This is the second part of series or articles how to use the Microsoft Visual Studio Code for embedded development on ARM Cortex-M. In this part I’m going to show how to create and build a project using CMake running Make or Ninja as build system.
As time flies by, my projects are evolving. My lab projects get used over multiple semesters, and the MCUXpresso projects by default use the SDK version used at that time.
This is great because I do want to have control over what SDK is used. But from time to time it makes sense to upgrade a project to a newer version. In this post I’ll show how an existing project can be upgraded to use a new SDK.
Continue readingUsing Post-Build feature in Eclipse is a great way to augment a build with all kind of actions. What if the build takes a long time and you want to get notified? One way is to play a sound at the end of the build process.
NXP has released an updated version of the Eclipse based MCUXpresso IDE: the V11.3.1 is an update of the v11.3.0 I wrote about it back in January this year.
The release includes new device support, and beside of bug fixes includes a few new things.
Continue readingThe NXP MCUXpresso IDE has a nice context menu for executing different actions on a binary in the Eclipse Project Explorer View:
What it makes it even nicer: I can configure and use it to do anything I like. For example I can convert files and copy it in one action.
Continue readingIn “Freelink LPC4322JET100 based Debug Circuit on NXP i.MX RT1064-EVK Board” I described how to change the factory firmware from OpenSDA to the LPC-Link2 one.
Now it is possible to use a Segger J-Link firmware too, or to switch back to the factory default one.
Continue readingIn “Touch & Build: Auto-Update of Firmware Date and Time” I’m using commands as ‘touch’ in a pre-build script with the NXP Eclipse based MCUXpresso IDE. That ‘touch’ command is not a Windows shell command, but common on Linux: it updates the time/date of a file.
Build Step Dialog in MCUXpresso IDE
As a Windows user you might wonder what is about this ‘Linux compatible shell’?
It is very valuable to have a date and time information in the binary. That way for example using a shell I can check the version of the firmware running on a device, or it can be printed on a console or UART as needed.
Firmware Date and Time
One of the most frustrating part developing embedded applications is if the debug connection fails somehow: with all the different factors like operating system, virtual machines, USB ports and hubs, debug probe and firmware a ‘connection failed’ is my nightmare. And this is probably the most frustrating parts for my students (and myself!)
I do have a growing list of tips & tricks in “Debugging Failure: Check List and Hints“, so check this list. What I just have added is an entry for
java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
It occurred for a few students when they wanted to use the on-board CMSIS-DAP LinkServer debug connection on the NXP LPC845-BRK.
NXP LPC845-BRK Board
“A young man is smoking one cigarette after each other without a pause. An elderly woman observes that and says: “Young man, you are smoking like crazy! Don’t you know that there is a warning on each cigarette package that this can kill you?” The young man finishes his cigarette, looks at the elderly person and says: “Yes, I know. But look, I’m a programmer, and it is only a warning.”
I don’t smoke, and I do pay attention to warnings :-). I always try to keep my source code free of compiler warnings. And I always pay special attention to the following on:
implicit declaration of function
