One of the things missing for Embedded in the GNU linker is that it cannot generate a CRC checksum. Luckily, there is the solution of using SRecord:
CRC Checksum Generation with ‘SRecord’ Tools for GNU and Eclipse
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Category Archives: Building
Semihosting with GNU ARM Embedded (Launchpad) and Kinetis Design Studio
A while back I wrote two articles about Semihosting: “Semihosting with GNU ARM Embedded (LaunchPad) and GNU ARM Eclipse Debug Plugins” and Semihosting with Kinetis Design Studio. With using the GNU ARM Embedded (lauchpad) in my Kinetis Design Studio, time for a ‘summary’ post :-).
Semihosting Output in Console
Poor Man’s Trace: Free-of-Charge Function Entry/Exit Trace with GNU Tools
There are cases where my application runs find for days, weeks or even months, but then from time to time there is an application crash. Yes, the watchdog will recover it, but still it would be good to know what happened? One solution would be to hook up a trace probe (like the one I have described in this post: “First Steps with the P&E Tracelink“). But having such a trace probe attached all the time is first not cheap and second not always possible. So what if the application would leave ‘breadcrumbs’ behind which would tell me the flow of the program leading to the problem? I have found a functionality in the GNU tools which seems not be widely known or use, but is incredibly helpful in such cases.
So what if I could get a log like this telling me which functions get called by whom?
{ 00000E88->00000DA0 ???->DEMO_Init
} 00000E88<-00000DA0 ???<-DEMO_Init
{ 00000E8C->00000D40 ???->DEMO_Run
{ 00000D62->00000CE8 DEMO_Run:0x0022->decide
{ 00000D0E->00000C60 decide:0x0026->calcValue
} 00000D0E<-00000C60 decide:0x0026<-calcValue
{ 00000D16->00000CA0 decide:0x002E->getValue
{ 00000CC6->00000C60 getValue:0x0026->calcValue
} 00000CC6<-00000C60 getValue:0x0026<-calcValue
} 00000D16<-00000CA0 decide:0x002E<-getValue
} 00000D62<-00000CE8 DEMO_Run:0x0022<-decide
{ 00000D62->00000CE8 DEMO_Run:0x0022->decide
Solving the 8192 Character Command Line Limit on Windows
There is a really annoying issue with using command line tools on Windows: the maximum length of the command line passed to cmd.exe is 8192 characters (see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/12/10/56028.aspx). So you think this is not a problem for you, as you would not pass such a long command line to cmd.exe (the DOS shell under Windows)? Well, if you are using Eclipse (as I do) which generates make files (which is the normal way), then the cmd.exe very likely is involved to call the compiler/linker/etc, indirectly with the usage of make.exe. Compiling files is usually not a problem as it does not hit that 8192 limit. However, it is likely that link phase will end up with an error:
Error in the Problems View
If you have such a problem, there is a solution ….
Using the DHT11/DHT22 Temperature/Humidity Sensor with a FRDM Board
For a home automation project I need to know the room temperature and humidity percentage of the room air. Adafruit has an inexpensive DHT11 sensor from http://www.aosong.com which I decided to use for that project.
Test Setup for DHT11 Sensor
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Using Kinetis Design Studio with IAR Embedded Workbench IDE
For everyone who wants to combine the power of Eclipse and Processor Expert with the IAR Embedded Workbench IDE, here is how to get them working side by side:
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Code Coverage for Embedded Target with Eclipse, gcc and gcov
The great thing with open source tools like Eclipse and GNU (gcc, gdb) is that there is a wealth of excellent tools: one thing I had in mind to explore for a while is how to generate code coverage of my embedded application. Yes, GNU and Eclipse comes with code profiling and code coverage tools, all for free! The only downside seems to be that these tools seems to be rarely used for embedded targets. Maybe that knowledge is not widely available? So here is my attempt to change this :-).
Or: How cool is it to see in Eclipse how many times a line in my sources has been executed?
Line Coverage in Eclipse
And best of all, it does not stop here….
Tutorial: How to Erase the FLASH with the GNU GDB debugger
I have several applications where I store application specific information in the microcontroller FLASH memory (see “Configuration Data: Using the Internal FLASH instead of an external EEPROM“). I have run into issues recently with the Segger J-Link GDB server as by default it does *not* erase all the FLASH memory. So the question is: How can I erase all (or part) of the FLASH memory with GDB (e.g. in Kinetis Design Studio or in Eclipse)?
Memory Monitor with Erased Flash
Using Keil μVision 5 with Processor Expert
I happily used the Keil v4.71.2.0 μVision tools for a few small projects (see “Using Keil µVision (ARM-MDK) with Processor Expert Driver Suite“) with the ‘lite’ edition (32kByte code size limitation). This weekend I wanted to move to the new v5.12.05 version.
Keil uVision5
And there were indeed several things which are different. So this is post is about getting this version getting up and running as the v4.7 one.
Tutorial: FreeRTOS with the Kinetis SDK and Processor Expert
Freescale had announced at FTF back in April this year that they will use Kinetis Design Studio and the Kinetis SDK for all new Kinetis devices. The switch from CodeWarrior to Kinetis Design Studio (see “Comparing CodeWarrior with Kinetis Design Studio“) was not much of big deal for my projects (although CodeWarrior still has better features), and projects are rather easily portable. However, the move to the Kinetis SDK has been massively disruptive: Before it was easy to move projects from one device to another with Processor Expert, even from S08 to ColdFire to Kinetis. Now with the Kinetis SDK everything is very different. At least Freescale now officially supports FreeRTOS, and for myself as a big fan of that open source RTOS, that was some good news.
Blinking Red LED with FreeRTOS Task using Kinetis SDK, FreeRTOS and Processor Expert
So in this tutorial I’m showing how FreeRTOS can be used with the Kinetis Design Studio. That makes at least using the Kinetis SDK bit more familiar to me :-).
MCU on Eclipse 