Category Archives: Boards

Posts around specific boards

Debugging Failure: Check List and Hints

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I think the biggest frustration point for any new or even seasoned engineer is the debugging phase: my application finally builds fine, but I’m not able to connect and download it to the target board :-(. In my view the debugging part is the most fragile part of the development process. I’m always very relieved if I can connect to a brand new board, because I know if it does not work, then the problem could be a very bad one, costing my several hours or even days to overcome it.

Remote Communication Error

Remote Communication Error, what now?

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RAM Target with Kinetis Design Studio and FRDM-K64F

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Newer microcontroller have increase RAM areas, making it suitable to run the application from RAM instead of FLASH. For the FRDM-K64F board and the Kinetis Design Studio (V1.1.1), I have explored how to run the application out of RAM instead of FLASH memory, both for P&E and Segger connections.

MK64FN1M0VLL12

MK64FN1M0VLL12

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Illustrated Step-by-Step Instructions: Updating the Freescale Freedom Board Firmware

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I have received a bunch of Freescale FRDM boards to be used in an Embedded Systems programming crash course. There are multiple issues with the boards coming from the factory:

  1. They come with an old bootloader which is not compatible with Windows 8.x
  2. They have an old and outdated firmware on the board only supports a MSD bootloader

This post is a step-by-step instruction how to update Freescale FRDM boards (e.g. FRDM-KL25Z) to the latest firmware.

FRDM Board

FRDM Board

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Export and Import Processor Expert Component Settings

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When I create a new Processor Expert project for a board I already have the components configured, then an easy way to transfer components from one project to another is to copy-paste the components. In the ‘source’ project I select the components I want to use, choose Copy (or CTRL+C shortcut on Windows):

Copy of Processor Expert Components

Copy of Processor Expert Components

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USB CDC with the FRDM-K64F, finally!

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Sometimes I think that a problem should be solvable in a few minutes, and then it turns out that it lingers around for months. Very, very frustrating! Such a thing is getting the USB 4.1.1 stack running on the FRDM-K64F board. I have that board since April 2014, and it took me 7 months to get the FSL USB stack running on it :-(.

FRDM-K64F Board

FRDM-K64F Board

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Cheap and Simple WiFi with ESP8266 for the FRDM Board

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How cool would it be to add WiFi support to any projects or IoT? Why not using WiFi with a microcontroller which has only few KBytes of RAM and FLASH. For less than US$5? Dreams came true, and intrigued by an article at Hack-A-Day, I searched a supplier for that ESP8266 module. And this evening I have found the four ESP8266 modules I have ordered for $4.50 each from ElectroDragon in my mailbox. Of course I did not want to wait for the week-end, so I hooked it up to my FRDM-KL25Z board.

ESP8266 Module

ESP8266 Module for US$ 4.50

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Enabling/Disabling FXOS8700CQ Device Needs a Delay

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Found an interesting behaviour with the Freescale FXOS8700CQ on the new Sumo Robots (see “Sensor and Communication Shield for Sumo Robot“): when enabling the accelerometer/magnetometer, it actually did not work:

Failed to Enable FXOS8700 Accelerometer

Failed to Enable FXOS8700 Accelerometer

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User Interrupt on NMI Pin with Kinetis and ExtInt Component

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While my beef brisket (see “My First DIY Smoked Beef Brisket: Day 1“) is smoking on ;-), I have time to investigate a problem I was running on in my lecture on Friday: For the Joystick shield (see “JoyStick Shield with the FRDM Board“) on the FRDM-KL25Z board, I wanted to use an interrupt if I press the green button:

No Interrupts for Button C

No Interrupts for Button C

However, that did not work :-(.

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