Building the MetaClockClock78: My Largest Clock Project Yet

From my previous MetaClockClock project, I still had some hardware available. So I decided to build my largest build so far: to clocks with 78 clocks each.

MetaClockClock78
MetaClockClock78
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Tutorial: Creating Self-Contained MCUXpresso SDK Projects

In Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Repositories with VS Code and Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west I showed how to get the MCUXpresso SDK. In this article it is about tweaking and streamlining the project.

The result is a clean, portable and self-contained MCUXpresso SDK project.

VS Code with streamlined NXP MCUXpresso project
VS Code with streamlined NXP MCUXpresso project
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Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Repositories with VS Code

In “Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west“, I demonstrated the ‘west’ tool’s usage. It helps in acquiring an SDK repository. Instead using the command line tool, I can use the NXP VS Code extension to do the same.

NXP VS Code Extension to import a repository
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Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west

In my earlier tutorial I showed how to install the necessary SDK tools. In this article I’m going to install the SDK sources. For this I’m going to use west. This is a command-line ‘meta-repository’ tool.

west update_board
west update_board
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Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Tool Installation

The engineering and development landscape is constantly changing. This includes the embedded tooling and SDKs.

Back in the year 2017 I have used the version 2 (see Tutorial: Using Eclipse with NXP MCUXpresso SDK v2 and Processor Expert). Back then, it was Eclipse with make. Now we are in 2026 and things have changed to VS Code, cmake, ninja, python and west.

VS Code with MCUXpresso Installer
VS Code with MCUXpresso Installer

Luckily, although more and different tools are needed these days, the installation experience has improved significantly. It has shifted from installing multiple different tools to a streamlined installation process.

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NXP LinkServer Now Supports ARM 64-bit for Enhanced Development

The latest release of the NXP LinkServer supports ARM 64bit (Debian) besides Windows, Linux and MacOS. With this, I can now develop on an NXP i.MX board. Plus, this enables an inexpensive way for automated on-target tests and CI/CD.

LinkServer running on Raspberry Pi
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3D Printed Rugged Enclosure for MCU-Link Pro

The 3D Printed Rugged Enclosure for NXP MCU-Link Debug Probe has been very useful. I wanted to design something similar for the ‘MCU-Link Pro‘ version of that debug probe. There there is already a laser-cut enclosure for the probe itself. I used the same stack-able rugged box for the debug probe plus all the cables.

NXP MCU-Link Pro Enclosure
NXP MCU-Link Pro Enclosure
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MCU-Link-MR v0.5: Enhanced Debug Probe for ARM Cortex-M

The MCU-Link-MR debug probe has been updated :-).

MCU-Link MR v0.5
MCU-Link MR v0.5

The MCU-Link-MR is a CMSIS-DAP debug probe for ARM Cortex-M devices with extra features for mobile robot and drone debugging. The project is open source and available on GitHub with KiCAD files and BOM.

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Debug ELF/Dwarf Binaries in VS Code without a Project or Build

Sometimes, all what I have is a ELF/Dwarf binary, and I need to debug it. I don’t want to build it, only debug it. The NXP VS Code extension makes that possible. I simply import the binary and start debugging.

Debugging Executable
Debugging Executable
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