Category Archives: KL25Z Freedom Board

Everything around the KL25Z Freedom Board (FRDM-KL25Z)

Copy my CodeWarrior Project

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I have a project working, and then I want to do a copy. Unfortunately, this is not as simple as it should be :-(. In order to copy a project with all the settings, some knowledge about the internals of the project structure is required, which is the topic of this post.

In “Copy my Project” I was using a ColdFire V2 project which is not an easy case, as is using a Target Task to flash the microcontroller. Fortunately, all other targets in CodeWarrior for MCU are *not* using target tasks :-). With little help and preparation, a copy a project is not that difficult to do.  I’m showing how to do this with the FRDM-KL25Z project I have created in this post.

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USB Host Mode Hack for the Freedom KL25Z Board

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On the FRDM-KL25Z Board the target processor supports both USB host and device mode. However, the Freedom board has no jumper or other means to power the USB bus (which is required in the USB host mode). So if I want to get access to a memory stick from the KL25Z, then I’m stuck because the board does not offer that option. Luckily there is an easy hack to work around this.
Looking at the FRDM-KL25Z board schematics, there is 5V available on Pin 10 of J9:

5V on J9 Pin 10 on FRDM-KL25Z Board

5V on J9 Pin 10 on FRDM-KL25Z Board

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Tutorial: printf() and “Hello World!” with the Freedom KL25Z Board

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Sometimes I show to much in a tutorial: only writing something to the UART? Sounds boring, so why not adding tasks, LEDs and a full shell implementation to the mix as in this post? Yes, definitely too much to start with at the beginning :-(. So less is more, and if it is just about the UART. And I promise: it is doable with around 50 lines of application code :shock:.

AND: I admit, this post title is a trap ;-). It is not about printf(). But it *is* about using the UART on the KL25Z Freedom board and to do things like printf(), and even more. Trust me. It is about how to write *and* read from the UART. While I’m using here the Kinetis-L ARM Cortex-M0+ KL25Z Freedom board, it is applicable to any other Kinetis device.

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Fixing the USB Drivers

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USB has two sides: if it works, it is great :-). If it does not, it is really bad :-(. It took a while in the desktop and PC world until USB for common devices (mouse, keyboard, memory sticks, …) was working without issues. But ‘non-standard’ devices like a USB debugging probe/cable are not of that kind of category.

Occasionally I run into USB driver issues in my class. So this post is about identifying the different USB driver parts for the P&E OpenSDA, P&E OSBDM/OSJTAG and P&E Multilinks. And how to install the drivers manually if something is not going well.

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Tutorial: USB CDC with the KL25Z Freedom Board

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Question: What to do on a rainy Sunday?
Answer: Having fun with USB and the KL25Z Freedom board! :-).

In “A shell for the Freedom board” I used the UART-to-USB OpenSDA capability of the KL25Z Freedom board: The KL25Z processor uses the OpenSDA K20 microprocessor as Serial-to-USB converter. But this only works because of the P&E OpenSDA USB CDC (Communication Device Class) implementation. If I create my board without OpenSDA, I need a different approach: I want to do USB CDC with the KL25Z :twisted:.

USB CDC Device on COM22

USB CDC Device on COM22

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Processor Expert, gcc C++ and Kinetis-L with MQXLite

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The Kinetis-L is a 32bit microprocessor family, based on ARM Cortex M0+. It comes with ARM gcc in CodeWarrior. Although the Kinetis-L does not have much RAM, it is very possible to use gcc with C++, especially as a programmer I keep the limited RAM amount in mind. So I thought I try C++ and Processor Expert for my Kinetis-L KL25Z Freedom board.

If I select C++ as language in the New Bareboard Project Wizard of CodeWarrior, then I cannot select Processor Expert or Device Initialization:

C++ in the New Project Wizard

C++ in the New Project Wizard

That makes somewhat sense, as Processor Expert creates normal C code and C files, but no C++. Still, what if I need C++? This is doable, but with anything advanced, I need to know exactly what I want and what I do. Here is the ‘How to use C++ with Processor Expert’.

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Tutorial: Touching the Freedom KL25Z Board

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I have covered several aspects of the Freescale KL25Z Freedom board with a tutorial: LED, Accelerometer and RTOS. One peripheral on the board is missing so far: the touch slider area:

Freedom KL25Z Board Touch Slider Area

Freedom KL25Z Board Touch Slider Area

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Tutorial: Freedom with FreeRTOS and Kinetis-L

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In my earlier tutorials “Enlightning the Freedom KL25Z Board” and “Accelerating the KL25Z Freedom Board” I have not used an RTOS. In this one I’m creating a project from scratch and run it with the open source FreeRTOS operating system, using the FRDM-KL25Z Freedom board. MCU10.3 comes with gcc, and is nicely integrated with Eclipse and CodeWarrior. With this tutorial, it is possible to get an RTOS up and running on a Kinetis device very quickly.

I have a KL25Z which has 128 KByte FLASH and 16 KByte of RAM. What I want to explore is if things could fit as well to the KL0 family where the smallest device has only 8 KByte of FLASH and 1 KByte of RAM. Can this work?

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A Seminar, and Freedom with it

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Today I attended the regional ‘Design with Freescale’ seminar. It had a part with a hands-on training using PEG for the Tower K60 + TWR-LCD board. It was the first time I had my hands on PEG which is a good learning experience. I learned that it is possible to fill more than 200 KByte of Flash with a simple LCD Touchscreen application which only has two screens, two buttons, a static text and two small bitmaps ;-).

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