Category Archives: Debugging

McuOnEclipse Components: 3-Apr-2016 Release

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It has been already two months after the Feb 2016 release, and so much things are going on, so a new release was overdue. Today I have released a new version of the McuOnEclipse components on SourceForge with the following main changes and features:

  • Kinetis SDK v2 with Processor Expert: Now many components can be used even with the Kinetis SDK v2.0 even with the Kinetis SDK not having Processor Expert included.
  • Updated Segger SystemViewer to v2.32a with post-mortem and static buffer support
  • Updated Segger RTT to v5.10u and fixed an issue with interrupts on Cortex-M4
  • FreeRTOS Thread Awareness with OpenOCD

See readme on SourceForge for the full history.

McuOnEclipse 2016-04-03 Release

McuOnEclipse 2016-04-03 Release

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Flashing many ARM Boards without a Host PC

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So here I have 50 new NXP Kinetis K22 Robot boards (see “Zumo Robot with Magnetic Encoders“), and they all need to be programmed with the first firmware on the bench:

Programming Robot Boards

Programming Robot Boards

The challenge is: how to do this in a fast an efficient way, without the need for an IDE or even host PC machine?

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Tutorial: Blinky with the FRDM-KL27Z and Kinetis SDK v2

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I’m using the FRDM-KL25Z in my classes, and that board is very popular: low price (<$15), reasonable features (48 MHz ARM Cortex M0+, 128 KByte of FLASH, 16 KByte of RAM), and many tutorials elsewhere and on McuOnEclipse :-).

For the next (Fall) semester I’m looking for alternative boards, and one is the Freescale (now NXP) FRDM-KL27Z:

FRDM-KL27Z with Box

FRDM-KL27Z with Box

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Dealing with Code Size in Kinetis SDK v2.x Projects

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I’m exploring the Kinetis SDK v2.0 (see “First NXP Kinetis SDK Release: SDK V2.0 with Online On-Demand Package Builder“). For this, I’m using the ‘standard’ way: blinking the LED on the board 🙂

Blinky on FRDM-K64F Board

Blinky on FRDM-K64F Board

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McuOnEclipse Components: 7-Feb-2016 Release

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New in this release:

  • Segger SystemViewer: Upgraded to V2.30, added stack high-water mark
  • Segger RTT: fixed BASEPRI issue on Cortex M4 for critical sections
  • Utility: Fixed issue with Utility module and Kinetis SDK (usage of ‘byte’)
  • USB CDC: property to specify USB device current usage, new status getter functions.
Segger SystemViewer V2.30

Segger SystemViewer V2.30

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Show Floating Point Variable Bytes in Eclipse CDT

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My preferred variable format in Eclipse is hexadecimal (see “Debugging Variables in Hexadecimal with Eclipse“). However, this does not work well with floating point variables:

Floating Point Variables in Eclipse Variables View

Floating Point Variables in Eclipse Variables View

The above view shows all variables having the value 0x0 (zero), but that’s actually not really true.

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Debug Multiple Boards with GDB at the Same Time

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Many times it is very useful to debug multiple boards at the same time. For example if I’m debugging a communication stack between two boards: that way I can debug the protocol on both sides. Eclipse is a great framework which allows that. This post shows how to debug multiple boards (e.g. the NXP Freedom boards) in parallel from the same Eclipse IDE using GDB and the Segger J-Link:

Two NXP Freedom Boards debugged at the same time

Two NXP Freedom Boards debugged at the same time

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Hardware Reset for ARM Cortex-M with Segger J-Link and Kinetis Design Studio

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The reset and signal line of a microcontroller is probably the most important signal to a microcontroller. And if things go wrong, then a first thing to check is the reset line. So having control over reset is an important aspect for embedded development. You would think that if you download a program to a microcontroller, the debug probe would put the device into reset at the start with a short pulse like this:

Reset Signal in Logic Analyzer

Reset Signal in Logic Analyzer

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McuOnEclipse Release 10-Jan-2016

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With the start of the new year 2016 I have published a new McuOnEclipse component release with the following major updates:

  1. Updated Segger SystemView and Real Time Transfer (RTT): added terminal functions and extra interfaces
  2. Improved USB CDC with serial number handing
  3. FreeRTOS TaskList shell command
  4. USB Stack: added MSD Host support for MCF52259, added support for K24FN120 and for the 100 MHz K20 devices
  5. New NEOMatrix component for Adafruit NeoPixel Matrix displays

    256 NeoPixel Matrix with FRDM-KL25Z

    256 NeoPixel Matrix with FRDM-KL25Z

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