool chains I use CodeWarrior for MCU10.x (Eclipse based, 64 KByte free limit) and IAR (32 KByte limit) with the Processor Expert Driver Suite.

And I have added a new Eclipse based solution: Red Suite 5 from Code Red Technologies. They released a new Red Suite 5 (v5.2.2 build 2108) which caught my attention when reading the release notes:

  1. Eclipse Juno SR2: New Eclipse Look & Feel 🙂
  2. Added integration for Processor Expert 🙂 🙂
  3. Non-expiring 128k (!!!) limit when used with the Freescale FRDM boards 🙂 🙂 🙂
Red Suite 5 Eclipse Startup

Red Suite 5 Eclipse Startup

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printf() with the FRDM-KL25Z Board and without Processor Expert

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In this tutorial I explored how to use printf(), and this tutorial is so generic that it works for any processor/microcontroller. That flexibility is because I’m using Processor Expert. In case Processor Expert shall not be used, then some tweaks are needed. Here I show what is needed to have printf() working with the FRDM-KL25Z board. I use the UART0 connected to OpenSDA USB CDC for this.

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A new Freedom Board: FRDM-K20D50M with ARM Cortex M4

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Freescale/Farnell/Element14 announced last week a new Freedom Board: the FRDM-K20D50M :-). As you can expect, I was not able to resist, and ordered one from my local Farnell store right away. So I did my first steps with it on this sunny and wonderful weekend (yes! we skipped Spring Time and entered Summer Time right away!).

I do not need to compare the board with the previous Freedom boards, as I have found an article here. I a nutshell: I get pretty much the same as with the FRDM-KL25Z, but instead of an ARM Cortex-M0+, it has an ARM Cortex-M4!

The new FRDM-K20D50M Board

The new FRDM-K20D50M Board

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text, data and bss: Code and Data Size Explained

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In “Code Size Information with gcc for ARM/Kinetis” I use an option in the ARM gcc tool chain for Eclipse to show me the code size:

   text       data        bss        dec        hex    filename
 0x1408       0x18      0x81c       7228       1c3c    size.elf

I have been asked by a reader of this blog what these item numbers really mean. Especially: what the heck is ‘bss’???? 🙂

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