I’m using the Segger SystemView in many of my applications to get insights of the running application. A reader of my blog pointed me to the company ‘toem’ (http://toem.de/) based in Germany which offers powerful data viewer (‘impulse’) for Eclipse. I have tried this out, and it is really an amazing piece of technology with lots of potential. It allows me to view Segger SystemView data 🙂

Segger SystemView Data in Eclipse

So for everyone who wants to stay (mostly) inside Eclipse and not using the Segger SystemView application, that might be a good alternative. But it goes beyond that: with impulse I can read data from multiple data sources, combine them, filter and extract the data I need and export it. That tool opens up a lot of possibilities, and I think I just scratched on the surface of it.

There is a free ‘Basic’ edition, see http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/licensing

Installation

Follow the tutorial/steps outlined here: http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/articles/98-using-seggers-system-viewer-with-impulse

The steps to install it from an Eclipse update site are documented here: http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/manual/25-a1-installation

I’m using the following update site:

http://update.toem.de

And I have the following plugins installed:

Installed Plugins

💡 Update: I’m now at v1.6.22.

Setup

In the preferences, click on View/Edit:

View and Edit Serializer

Then add a new configuration:

Adding New Configuration

Add a SystemView Configuration:

SystemView Configuration

In the next dialog I should enter the user/system events:

Added FreeRTOS Events

I can copy the events from

SYSVIEW_FreeRTOS.txt

which on my machine it is installed here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\SystemView_V236a\Description\SYSVIEW_FreeRTOS.txt

With this I have added the configuration and this completes the setup.

Added Configuration

Loading Recorded Data

One easy way to use the Eclipse views is to load recorded data (*.SVDat) file stored by the Segger SystemView application. I have shortcuts to the data file present in my project:

SVDat File in Project

Double-Clicking on the file opens a dialog which asks me for the configuration to use. I select the one I have created earlier:

Open SVDat File

The first time I won’t have a view for it, so let’s create one:

new suitable view

Select the System Viewer one:

New Segger SystemView View

Using its views, I can deep dive and filter the data:

SVDat Viewing

With ‘Show in’ I can show the data in a table and filter it:

Show in Table

Data can be inspected and filtered, and the view is synchronized with the ‘main’ timeline view too:

Value Table with Details

Collecting Streaming Data

According to the information on the toem.de web site it should be possible to directly stream in RTT data. It uses a socket configuration to socket #19021:

Segger RTT Socket Configuration

While that looks promising and would be exactly what I would need, despite several attempts and even with contacting the engineer directly I was not able to make it work :-(. I have Segger SystemView and RTT working, but I was not able to connect to it with the toem Eclipse plugin :-(. To bad.

Update: I have updated the plugins to v1.6.22, but still I was not able to collect streaming data. I tried to stream data only on the RTT channel 0, but this did not work neither.

Summary

impulse is a very flexible and expert tool to collect and inspect data from multiple sources. It worked for me with loading data stored from the Segger SystemView application. Unfortunately I was not able to get the RTT streaming working for unknown reasons. That would have been a great feature and potentially would have lifted the current Segger SystemView application limitation of collecting up to 1 Mio events. I was hoping that impulse would give me the ability to collect data for an extended period. But maybe this will be be possible in the future? Until then impulse is a nice viewer for me, but not more.

Happy Impulsing 🙂

Links

toem article about using SEGGER SystemViewer: http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/articles/98-using-seggers-system-viewer-with-impulse
Segger SystemView: https://www.segger.com/systemview.html
Using Segger Systemview: Segger SystemView: Realtime Analysis and Visualization for FreeRTOS

20 thoughts on “impulse: Segger SystemView in Eclipse”

Nice!

I was reading your previous posts about Systemview and Tracealizer today, they were really helpful and I learned a lot! Thank you for writing about!

atm I’m playing around with STM32 and freeRTOS in a nucleo board, and saw today that segger released a firmware version of the jlink to update the stlink present in the nucleo and discovery boards, in the next days I should give it a try (I’ve just configured the FreeRTOS awareness in the OpenOCD, don’t want to mess with it :P), so probably this Impulse will be a really good addition to my Systemview try.

By the way, is there any good trace visualizer like Tracealizer and Systemview, but open source?

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on July 31, 2016 at 09:21 said:

Hi Gustavo,
Segger has that FreeRTOS thread awareness too, see https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/06/13/adding-freertos-thread-awareness-to-gdb-and-eclipse/ and https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/05/18/freertos-thread-debugging-with-segger-gdb-in-eclipse/. As outlined in my post, I was not able to get streaming of the data working with impulse, maybe you have better luck?
And I’m not aware of any open source viewer for the SystemView data.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
Thomas on July 31, 2016 at 12:11 said:

Hi Gustavo,
impulse core is not open source but most extensions are ! (reader, ports, charts providers) — and system view extension will be open source soon !
So developers are able to extend or improve data reading by themselves or reuse existing extension as bases for their own ones.

thanks,
thomas

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Works perfectly for me, thanks !
Should be noticed that you can do much more with this tool ! OPC/UA, CAN-BUS, SWV, Logic Analyzers (havnt tried this) and much more.
Also there is custom free format which can be used to trace any kind of data..
And for all this sources you can anylze the data in the same way.
Tracalyzer support is missing?! 🙂

Best Regards,
Kai

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on February 13, 2018 at 15:00 said:

Hello Kai,
it has been a while since I used that tool, because it did not support the Segger Systemview format.
Are you saying that it works for you with the Segger Systemview?
Thanks,
Erich

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Hi Erich, yes its working great.
The difference to seggers tool is that this tool does not support a back channel (probably because its using open segger interfaces ?!?). SystemView need to be started from the embedded application.

Great is also the launcher integration. So you just start the debugger and its automatically started with it. And what i mentioned in my previous email – you can do more with it.
Best, Kai

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on February 14, 2018 at 08:09 said:

Hi Kai,
ok, so I have to try it out again, thank you for that good news!
Erich

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Hi,

any success to connect Impulse Embedded to a real target?

Do you guys have the ‘impulse’ tab in the Debug configuration as shown in the videos on this page: http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/articles/98-using-seggers-system-viewer-with-impulse.

I don’t have this tab and I’m using the version 1.8.34 of Impulse and Eclipse Oxygen (4.7.3a).
(note that everythings works in the Segger SystemView 2.52a).

Any idea? Thanks.

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on May 15, 2018 at 19:11 said:

I’m sorry, I already gave up on Impulse. Despite several trials and tests, I was not able to make it work on my side, and my attempts to get help from the company did not succeed, probably they support only paying customers?

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Thomas on July 11, 2018 at 17:54 said:
  
  Sorry to hear ! Checked it – but we did not receive any support request from you. I tried to clarify this by email – did you receive my mail ? We clearly support all users , commercial and non-commercial !!!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - Erich Styger on July 11, 2018 at 20:20 said:
    
    Well, this was 3 years ago, and I had to move on. Did you sent that email recently? I have not found any. To bad, that would have been great if that would have worked out three years ago.
    
    LikeLike
  - Thomas on July 12, 2018 at 08:03 said:
    
    We exchanged 3 mails in 2016 (with several good proposals from you – most have been implemented), but we did not get any reply on the last – this seem to be lost :-(.
    And 3 days ago i send another 2 mails (to give feedback on your post)- not sure if the contact is valid anymore – or taken by spam checker.
    Maybe you could send us a mail – and we try to reply 🙂
    
    LikeLike
  - Erich Styger on July 12, 2018 at 10:44 said:
    
    Hi Thomas,
    noting in the spam folder. I just have sent you an email, crossing fingers that it works that time.
    Erich
    
    LikeLike
  - Thomas on July 12, 2018 at 11:02 said:
    
    Hi Erich,
    thanks, just replied.
    Hope it works.
    thomas
    
    LikeLike

I tried another mail from my intel account and received:Your message wasn’t delivered due to a permission or security issue. It may have been rejected by a moderator, the address may only accept e-mail from certain senders, or another restriction may be preventing delivery.

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on July 12, 2018 at 13:11 said:

I have not received it, so I have sent you another email with a different address. I know that our university IT has increased the security level, and it seems that there are other reports like yours that emails are not getting through :-(.

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Hi,
Can I use impulse with st-link v2?

LikeLike

Reply ↓

Erich Styger on September 29, 2018 at 08:42 said:

I don’t know, I have not used that tool very a very long time. But you could load the Segger firmware on the ST-Link and then use it like a segger probe.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- sxnjj92 on October 11, 2018 at 04:24 said:
  
  Thanks for reply, but I dont know how to chance firmware inside of ST-Link v2.
  
  Well I’m beginner in ARM’s world and I’ learning with STM32F103 and I’ve learned a lot with your posts.
  
  By the way, any helping you can give me I’ll be thanking.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - Erich Styger on October 11, 2018 at 07:37 said:
    
    Have a read at https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/other-j-links/st-link-on-board/
    
    LikeLike

What do you think? Cancel reply

Gustavo Cardoso on July 31, 2016 at 03:00 said:

Nice!

I was reading your previous posts about Systemview and Tracealizer today, they were really helpful and I learned a lot! Thank you for writing about!

atm I’m playing around with STM32 and freeRTOS in a nucleo board, and saw today that segger released a firmware version of the jlink to update the stlink present in the nucleo and discovery boards, in the next days I should give it a try (I’ve just configured the FreeRTOS awareness in the OpenOCD, don’t want to mess with it :P), so probably this Impulse will be a really good addition to my Systemview try.

By the way, is there any good trace visualizer like Tracealizer and Systemview, but open source?

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on July 31, 2016 at 09:21 said:
  
  Hi Gustavo,
  Segger has that FreeRTOS thread awareness too, see https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/06/13/adding-freertos-thread-awareness-to-gdb-and-eclipse/ and https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/05/18/freertos-thread-debugging-with-segger-gdb-in-eclipse/. As outlined in my post, I was not able to get streaming of the data working with impulse, maybe you have better luck?
  And I’m not aware of any open source viewer for the SystemView data.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
- Thomas on July 31, 2016 at 12:11 said:
  
  Hi Gustavo,
  impulse core is not open source but most extensions are ! (reader, ports, charts providers) — and system view extension will be open source soon !
  So developers are able to extend or improve data reading by themselves or reuse existing extension as bases for their own ones.
  
  thanks,
  thomas
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Kai Hesse on February 13, 2018 at 13:44 said:

Works perfectly for me, thanks !
Should be noticed that you can do much more with this tool ! OPC/UA, CAN-BUS, SWV, Logic Analyzers (havnt tried this) and much more.
Also there is custom free format which can be used to trace any kind of data..
And for all this sources you can anylze the data in the same way.
Tracalyzer support is missing?! 🙂

Best Regards,
Kai

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on February 13, 2018 at 15:00 said:
  
  Hello Kai,
  it has been a while since I used that tool, because it did not support the Segger Systemview format.
  Are you saying that it works for you with the Segger Systemview?
  Thanks,
  Erich
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Kai Hesse on February 14, 2018 at 08:07 said:

Hi Erich, yes its working great.
The difference to seggers tool is that this tool does not support a back channel (probably because its using open segger interfaces ?!?). SystemView need to be started from the embedded application.

Great is also the launcher integration. So you just start the debugger and its automatically started with it. And what i mentioned in my previous email – you can do more with it.
Best, Kai

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on February 14, 2018 at 08:09 said:
  
  Hi Kai,
  ok, so I have to try it out again, thank you for that good news!
  Erich
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
darkopetrovic on May 15, 2018 at 16:33 said:

Hi,

any success to connect Impulse Embedded to a real target?

Do you guys have the ‘impulse’ tab in the Debug configuration as shown in the videos on this page: http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse/articles/98-using-seggers-system-viewer-with-impulse.

I don’t have this tab and I’m using the version 1.8.34 of Impulse and Eclipse Oxygen (4.7.3a).
(note that everythings works in the Segger SystemView 2.52a).

Any idea? Thanks.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on May 15, 2018 at 19:11 said:
  
  I’m sorry, I already gave up on Impulse. Despite several trials and tests, I was not able to make it work on my side, and my attempts to get help from the company did not succeed, probably they support only paying customers?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - Thomas on July 11, 2018 at 17:54 said:
    
    Sorry to hear ! Checked it – but we did not receive any support request from you. I tried to clarify this by email – did you receive my mail ? We clearly support all users , commercial and non-commercial !!!
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply ↓
    - Erich Styger on July 11, 2018 at 20:20 said:
      
      Well, this was 3 years ago, and I had to move on. Did you sent that email recently? I have not found any. To bad, that would have been great if that would have worked out three years ago.
      
      LikeLike
    - Thomas on July 12, 2018 at 08:03 said:
      
      We exchanged 3 mails in 2016 (with several good proposals from you – most have been implemented), but we did not get any reply on the last – this seem to be lost :-(.
      And 3 days ago i send another 2 mails (to give feedback on your post)- not sure if the contact is valid anymore – or taken by spam checker.
      Maybe you could send us a mail – and we try to reply 🙂
      
      LikeLike
    - Erich Styger on July 12, 2018 at 10:44 said:
      
      Hi Thomas,
      noting in the spam folder. I just have sent you an email, crossing fingers that it works that time.
      Erich
      
      LikeLike
    - Thomas on July 12, 2018 at 11:02 said:
      
      Hi Erich,
      thanks, just replied.
      Hope it works.
      thomas
      
      LikeLike
Thomas on July 12, 2018 at 11:40 said:

I tried another mail from my intel account and received:Your message wasn’t delivered due to a permission or security issue. It may have been rejected by a moderator, the address may only accept e-mail from certain senders, or another restriction may be preventing delivery.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on July 12, 2018 at 13:11 said:
  
  I have not received it, so I have sent you another email with a different address. I know that our university IT has increased the security level, and it seems that there are other reports like yours that emails are not getting through :-(.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
sxnjj92 on September 29, 2018 at 01:04 said:

Hi,
Can I use impulse with st-link v2?

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Erich Styger on September 29, 2018 at 08:42 said:
  
  I don’t know, I have not used that tool very a very long time. But you could load the Segger firmware on the ST-Link and then use it like a segger probe.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - sxnjj92 on October 11, 2018 at 04:24 said:
    
    Thanks for reply, but I dont know how to chance firmware inside of ST-Link v2.
    
    Well I’m beginner in ARM’s world and I’ learning with STM32F103 and I’ve learned a lot with your posts.
    
    By the way, any helping you can give me I’ll be thanking.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply ↓
    - Erich Styger on October 11, 2018 at 07:37 said:
      
      Have a read at https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/other-j-links/st-link-on-board/
      
      LikeLike

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impulse: Segger SystemView in Eclipse

Installation

Setup

Loading Recorded Data

Collecting Streaming Data

Summary

Links

20 thoughts on “impulse: Segger SystemView in Eclipse”

What do you think? Cancel reply

Installation

Setup

Loading Recorded Data

Collecting Streaming Data

Summary

Links

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20 thoughts on “impulse: Segger SystemView in Eclipse”

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