Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

Tutorial: Catching Rogue Memory Accesses with Eclipse and GDB Watchpoints

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Eclipse is great: it gives me the tools and capabilities to solve the really hard bugs to find. An example of that ‘hard’ category are ‘rogue’ memory accesses: something in the application is accessing an unwanted memory location and corrupts the data. This might be very sporadic, or takes a long while until it happens. With normal ‘stop-mode’ debugging (setting a normal breakpoint) and stepping usually won’t let me find that bug, as it might be coming from a pointer somewhere. Maybe from an interrupt routine. Or maybe an unitialized or corrupted pointer corrupts to my memory. Usually all what I know is the memory adddress of the data, maybe what is written, but not what or who is writing to that location.

In this article I’m using one of the ‘less-known’ debugging techniques available in Eclipse and CDT and how it works: watchpoints!

Watchpoint with Condition

Watchpoint with Condition

In this article I’m using one of the ‘less-known’ debugging techniques available in Eclipse and CDT and how it works: watchpoints!

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Display Library Function Help Text in Eclipse C/C++ Projects

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In this short article I show you how to enable one of the hidden gems in Eclipse: how to get a description of the library function used in the code

Library Hover

snprintf() help text

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Tutorial: Using Runtime Statistics with Amazon FreeRTOS V10

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FreeRTOS includes a nice feature to give me information about how much time every task is spending running on the system:

FreeRTOS Runtime Information

FreeRTOS Runtime Information

This tutorial explains that FreeRTOS Runtime Statistics feature and how it can be turned on and used.

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Debug the Last Launched Application with Eclipse and other Debug Tricks

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My usual workflow is: edit – build – debug and repeat. And this for the same project again and again. So here are a few tips how to make these iterations faster with Eclipse. One thing is to use the F11 shortcut to debug the last launched/debugged application:

Debug Last Launched

Debug Last Launched

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Porting Processor Expert Projects to MCUXpresso IDE

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The McuOnEclipse GitHub repository hosts many Processor Expert projects and is very popular (cloned more than 1000 times, thank you!). Processor Expert is a powerful framework which generates driver and configuration code, simplifying application development for a wide range of microcontroller and families. But Processor Expert won’t be developed further by NXP and is not part of MCUXpresso IDE. While it is possible to install Processor Expert into MCUXpresso IDE 10.2, how can these projects used ini an IDE *without* Processor Expert? This article describes how to port an existing Processor Expert project into the NXP MCUXpresso IDE.

Adafruit SSD1351 with FRDM-K64F

Ported Project with FRDM-K64F using Adafruit SSD1351 and Processor Expert

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Updating the S32K144EVB to Switch between 5V and 3.3V Logic Levels

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By default, the NXP S32K144EVB and microcontroller is using a 5V supply voltage and logic levels which is great for noisy environment or any 5V devices. Many of my displays and sensors use 3.3V logic levels, so I would have to use a level shifter from 5V to 3.3V. There is another way: to change the board for 3.3V logic levels so I can use directly things like a SSD1306 display.

S32K144EVB with OLED SSD1306 using 3.3V Logic Levels

S32K144EVB with OLED SSD1306 using 3.3V Logic Levels

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Using custom FreeRTOS with S32K SDK and OSIF for ARM

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In “Tutorial: FreeRTOS 10.0.1 with NXP S32 Design Studio 2018.R1” I showed how to use a custom FreeRTOS with the S32 Design Studio (ARM). The OSIF (OS Interface) provides an operating system and services abstraction for the application which is used by other S32K SDK components:

OSIF in S32K for ARM Eclipse Project

OSIF in S32K for ARM Eclipse Project

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Creating Disassembly Listings with GNU Tools and Eclipse

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In many cases it is very useful to see the generated assembly code produced by the compiler. One obvious way to see the assembly code is to use the Disassembly view in Eclipse:

Disassembly View

Disassembly View

But this requires a debug session. An easier way is to use command line options to generate the listing file(s).

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Eclipse Debugging with Pointers and Arrays

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In the C programming language it is good practice to pass values by reference (using a pointer), especially for large set of data. For example the following function takes a message string and pointer to integer data which then is printed to the console:

static void printData(const char *msg, const int *intBuf, size_t bufSize) {
  puts(msg); /* print message */
  for(int i=0; i<bufSize;i++) {
    printf("buf[%i] = %i\n", i, intBuf[i]);
  }
}

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Measuring ARM Cortex-M CPU Cycles Spent with the MCUXpresso Eclipse Registers View

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The ARM DWT (Data Watchpoint and Trace) is an optional feature of the ARM-Cortex-M, and many Cortex-M3, M4 and M7 devices have it implemented. With it comes a cycle counter which counts the cycles spent. In Cycle Counting on ARM Cortex-M with DWT I described an approach how the application on the target can access the cycle counter.

The MCUXpresso IDE shows that cycle counter in the Eclipse Registers view:

Cycle Counter in Register View

Cycle Counter in Register View

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Installing Darkest Theme with MCUXpresso IDE 10.2

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Is BLACK the color of the season? My students really seem to love these ‘dark’ Eclipse themes. Well, I tried ‘dark’ themes in the past, but I have not been vey excited about it. Somehow I preferred more the ‘black on white background’ thing. But: I have now managed to install the ‘Darkest Dark’ Eclipse theme into the NXP MCUXpresso 10.2 IDE for my daily work, and I feel it hurts my eyes less? Maybe I’m getting older? Or could it really be that ‘dark’ look and feel?

Darkest Dark Theme with MCUXpresso IDE

Darkest Dark Theme with MCUXpresso IDE

Find out for yourself in the following article….

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GNU Link Time Optimization finds non-matching Declarations

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By default, the GNU compiler (gcc) optimizes each compilation unit (source file) separately. This is effective, but misses the opportunity to optimize across compilation units. Here is where the Link Time Optimization (LTO,  option -flto) can help out: with a global view it can optimize one step further.

The other positive side effect is that the linker can flag possible issues like the one below which are not visible to the compiler alone:

type of '__SP_INIT' does not match original declaration [enabled by default]
Warning by LTO

Warning by LTO

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Tutorial: Understanding and Using FreeRTOS Software Timers

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Hardware Timers are essential to most embedded applications: I use them mostly for triggering actions at a given frequency, such as acquiring data from a  sensor. With using an RTOS I can do a similar thing using a task: the task will run with a given frequency and I can periodic work in it. However, using a task might be too much overhead doing this. The good news is that there is a much more efficient way to do this in FreeRTOS with Software Timers. And this is what this tutorial is about: how to use Software Timers with FreeRTOS.

FreeRTOS Software Timers

FreeRTOS Software Timers

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Do you Speak Klingon? How to change the Eclipse IDE UI Language with Babel

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We in Switzerland are proud about the fact that our country has four official languages: Italian, French, German and Romansh. Most of Swiss people speak at least two of them, plus the inofficial fifth language (English).

Eclipse is even better than that and speaks 46 different languages. If you are not happy with the default language, try out Babel! And yes, Eclipse has a language pack for Klingon too:

Babel Language Packs in Klingon

Babel Language Packs in Klingon

🙂

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Understanding FreeRTOS Task Stack Usage and Kernel Awareness Information

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When using the FreeRTOS Task List in the Eclipse based MCUXpresso IDE, it shows the list of tasks with their stack size used. But with the default FreeRTOS settings it is not able to determine the correct stack size and shows a warning icon:

Warning for Stack Usage

Warning for Stack Usage

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Overview of MCUXpresso IDE v10.2.0

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Decisions, decisions! Such long weekends like Pentecost are a real challenge for a family with engineers:

  1. Should we join that record long traffic jam to Italy and be stuck for more than 4 hours and analyze it?
  2. Or: should we stay home, turn the BBQ smoker engine on fire, load it with baby back pork rib racks for a slow-and-low smoke treatment, while doing some on-the-side IDE and technology exploration?

Well, my family vote was kind of clear: they have chosen that second option. Not to mention that hidden technology piece in it, but that was part of the deal ;-).

And I’m sorry: this article is not about BBQ (for this see “Smoking BBQ Baby Back Ribs – Swiss Style“), it is about technology: I’m using the NXP MCUXpresso IDE and tools for many of my projects (see “Eclipse MCUXpresso IDE 10.1 with integrated MCUXpresso Configuration Tools“). Right before the this extended weekend, NXP has released the new v10.2.0 version, so here is where that technology exploration piece comes into play. Checking the release notes, this version number change includes so many cool stuff I decided to have a look and to check it out. Of course always having an electronic eye on the baby back ribs!

MCUXpresso IDE v10.2.0

MCUXpresso IDE v10.2.0

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Upgrading a Laser Cutter with Cohesion3D Mini and LCD

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I’m very happy with my 50W Laser Cutter (see “Getting Control over a 50 Watt CO2 Laser Cutter from China“). My main decision factors were (and still are): Software, software, tools and again software, and down in the list finally the hardware. Same thing for that laser cutter. After several upgrades (see “50W Laser Cutter Upgrades“), it was time replace the stock controller hardware with a new one including LCD display:

New Laser Cutter LCD Panel

New Laser Cutter LCD Panel

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