Yearly Archives: 2014

Processor Expert (Driver Suite/Plugins/KDS) V10.4 with new Component Inspector

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There has been a lot of new Freescale releases recently around FTF, and I’m trying to catch up. For me as a Processor Expert Lover, it is good news that there is now the new version 10.4 available. And it comes in different ways:

Microcontrollers Driver Suite v10.4

Microcontrollers Driver Suite v10.4

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The Zumo Bots at FTF 2014

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I should have known it better, and I always teach my students that they should take the environment into account. And you know what? This time it was me who missed following that rule.

But from the beginning: For the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) I brought 4 different Zumo Robots to show developing with the Freedom board and Processor Expert. Clark (thanks again, Clark!) has built and brought the Sumo Dojo, and I brought the bots:

Zumo Bots at FTF

Four Zumo Bots at FTF

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GNU Additional Tools: Create Flash Image, Print Size and Extended Listing Options

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One question I have been asked several times here at FTF:

“How can I create an S19/Motorola S-Record with Eclipse?”

The answer depends on which Eclipse you are using. Actually it depends on which (ARM) build  tools plugin you are using, as with Eclipse you have the freedom of choice.

And this is not only about S19/Binary (Flash Image), but covers ‘Extended Listing’ and ‘Print Size’:

Additional Tool Options

Additional Tool Options

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FTF: FRDM-K64F, Kinetis Design Studio and Kinetis SDK

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I’m attending the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in Dallas this year: As they say here: “everything is bigger in Texas”, that’s the motto of this conference ;-). The conference is packed, and I have a hard time to keep up with all the things going on. My focus is obviously everything around Eclipse and ARM microcontroller. The conference started yesterday afternoon with hands-on labs, and I was in the one were Freescale presented the new ‘Kinetis Design Studio’: a free of charge/unlimited Eclipse tool chain based on Eclipse Kepler, GCC and GDB. Freescale presented their new software library ‘Kinetis SDK’. And: There is a new Freedom board which gets handed out to the attendees: the FRDM-K64F :-).

Texas Style Glass Coverage

Texas Style Glass Coverage

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What Meetings feel like for Engineers

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My students and everyone in my office know me: I’m a HUGE fan of Dilbert. There is rarely a lecture for which I do not have a Dilbert cartoon which shows the daily life of an engineer  in as few as 3 cartoons. Humor is a good way to reflect behaviour and to have a laugh, so usually I tell every week a fun story to the class. I collect fun stories from students, from my family, my peers, or from my life as teacher, researcher and engineer.

And here I share my newest fun story (a video this time): An engineer as ‘expert’ in a business/requirement meeting. The task is simple: create seven red lines. But the twist is that these lines must be perpendicular…

The Meeting with the Expert

The Meeting with the Expert

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Getting Bluetooth Working with JY-MCU BT_BOARD V1.06

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For my embedded course at the University of Lucerne of Applied Sciences and Arts I needed more Bluetooth modules for the Zumo/Sumo robots. I run out of stock as the modules are getting popular and are used in many student projects. So I ordered a handful more from DX/DealExtreme of the same HC-06 type/part number I already ordered a while back. I expected that they will work as the modules I had ordered from DX half a year ago. Was that naïve? Probably. Because they did *not* work, and caused me to reverse engineer the modules and to apply a hardware fix to get them working….

Set of JY-MCU Bluetooth Modules

Set of JY-MCU Bluetooth Modules

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Serial Terminal View with Eclipse Kepler

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Nearly all of my projects have built-in command line support: using a serial connection, I can send commands or inspect the system status. For this I have my command line Shell which works over serial-to-Bluetooth, serial-to-USB, USB CDC or with a physical serial (COM) port. But what I need on the host system is a Terminal program: I can use either an external program. There are many ones available (Tera Term,  PuTTY, …) where Termite is my favorite one. But it is possible to extend Eclipse so it has its own Terminal view too :-).

Eclipse Terminal View

Eclipse Terminal View

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