Category Archives: Processor Expert

DIY Free Toolchain for Kinetis: Part 8 – Processor Expert, Eclipse and GNU ARM Eclipse Plugins

Posted on by
26

There has been many new releases these days: Freescale released Processor Expert Driver Suite 10.3, and Liviu Ionescu released new GNU ARM Eclipse Plugins with new and updated documentation. So time for me to show how this all comes together 🙂

Processor Expert Driver Suite 10.3 Project with GNU ARM Eclipse Build Tools

Processor Expert Driver Suite 10.3 Project with GNU ARM Eclipse Build Tools

It is now easier than ever before to use the GNU ARM Eclipse plugins and Processor Expert. There are still some manual steps, and this post is about all the details to get it working as smooth as possible.

Continue reading →

USB for the TWR-K21F120M

Posted on by
17

Finally my Freescale TWR-K21F120M board arrived 🙂

TWR-K21F120M on the bench

TWR-K21F120M on the bench

For the next generation of INTRO Zumo robots I’m evaluating a new ‘brain’: more processing power, more FLASH, more RAM, more of everything 😉

Continue reading →

DIY: Changing Processor Expert Components

Posted on by
18

I’m maintaining and hosting now more than 100 different Processor Expert components on GitHub. Instead to deal with CDE (Component Development Environment, that’s the SDK to create your own components), most users simply download and install the PEupd files. If you deal with normal source files, and if spot something you want (or need to change), then you can easily do this. But what if you want or need to change something in that code which comes with the PEupd file(s)?

Components in the Components Library

Components in the Components Library

Continue reading →

FRDM with Arduino Ethernet Shield R3, Part 2: Ping

Posted on by
11

In Part 1 of this series I have covered the SD card on the Arduino Ethernet shield. In Part 2 I’m hooking up the board to the network and will be able to ping it 🙂

Arduino Ethernet Shield with FRDM-KL25Z

Arduino Ethernet Shield with FRDM-KL25Z

Continue reading →

FRDM with Arduino Ethernet Shield R3, Part 1: SD Card

Posted on by
58

Sometimes it takes a very long time to realize a project. Adding the Arduino Ethernet Shield R3 to one of my Freescale FRDM boards is one of it: it took me a year until I have found a few days to work on using the Ethernet Shield with my FRDM-KL25Z.

FRDM-KL25Z with Ethernet Shield

FRDM-KL25Z with Ethernet Shield

I have not everything in place yet, so I decided to publish things in parts. So this is about part one: using the Micro SD Card on the Shield.

Continue reading →

Character LCD with 4 Lines and up to 64 Characters per Line

Posted on by
3

Character based LCD displays are great: they are inexpensive, and it is rather simple to use them compared to graphical displays. Yes, they only can display text and custom symbols, but this is usually what I need. And pretty much all character displays are using the Hitachi HD44780 protocol, so it is a de-facto industry standard.

Dual Line Character Display

HD44780 compatible Dual Line Character Display

These displays have one big disadvantage: they need to be compatible with the original Hitachi interface and protocol. First display were mostly one line only, and had only few characters, typically up to 16. The protocol worked either with one or two lines on the display. Today’s display have usually two lines, with 16 characters. But what if I need more?

4-Line LCD (Source: Daniela Solorzano)

4-Line LCD (Source: Daniela Solorzano)

Continue reading →

Review: New FRDM-KL26Z Board

Posted on by
26

I probably would have missed the fact that Freescale has released a new Freedom board, if I would not have visited my local distributor site to order a replacement for one of my first FRDM-KL25Z boards. So surprise, surprise: there is a new Freedom board: the FRDM-KL26Z!

FRDM-KL26Z Board

FRDM-KL26Z Board

So instead ordering again a FRDM-KL25Z, I decided to order that new FRDM-KL26Z instead. And it arrived right before Christmas, and now I had time to check it out. Nope, I did *not* use it as a blinking gadget on a Christmas tree, even if that would have been a nice idea ;-).

Continue reading →

RNet Stack for 8bit MC9S08QE128 Microcontroller and MC13201 Transceiver

Posted on by
6

I admit: I have used ARM Cortex cores a lot in the recent months. Yes, I think with the ‘ARM domination of the world’ over time the ARM core will blast away probably all other cores, except for niche players? Still, there are reasons to use non-ARM cores, and even if it is just that I have a board at hand :-).

DEMOQE with MC9S08QE128 and MC13201 Transceiver Card

DEMOQE with MC9S08QE128 and MC13201 Transceiver Card

Continue reading →

RNet: optional ACK, Dynamic Payload and Extended nRF24L01+ Driver

Posted on by
8

Time to write an update about the RNet Wireless Stack. The stack has been successfully used for the Sumo Robots as wireless controller. In the last week, there has been a lot smaller and larger extensions for it. And because the nRF24L01+ modules are so inexpensive, I bunkered more than 50, with 20 still left to be deployed:

nRF24L01+ Transceiver Modules

nRF24L01+ Transceiver Modules

Continue reading →