JoyStick Shield with the FRDM Board

The latest addition to my set of Arduino shields is a true fun thing: The ElecFreaks.com JoyStick Shield 🙂

ElecFreaks.com Joystick Board with FRDM-KL25Z and nRF24L01+

ElecFreaks.com Joystick Board with FRDM-KL25Z and nRF24L01+

Continue reading

FRDM with Arduino Ethernet Shield R3, Part 4: MinIni

I admit: my Ethernet Shield project got stuck because of too many urgent other priorities. I was not happy with the way the project was using configuration data from FLASH memory: I have now multiple ethernet shields in use, and configuring the IP address for each shield is a pain. I have not got DHCP working (yet), so why not using the SD card on the shield for configuration data? And right on time I received a tip from Marc about MinIni: perfect, exactly what I need!

Ethernet Shield with SD card

Ethernet Shield with SD card

Continue reading

Binary (and S19) Files for the mbed Bootloader with Eclipse and GNU ARM Eclipse Plugins

The existing OpenSDAv1 (see “OpenSDA on the Freedom KL25Z Board“) bootloader is using the industry standard Motorola S-Record (S19) Files. However, new FRDM-K64F board (see “FTF: FRDM-K64F, Kinetis Design Studio and Kinetis SDK“) has OpenSDAv2 on it, which is an mbed bootloader. So how to create files with an IDE other than mbed for that bootloader which is present on the FRDM-K64F board by default? Well, creating binary files is one thing, but to have it working with the mbed bootloader is another challenge :-(.

FRDM-K64F with mbed MSD bootloader

FRDM-K64F with mbed MSD bootloader

Continue reading

Using the FRDM-K64F with CodeWarrior

The new flagship of FRDM boards is the FRDM-K64F board. After FTF I have explored different ways debugging the board, and received many comments and questions about it (thanks!). Freescale announced the supports with the new Eclipse based Kinetis Design Studio (KDS). But until KDS is out, how can I use the FRDM-K64F board with CodeWarrior?

Debugging FRDM-K64F Board with CodeWarrior for MCU v10.6

Debugging FRDM-K64F Board with CodeWarrior for MCU v10.6

Continue reading

Recovering FRDM-K64F mbed Board

The mbed for FRDM-K64F firmware (http://mbed.org/handbook/Firmware-FRDM-K64F) has great potential. Unfortunately it seems that edges are still very rough: It happens very  often that my FRDM-K64F board gets locked up :-(. I can see that the target CPU is constantly resetting: the red reset LED is always on:

FRDM-K64F Red Reset LED always on

FRDM-K64F Red Reset LED always on

Continue reading

Pin Muxing: Using the NMI Pin as GPIO Pin

Many modern microcontroller have a cool feature: Pin Muxing. What it means is that I can ‘mux’ the pins for different purposes: such as I can use a SPI or I2C pin as GPIO (General Purpose Pin) or vice versa. In an ideal world, I would be able to ‘route’ or ‘mux’ pins freely around. In practice these ‘way switches’ are more or less limited.

In “Using the Reset Button on the Freedom Board as User Button” I muxed the FRDM-KL25Z reset pin as GPIO pin. The same approach can be used for muxing the NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) pin for the Freescale Kinetis devices. I’m showing it here how to do this with Processor Expert as this allows me to do this with a few mouse clicks.

NMI Pin Used as GPIO Pin

NMI Pin Used as GPIO Pin

Continue reading

Tutorial: User Interrupts with Processor Expert

I have been asked this question several times:

“How can I define my own interrupt vector with Processor Expert?”

So I think it deserves a short tutorial, if more than one person is asking this ;-).

My user interrupt in the vector table

My user interrupt in the vector table

Continue reading

Processor Expert (Driver Suite/Plugins/KDS) V10.4 with new Component Inspector

There has been a lot of new Freescale releases recently around FTF, and I’m trying to catch up. For me as a Processor Expert Lover, it is good news that there is now the new version 10.4 available. And it comes in different ways:

Microcontrollers Driver Suite v10.4

Microcontrollers Driver Suite v10.4

Continue reading

The Zumo Bots at FTF 2014

I should have known it better, and I always teach my students that they should take the environment into account. And you know what? This time it was me who missed following that rule.

But from the beginning: For the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) I brought 4 different Zumo Robots to show developing with the Freedom board and Processor Expert. Clark (thanks again, Clark!) has built and brought the Sumo Dojo, and I brought the bots:

Zumo Bots at FTF

Four Zumo Bots at FTF

Continue reading

FTF: FRDM-K64F, Kinetis Design Studio and Kinetis SDK

I’m attending the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in Dallas this year: As they say here: “everything is bigger in Texas”, that’s the motto of this conference ;-). The conference is packed, and I have a hard time to keep up with all the things going on. My focus is obviously everything around Eclipse and ARM microcontroller. The conference started yesterday afternoon with hands-on labs, and I was in the one were Freescale presented the new ‘Kinetis Design Studio’: a free of charge/unlimited Eclipse tool chain based on Eclipse Kepler, GCC and GDB. Freescale presented their new software library ‘Kinetis SDK’. And: There is a new Freedom board which gets handed out to the attendees: the FRDM-K64F :-).

Texas Style Glass Coverage

Texas Style Glass Coverage

Continue reading