I’m using Version Control Systems like Git and SVN on a daily base. Because this gives me the opportunity to revert my changes and go back in time in my project. A VCS is incredible useful as well if I have deleted files or settings: restoring it is just a matter of a few mouse clicks.
But even without using a VCS, Eclipse has a built-in simple version control system: the Local History.
Eclipse History View
I’m recently dealing again with S19 (S-Record) files. I can easily generate S19 files from my ARM .elf files, but what I need is a simple decoder of the file format.
The good thing is: such a decoder is provided with CodeWarrior for MCU10.x 🙂
That capability is built into the Decoder.exe which is delivered with the Freescale S08 (or S12) tool chain, and is located inside the MCU\prog folder:
Decoder.exe inside MCU prog Folder
If you are a frequent reader of this blog, then you know: I’m a big fan of Processor Expert components. While there are many Processor Expert components delivered with CodeWarrior, it lacks many components and device drivers beside of the normal on-chip peripherals. But value gets added to an embedded project with all the external devices, sensors and actuators. That’s why I have created many more components which are available on my GitHub site. Readers of this blog have asked several times to create a tutorial on how to create a Processor Expert component. So why not working on that on a long Easter weekend full of cold rain and snow?
So here we go: a tutorial how to create a Processor Expert component for the MMA8451Q accelerometer found on the FRDM-KL25Z board:
MMA8451Q Accelerometer on the FRDM-KL25Z Board
How cool is this: combine ‘Arduino’, ‘Bluetooth’ and ‘Low Power’ with ‘small size’: an ARM Cortex-M0 board with low power Bluetooth 4.0, shrunk to size of a finger tip! 🙂
This Kickstarter project asked for $5k funding, and it has received over $245k! The video shows the prototype interacting with an iPhone:
It combines Arduino compatibility with the power of an ARM Cortex M0. Given the low-cost and versatility of that board, that would make that board an ideal base for many projects.
Adding an internet gateway, and I will have the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) 🙂
Happy RFing 🙂
Many times I have Processor Expert components carefully configured in one project, and then I want to have the same thing in another project. There is actually an easy way to carry out this: to copy components from one project to another.
Using a version control system for software development is a standard procedure today. While things are pretty clear for ‘standard’ Eclipse projects, it is not that easy for Processor Expert projects. I’m using Processor Expert projects with Git and SVN (Subversion). I want to share here tips how to use Processor Expert projects with a version control system. Screenshots and vocabulary are for TortoiseGit and Git, but applicable to any other VCS (Version Control System).
Git Repositories View in Eclipse
The maze solving robot based on the Freedom FRDM-KL25Z and Pololu Zumo shield has new features:
FRDM-KL25Z Robot on Practice Area
The FRDM-KL25Z Open Source Logic Analyzer based on SUMP presented here was already very useful with the added trigger support. But it was not capable to do a sampling rate above a few hundred kHz. That’s ok for slower probing, but not for anything with a higher speed. Using DMA (Direct Memory Access) instead of timer based sampling can remove that limitation :-).
FRDM-KL25Z used as Logic Analyzer on another FRDM-KL25Z board
If I want a C++ project for my KL25Z Freedom board, I select C++ during the project creation:
C++ Project Creation for GCC
This creates a gcc C++ project with all the needed settings.
This worked fine until I added a *.c file to my project which had code in it which was not accepted by the C++ compiler. Wait! Should the *.c not be compiled in C mode, as I was used to with other compilers? It turned out that things are different with gcc (or g++) :-(: the *.c files in my project are compiled in C++ mode. So the question is: how to compile in C mode with the ARM g++ compiler?
Finally I have found some time over the past week-end to enhance my Zumo robot. After I had my line following robot based on the Pololu Zumo chassis and the FRDM-KL25Z, I thought it should be easy and logical to solve a maze. Logical: yes. Easy: not that much. In fact it took me longer than expected. As always, there are a lot of tiny and important problems to solve (the maze alone was easy 🙂 ).
Zumo in the maze
MCU on Eclipse 