Building a Triumvirate: From Eclipse CDT to CMake, CMD and Visual Studio Code

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Erich Styger

A Triumvirate is or Triarchy is built by three individuals which lead or rule something. In this article I want to rule a project with Eclipse CDT, Visual Studio Code and with building it from the command line for automated builds.

So what if I have an Eclipse project (say MCUXpresso IDE and SDK), and want to build it on a build server, and and I want to use the same time the project with Eclipse IDE and Visual Studio code?

Key to this is CMake: I’m keeping the Eclipse CDT features, adding CMake with Make and Ninja to the fix, and have it ‘ruled’ by three different ’emperor’: Eclipse, Visual Studio Code and from a shell console:

MCUXpresso SDK CDT project with CMake for Eclipse, Visual Studio Code and Command Line Building

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NXP MCUXpresso IDE 11.7.0

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Erich Styger

It is the exam and grading time at the university, and the same time I’m preparing the lectures and labs for the new semester starting mid of February. I’m always heading for using the latest and greatest tools in my labs. A few days ago, NXP released the new version of the MCUXpresso IDE, version 11.7.0. Time to check it out…

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Installing eGit into CodeWarrior Development Studio for MCU v11.1

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Erich Styger

Sometimes it can be a challenge to update or add plugins to older software or Eclipse versions. The ‘CodeWarrior for MCU’ from NXP is legacy and replaced by the newer MCUXpresso IDE and tools, but I continue to use CodeWarrior for our older projects, and it still works fine after all the years and Windows host updates. However, trying to install from the standard eGit Update site fails:

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Tutorial: Creating Bare-bare Embedded Projects with CMake, with Eclipse included

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Erich Styger

MCU vendors offer SDKs and configuration tools: that’s a good thing, because that way I can get started quickly and get something up and running ideally in a few minutes. But this gets you into a dependency on tools, SDK and configuration tools too: changing later from one MCU to another can be difficult and time consuming. So why not get started with a ‘bare’ project, using general available tools, just with a basic initialization (clocking, startup code, CMSIS), even with the silicon vendor provided IDE and basic support files?

In this case, I show how you easily can do this with CMake, make and Eclipse, without the (direct) need of an SDK.

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Installing Processor Expert into MCUXpresso IDE

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Erich Styger

With the new MCUXpresso versions out, and because it has been a while I showed how to install Processor Expert into Eclipse, here is an update how to do this.

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Silicon Shortage and Semihosting with NXP MCUXpresso SDK on FRDM-KE02Z

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Erich Styger

The silicon shortage is still going on. While the NXP Kinetis KE devices might not be my first choice, they still seem to be available, in at least in lower quantities. This has been recognized by others, as I’m getting more and more questions and requests for the KE and KV family. This is why I un-dusted my old FRDM-KE02Z to be used with the latest MCUXpresso SDK and IDE.

And in case you want to use that board or device with semihosting, I have you covered.

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DIY Split-Flap Display

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Erich Styger

Split-flap displays are electromechanical display devices, which were common in airports or railway stations a few years ago.Unfortunately, most of them are gone and replaced by LED displays. Why not create a DIY version of it?

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LoRaWAN with NXP LPC55S16 and ARM Cortex-M33

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Erich Styger

LoRaWAN is getting more an more popular, both for terrestrial and increasingly with low-orbit satellite systems. The ‘Long Range’ in ‘LoRa’ makes it an ideal solution for low-power and low data rate applications. For a university research project we selected the Semtech SX1261/62 transceiver together with the NXP LPC55S16 mikrocontroller. Because the board used for that project is not available for the public (yet), I share here how you can run the LoRaWAN stack with the NXP LPC55S16-EVK.

LoRaWAN with Semtech SX126x and NXP LPC55S16

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McuOnEclipse Components: 26-Dec-2021 Release

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Erich Styger

I’m pleased to announce a new release of the McuOnEclipse components, available on SourceForge. This release includes several bug fixes, support for more devices, and updated components like FreeRTOS, MinINI, Percepio Tracealyzer and SEGGER SystemView.