Freescale had announced at FTF back in April this year that they will use Kinetis Design Studio  and the Kinetis SDK for all new Kinetis devices. The switch from CodeWarrior to Kinetis Design Studio (see “Comparing CodeWarrior with Kinetis Design Studio“) was not much of big deal for my projects (although CodeWarrior still has better features), and projects are rather easily portable. However, the move to the Kinetis SDK has been massively disruptive: Before it was easy to move projects from one device to another with Processor Expert, even from S08 to ColdFire to Kinetis. Now with the Kinetis SDK everything is very different. At least Freescale now officially supports FreeRTOS, and for myself as a big fan of that open source RTOS, that was some good news.

So in this tutorial I’m showing how FreeRTOS can be used with the Kinetis Design Studio. That makes at least using the Kinetis SDK bit more familiar to me :-).

Outline

In this tutorial, I’m using the FRDM-K64F board, and show how to blink an LED with an RTOS task. I’m going to use the SDK with Processor Expert, as this greatly simplifies usage of the SDK. Of course you could use the SDK without Processor Expert, but then you have to setup a lot of stuff manually.

This tutorial will guide through the project creation, from first (empty) program, adding an LED blinking and then blink the LED with a FreeRTOS task. This tutorial is *not* an in dept tutorial about the SDK or FreeRTOS, but more of a starting point to explore more on your own.

And if you are only interested how to blink an LED with the Kinetis SDK: then you can skip the part with the RTOS at the end ;-).

Software and Tools

I’m using the following versions:

💡 You can use any Eclipse based development environment with Processor Expert, e.g. Driver Suite 10.4, Atollic TrueSTUDIO or Emprog Thunderbench, to name a few. Of course screenshot or individual steps will be somewhat different, but the concepts remain the same.

• Kinetis Design Studio (V1.1.1): download it from http://www.freescale.com/kds and install it
• Kinetis SDK V1.0.0: download it from http://www.freescale.com/ksdk and install it.
• Extra Processor Expert components from SourceForge, see “McuOnEclipse Releases on SourceForge” how to download and install them into Eclipse. The Kinetis SDK already comes with a FreeRTOS port, but it is an older one and not one integrated into Processor Expert.
• A board supported by the Kinetis SDK, e.g. FRDM-K64F or FRDM-K22F.

After installing all files, it is recommended to reboot, because the Kinetis SDK defines an environment variable (KSDK_PATH) which might only be set correctly after a reboot.

Creating the Project

In Kinetis Design Studio:

1. use the menu File > New > Kinetis Design Studio Project to create a new project
   

   New Kinetis Design Studio Project

2. Provide a project name
3. Select the device (hint: you can filter the device e.g. with ‘*k64f’)
   

   Selecting K64F device

4. In the next dialog, select both Kinetis SDK and Processor Expert. Note that it uses the environment variable mentioned above to find the SDK.
   

   Kinetis SDK Project with Processor Expert

5. Press ‘Finish’ and the project should be created.

Congratulations, you have created your FreeRTOS project :-).

Build the Project

First, we verify that we can build (and debug). So build the project (select the project root folder, then use the hammer symbol).

That should go without errors (Problems View does not show errors, and Console View shows that the .elf file has been created:

Congratulations, you have built the application :-)!

💡 If you want to reduce the build time, have a look at “Reducing the build time with gcc for ARM and CodeWarrior“.

Debugging

With KDS v1.1.1, we have to create a debug configuration before we can debug. To do this, select first the project and then use the menu Run > Debug Configurations.

Then it depends what debug connection you are using. I’m assuming you have the P&E Firmware loaded on the board. If so, create new debug configuration for the GDB PEMicro Interface Debug. Select the line, and use the ‘+’ icon to create a new debug configuration. It should automatically populate the .elf file and the project name in the ‘Main’ tab.

In the Debugger tab, select OpenSDA as Interface. It should show a USB device for the Port. Choose the K64FN1M0M12 as Device. Press Apply to save the settings, and then press Debug.

This will switch to the debug perspective, where you can debug your application with the debug toolbar icons:

Press the Terminate button and return to the C/C++ Perspective:

Congratulations, you are able to debug :-)!

Adding LED

Now we are adding the red RGB LED to our project. For this I add the fsl_gpio component from the Component Library view to the project (either drag&drop) or double-click on it.

💡 If you do not have that view open, you can open the Processor Expert views with the menu Processor Expert > Show View(s).

We are using one of the fsl_* components, as these are built for the Kinetis SDK.

Now we need to tell the application where our red LED is. For this we click on the fsl_gpio component and open the Component Inspector view for it (you can open that view with the context menu on that component too). Then I recommend to turn off the ‘Tabs view’ (see “Switching between ‘tabs’ and ‘no-tabs’ UI in Processor Expert“):

The red LED is on PTB22 (check the schematics if you don’t believe me 😉 ). So set Pin 0 of the first output configuration to PTB22. Additionally give it a pin name so we can use it later with that name:

As the LED is low active (cathode is connected to the microcontroller pin), you might want to have the LED turned off initially: then set the default Output logic to 1:

Congratulations, you have defined your first LED :-)!

Generating Code

Now we are going to try it out: first, generate code with the ‘Generate Processor Expert Code’ button:

Then open the source file main.c and add the following two includes right after the comment about “User includes”:

#include "board.h" /* board header file */
#include "gpio1.h" /* General purpose I/O pins */

User Includes in Main
The “board.h” will include board specific interfaces, e.g. to initialize the hardware. The “gpio1.h” is the header file for your LED we just have created.
Inside main(), at “Write your code here”, we write our code:
  hardware_init(); /* initialize the hardware */
  for(;;) {
    GPIO_DRV_TogglePinOutput(LED_RED);
  }

First, we initialize the hardware (hardware_init()), and then in the endless loop we are toggling the red LED.
Main with toggling LED code
Instead writing the method name, you can drag&drop it too:
Dragging the Method Name
Then you only need to add the pin/name to toggle. Remember the LED_RED pin name we have defined earlier: this is what we are using here:
GPIO_DRV_TogglePinOutput(LED_RED);

Now save the file, do a build and debug again, and you should see the red LED toggling.
Congratulations, you have successfully added code to toggle a LED :-).
Adding FreeRTOS
Now we are going to add the FreeRTOS Processor Expert component. From the Components Library View, add the FreeRTOS component to your project. This component has the full RTOS sources and allows full configuration of the RTOS:
Added FreeRTOS Component
Unlike the fsl_* components which are only for the SDK, this component can be used both for SDK and normal (non-SDK projects) :-). But if used in an SDK environment, we need to add the KinetisSDK component too:
Added KinetisSDK Component
As our K64F microcontroller is having a floating point unit, and we might want to use it later, make sure that the FreeRTOS component settings are reflecting this:
Enabled M4F with Floating Point Support
Additionally you want to give the RTOS some leg room, as every task will need some heap for the stack:
FreeRTOS Heap Size
Generate Processor Expert Code again:
Generating Code
and now you have FreeRTOS added to your project. You can see the FreeRTOS kernel and configuration files inside the Generated_Code folder:
FreeRTOS Files
Congratulations, you have added and configured the RTOS for your application :-)!
Creating a Blinky Task
Time to create a task which blinks our LED. First, we need to include “FreeRTOS.h” in main.c as it has all the interfaces to the RTOS:
#include "FreeRTOS.h" /* FreeRTOS interface */

Included FreeRTOS Interface
Next, in main() we are creating a task with xTaskCreate(). In case of failure we simply will wait in an endless loop. But if we have enough heap (see above), this should not be the case :-):
  if (xTaskCreate(
      blinky_task,  /* task function */
      "Blinky", /* task name for kernel awareness */
      configMINIMAL_STACK_SIZE, /* task stack size */
      (void*)NULL, /* optional task startup argument */
      tskIDLE_PRIORITY,  /* initial priority */
      NULL /* task handle */
    ) != pdPASS) {
    for(;;){} /* error! probably out of memory */
  }


And the RTOS gets started with vTaskStartScheduler():
vTaskStartScheduler(); /* start FreeRTOS scheduler, does usually not return! */

Added Task Creation Code into Main
The task itself (blinky_task()) is added just above main():
static void blinky_task(void *param) {
  (void)param;
  for(;;) {
    GPIO_DRV_TogglePinOutput(LED_RED); /* toggle red LED */
    vTaskDelay(500/portTICK_RATE_MS); /* wait for 500 ms */
  } /* for */
}

A task runs in an endless loop. In my case it toggles the red LED (as we did before), and then suspends/delays for 500 ms.
Added Blinky Task
Build, download and debug your code, and you should see your LED blinking. Set a break point inside your task and then step through the task code to see your LED blinking.
Congratulations, you are running your first RTOS task 🙂 !
RTOS Awareness Views
If you want to view your RTOS state in Eclipse (RTOS tasks, RTOS timers, RTOS queues/semaphores/mutex), then I recommend that you install the Wittenstein FreeRTOS plugins (see “DIY Free Toolchain for Kinetis: Part 5 – FreeRTOS Eclipse Kernel Awareness with GDB“). Then use the menu Window > Show View > Other and use the OpenRTOS ‘DSF’ views:
OpenRTOS DSF Viewer
Then you get a table view of all your tasks in your system:
FreeRTOS TaskTable View
Congratulations, you can now see all our RTOS tasks 🙂 !
Summary
The Kinetis SDK is still evolving, and getting into it might need some time. The cool thing is that with Processor Expert things are easier than digging through many, many source folders and PDF pages. The SDK includes and supports multiple RTOSes (MQX, uCOS and FreeRTOS), and includes an RTOS abstraction layer. That RTOS abstraction layer is good if you want to write an application independent of the RTOS, but otherwise adds just overhead. In my applications with the SDK, I’m using directly the FreeRTOS API. This has additionally the benefit that I can pick and choose, for which drivers I want to have an RTOS (semaphore) protection. If I would use the RTOS inside the SDK, this is a ‘all-or-nothing’ game: either I’m using no RTOS, or I’m using the RTOS for everything which is not matching my application needs.
In my above tutorial I’m using an ‘outside’ RTOS: this has the benefit that I can use the latest and greatest, can graphically configure it with Processor Expert and have it under my application (not SDK) control. But it is up to you to decide which way you want to go.
Of course you can use that ‘outside’ RTOS as well with the SDK RTOS abstraction layer. If you want to see how this works, then have a look at my example project on GitHub.
Happy FreeRTOSing 🙂
Links:

The FreeRTOS sources and documentation: http://www.freertos.org
FreeRTOS Kernel Awareness plugins: DIY Free Toolchain for Kinetis: Part 5 – FreeRTOS Eclipse Kernel Awareness with GDB
Freescale Kinetis SDK: http://www.freescale.com/ksdk


		
	
			

			
			
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