Debugging the FRDM-K64F with P&E Multilink

The FRDM-K64F board as other Freescale Freedom board have an onboard debugging device. For everyone who wants to debug the FRDM-K64F board with say a P&E Universal Multilink, here is my setup in case you do not get it working out of the box:

FRDM-K64F with P&E Multilink

FRDM-K64F with P&E Multilink (click to enlarge)

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CRC Checksum Generation with ‘SRecord’ Tools for GNU and Eclipse

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:

SRecord 1.64 Web Page
SRecord 1.64 Web Page
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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

Semihosting Output in Console

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Proof of Concept: Open Source ARM SWD Debug and General Purpose Board

The Teensy is a great and tiny board (see “USB CDC with the Teensy 3.1 Board“), but it lacks real SWD/JTAG debugging capabilities (see “Hacking the Teensy V3.1 for SWD Debugging“). The Freescale Freedom boards are great, but for many applications too big, and have potentially too many components on it. So what about building a breadboard friendly tiny board which *has* SWD debugging ability *and* can be used to debug another boards?

So here is a working prototype based on the FRDM-K20D50M:

FRDM-K20D50M used as debug probe

FRDM-K20D50M used as debug probe

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UART with the FRDM-KL02Z Board

In my classes I’m mainly using the Freescale FRDM-KL25Z board, as it provides the best value for the money, and 128 kByte FLASH with 16 kByte of RAM is enough for many smaller projects. I do have as well the FRDM-KL02Z Board (32 KByte FLASH, 4 KByte of RAM) which is an inexpensive board to evaluate the smaller KL02Z microcontroller. Because someone reported a problem not being able to use the UART over OpenSDA/USB-to-CDC bridge, I have created a demo project which communicates with a console on the host.

FRDM-KL02Z Board

FRDM-KL02Z Board

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Updated P&E GDB Server for Eclipse: Connect/Attach and Advanced Flash Programming

P&E has upgraded their GDB implementation and interface used in combination with the GNU ARM Eclipse plugins: they support now advanced flash programming options plus the ability to attach/connect to a running target :-). This update is available as Eclipse update.

Advanced Options

Advanced Options

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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

Test Setup for DHT11 Sensor

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Altium File for Freescale FRDM-K25Z Board

If you are designing your own board for the Freescale FRDM boards, then having the matching PCB design files is a good thing to have. I have posted this week an Altium contribution on GitHub for the FRDM headers (see “FRDM-KL25Z Arduino Headers with Altium“). And here there is yet another contribution I received from [Darren]: the FRDM-KL25Z board in Altium :-):

FRDM-KL25Z in Altium

FRDM-KL25Z in Altium

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Command Line Programming and Debugging with GDB

Eclipse with GDB is great: it comes with a graphical front end for debugging. But sometimes it is all about to download a program. Is it really necessary to launch an IDE like Eclipse to program or quickly debug a board? With the GNU Debugger (GDB), the answer is ‘no’: GDB comes with a command line debugger which is designed exactly for this: providing a command line interface for programming/downloading and debugging, bypassing any GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Combination of GDB Debugging Probes and Boards

Combination of GDB Debugging Probes and Boards (P&E, Segger and FRDM-KL25Z)

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