MCU on Eclipse

On a lifelong learning journey …

Tutorial: How to Optimize Code and RAM Size

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Erich Styger

It is great if vendors provide a starting point for my own projects. A working ‘blinky’ is always a great starter. Convenience always has a price, and with a ‘blinky’ it is that the code size for just ‘toggling a GPIO pin’ is exaggerated. For a device with a tiny amount of RAM and FLASH this can be concerning: will my application ever fit to that device if a ‘blinky’ takes that much? Don’t worry: a blinky (or any other project) can be easily trimmed down.

Binky on NXP LPC845-BRK Board

I use a ‘blinky’ project here just as an example: the trimming tips can apply to any other kind of projects too.

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Tutorial: MCUXpresso SDK with Linux, Part 2: Commandline Debugging with GDB

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Erich Styger

In “Tutorial: MCUXpresso SDK with Linux, Part 1: Installation and Build with Maked” I used cmake and make to build the SDK application. In this part I’m going to use the command line gdb to debug the application on the board.

Cross-Debugging with GDB

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Tutorial: Transforming the NXP LPC845-BRK into a CMSIS-DAP Debug Probe

Posted on February 2, 2019 by Erich Styger

The NXP LPC845-BRK board is a tiny an inexpensive (sub $6) breakout board. The board includes a CMSIS-DAP (LPC11U35) on-board debug probe which can be used as a debug probe to debug any NXP LPC, Kinetis or i.MX RT device 🙂

LPC845-BRK used to debug a Sumo Battle Robot

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Porting Processor Expert Projects to MCUXpresso IDE

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Erich Styger

The McuOnEclipse GitHub repository hosts many Processor Expert projects and is very popular (cloned more than 1000 times, thank you!). Processor Expert is a powerful framework which generates driver and configuration code, simplifying application development for a wide range of microcontroller and families. But Processor Expert won’t be developed further by NXP and is not part of MCUXpresso IDE. While it is possible to install Processor Expert into MCUXpresso IDE 10.2, how can these projects used ini an IDE *without* Processor Expert? This article describes how to port an existing Processor Expert project into the NXP MCUXpresso IDE.

Ported Project with FRDM-K64F using Adafruit SSD1351 and Processor Expert

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Debugging the Teensy 3.6 with Eclipse MCUXpresso IDE and CMSIS-DAP LPC-Link2

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Erich Styger

The Teensy boards are great, but as they are they are not really useful for real development, as they lack proper SWD debugging. In “Modifying the Teensy 3.5 and 3.6 for ARM SWD Debugging” I have found a way to get SWD debugging working, at that time with Kinetis Design Studio and the Segger J-Link. This article is about how debug the Teensy with free MCUXpresso IDE and the $20 NXP LPC-Link2 debug probe:

Teensy 3.6 with NXP LPC-Link2

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MCUXpresso IDE V10.1.0 with i.MX RT1052 Crossover Processor

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Erich Styger

In “Eclipse MCUXpresso IDE 10.1 with integrated MCUXpresso Configuration Tools” I mentioned that I wanted to try the i.MX RT1050 processor. Well, finally my ordered board from Mouser arrived, right on time for the week-end, so I had a chance to use that ARM Cortex-M7 running at 600 MHz :-).

i.MX RT1050 EVK

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First tinyK22 Board with NXP K22FN512 ARM Cortex-M4F

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Erich Styger

The NXP Freedom boards are very popular. Many of them are inexpensive (less than $20), include a debug interface and can be easily extended with extra shields or boards. Especially the FRDM-KL25Z is very popular: I’m getting told because of Processor Expert and tutorials available on web sites like this one ;-).

Unfortunately there are no small or breadboard friendly Kinetis boards available. There is the NXP LPC800-DIP but with no onboard debugger and without Processor Expert support. We have the tinyK20, but projects tend to use more CPU power, FLASH and RAM space than what the tinyK20 board (50 MHz, 128 KByte FLASH, 16 KByte RAM) can provide. So we ended up designing the big brother of the first tinyK20: the tinyK22 with 120 MHz, 512 KByte of FLASH and 128 KByte of RAM.

tinyK22 Overview

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EmbSysRegView 0.2.6 for NXP Kinetis Design Studio V3.2.0

Posted on October 28, 2017 by Erich Styger

Kinetis Design Studio by default uses an older version of EmbSysRegView. This article explains how to upgrade to the latest and greatest version 0.2.6. And how it is possible to use the latest NXP update for the 0.2.4 version:

Installed Files in Eclipse

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Adding CMSIS-SVD Files to EmbSysRegView 0.2.6.r192 and Eclipse

Posted on August 7, 2017 by Erich Styger

In “EmbSysRegView 0.2.6 for Eclipse Neon and Oxygen” I have described how to add CMSIS-SVD register detail files to Eclipse using the EmbSysRegView plugin.

But what I need to add vendor or any other SVD files to it? Here is how: