Category Archives: Eclipse

Adding a Delay to the ARM DAPLink Bootloader

Posted on by
4

The ARM mbed USB MSD bootloader which is used on many silicon vendor boards has a big problem: it is vulnerable to operating systems like Windows 10 which can brick your board (see “Bricking and Recovering OpenSDA Boards in Windows 8 and 10“). To recover the board, typically a JTAG/SWD programmer has to be used. I have described in articles (see links section) how to recover from that situation, including using an inofficial new bootloader which (mostly) solves the problem. The good news is that ARM (mbed) has released an official and fixed bootloader. The bad news is that this bootloader does not work on every board because of a timing issue: the bootloader mostly enters bootloader mode instated executing the application.

DAPLink in Bootloader Mode

DAPLink in Bootloader Mode

Continue reading →

EmbSysRegView 0.2.6 for NXP Kinetis Design Studio V3.2.0

Posted on by
Reply

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

Installed Files in Eclipse

Continue reading →

Dealing with Eclipse and Very Small Icons on Ultra High Density Displays

Posted on by
21

More and more these very-very-high-resolution (UHD, Ultra-High-Density) notebook displays show up in my class rooms.These displays have 3100×1800 or even more pixels, making it great for watching high-resolution videos or for playing games (maybe?). But such a high-resolution makes many tools including Eclipse very hard to use, because the toolbar icons get so tiny that they are really hard to hit with a mouse cursor on Windows:

Eclipse Icons with UHD Display

Eclipse Icons with UHD Display

Continue reading →

Using Serial Terminal and COM Support in Eclipse Oxygen and Neon

Posted on by
13

Most of the time I’m using a dedicated terminal program like Termite or PuTTY to connect to a board using virtual or non-virtual COM port. Another way is to use the Eclipse built-in Terminal view: that way no extra program is needed to communicate with a real or virtual COM port to my target device:

Terminal Command Output

Terminal Command Output

Continue reading →

How to fix an Eclipse Workspace that does not open any more?

Posted on by
29

It can happen to everyone using Eclipse: launching Eclipse with workspace, and then it is stuck loading it. As a last resort, create a new workspace and go on? Possible, but painful, right? For some time I have a strange issue nagging me: from time to time, I’m not able to switch to a workspace which worked before. The IDE starts loading, but then is stuck:

Eclipse Oxygen Stuck Loading Workspace

Eclipse Oxygen Stuck Loading Workspace

Continue reading →

McuOnEclipse Components: 25-Sept-2017 Release

Posted on by
11

I’m pleased to announce that a new release of the McuOnEclipse components is available in SourceForge. In this release more ARM Cortex devices/vendors are supported with different SDKs, plus it comes with several FreeRTOS enhancements for debugging highly optimized code.

SourceForge

SourceForge

Continue reading →

Managing Project and Library Dependencies with Eclipse CDT

Posted on by
9

For several projects I’m using library projects: I build a library and then use that library in the other project. If I change something in a library, I want to run make both on the referenced libraries and rebuild my application if needed. If you don’t know how to do this, then read on… 🙂

Shared Library Projects

Shared Library Projects

(… actually it means workign around  known Eclipse CDT bug too….)

Continue reading →

Using Multiple Memory Regions with the FreeRTOS Heap

Posted on by
5

ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers can have multiple memory controllers. This is a good thing as it allows the hardware to do multiple parallel memory read/writes. However this makes the memory map more complicated for the software: it divides the memory into different regions and memory segments.  This article is about how to enable FreeRTOS to use multiple memory blocks for a virtual combined memory heap:

FreeRTOS with Segmented Heap Memory

FreeRTOS with Segmented Heap Memory

Continue reading →

Tutorial: Porting BLE+NRF Kinetis Design Studio Project to MCUXpresso IDE

Posted on by
2

The tools and IDE market is constantly changing. Not only there is every year at least one new major Eclipse IDE release, the commercial tool chain and IDE vendors are constantly changing the environment too. For any ARM Cortex-M development, the combination of Eclipse with the GNU tool chain provided by ARM Inc. is the golden standard. But this does not mean that things can be easily moved from one IDE package to another.

While moving between Eclipse versions and GNU versions is usually not a big deal at all, moving between the Eclipse build tool integration is usually not simple. While the GNU MCU Eclipse plugins are widely used (see Breathing with Oxygen: DIY ARM Cortex-M C/C++ IDE and Toolchain with Eclipse Oxygen), the Eclipse based IDEs from the silicon vendors or commercial Eclipse toolchain vendors are using  their own GNU toolchain integration. Which means the project files are not compatible :-(.

NXP FRDM-KW41Z Board

NXP FRDM-KW41Z Board

Continue reading →

Using Eclipse with its local Version of Java Virtual Machine

Posted on by
10

Eclipse is probably the most used and de-facto standard IDE for any development for ARM Cortex or any other devices. It is very easy these days to construct an unlimited and unrestricted IDE (see “Breathing with Oxygen: DIY ARM Cortex-M C/C++ IDE and Toolchain with Eclipse Oxygen“). Up to the point that I can pack it into a .zip file and pass it around e.g. in a class room environment, so no installer at all is needed with the exception of the debug probe USB drivers. As Eclipse is using a Java Virtual Machine (VM), it is a good idea to bundle the VM with the IDE, and this article is about how to do this.

Eclipse Oxygen running with its own Java Virtual Machine

Eclipse Oxygen running with its own Java Virtual Machine

Continue reading →