Using the FRDM-KL25Z with CMSIS-DAP to program non-Freescale ARM Microcontrollers

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Freescale might not have thought about this: how to use Freescale boards and silicon to develop for non-Freescale silicon? 😉

I tinkered around using the FRDM (e.g. FRDM-KL25Z) board as a general purpose programming or debugging device. See the links to the posts at the end of this article. I have used it to program and debug other Freescale ARM processors. It requires board changes and the usage of a different OpenSDA firmware which has its own limitations (no USB CDC serial bridge). But for about $15-20 I have a device to program my own external boards :-).

If you are using Keil tools, then the good news is: With CMSIS-DAP you can debug any other (even non-Freescale) ARM device as long it is supported by the IDE :mgreen:

FRDM-KL25Z debugging the nRF51422-DK (Source: Keith Wakeham)

FRDM-KL25Z debugging the nRF51422-DK (Source: Keith Wakeham)

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Tutorial: Using the FRDM-KL25Z as Low Power Board

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The FRDM-KL25Z is a great board: inexpensive (around US$15), small form factor, has easily accessible pins, and has a low power (capable, at least) microcontroller, and comes with an embedded debugging interface. So why not using this board right away ‘as is’ for a low power battery operated device? Great idea, you think? Yes, I thought too. Only to find out that the board needs 20 mA out of the box.

The good news is: It is possible on a week-end to get this 150 times better down to 132 μA, with an RTOS running all the time :-). I invite you to join a journey with board modifications, jumpers, schematics and many multi-meter pictures ;-)….

132 micro amps

132 micro amps!

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How to Avoid Slow Processor Expert Projects

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The Eclipse IDE is in my view the best IDE in the world :-). But it is not the fastest one: All the functionality and comfort has a price, and such a Java and highly flexible IDE requires its resources. The Eclipse community is continuously addressing that concern, and for example the Eclipse Juno 4.2 IDE in CodeWarrior for MCU10.5 shows this nicely: things are much smoother compared to the Eclipse Indigo 3.7 in MCU10.4. But if you feel that you do not want to use Processor Expert because it is too slow, then I have a trick how to improve performance by a factor of 10 :-).

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Link Order: Using Multiple Definitions with ARM GNU Linker and Eclipse

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Sometimes I have ‘multiple definitions’ in my projects: this means that I have functions defined in one source files, and I need to ‘overwrite’ one or more with a version in another source file.  For example I have a source file with utility functions (Utility.c), and I want to overwrite some of these functions with a different implementation in a different file (MyUtility.c). How can I do this?

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FRDM Board Bootloader fails with Windows 8.1 Preview

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Microsoft has released the Windows 8.1 Preview. So you can try out the next update of Windows 8. In short: Do NOT use Windows 8.1 Preview if you are using a Freescale FRDM board! Otherwise you will not be able to change the OpenSDA firmware (MSD or debug application).

❗ Update: P&E has released a new firmware v114 which combines USB CDC, MSD bootloader and debug application, and this firmware fixes the issue described in this post.

Well, I have not used it personally: I never use ‘test’ or ‘preview’ versions on my ‘production’ machine. It is ok to try things out on separate ‘scratch’ machines, but not on something I need to have stable for my work. Well, some of the students in my INTRO class were not able to resist and downloaded and installed Windows 8.1 Preview on their machines. With the result that the OpenSDA Bootloader does not work with Windows 8.1 Preview:

❗ It seems that the problem exists as well with the Windows 8.1 ‘final’ release.

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FRDM Board not responding? Check your Virus Scanner!

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In case you have this problem with the FRDM boards: You are using the FRDM bootloader mode (it shows up as BOOTLOADER) or the MSD mode (e.g. it shows up as FRDM-KL25Z) (see OpenSDA on the Freedom KL25Z Board) and it does not respond any more, or does not work as expected, then read on…

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Compiling Documentation and Presentations: LaTeX

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If you are not in the academic world, then you might wonder about that ‘LaTeX‘ in the title.  and no, it is not about that latex rubber material ;-), it is about ‘la-tek’ 🙂

In short, it is a programming language and tool set to ‘compile’ documents. Originally, TeX has been designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Since then, it has been evolved and TeX (or LaTeX) is widely used in academia.

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Changing Initialization Sequence in Processor Expert

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Now I have implemented a watchdog with Processor Expert for my system. But what I have found out? I ended up with a looping system, and the watchdog did not fire 😦

What went wrong?

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Zumo Robot assembled

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This week we were busy with building and documenting the first robots based on the Zumo Robot Chassis PCB.

Chassis Base PCB

The chassis is designed to hook up the FRDM-KL25Z board from Freescale. It is using parts from Pololu (chassis, motors, DC-DC converter, line sensor, H-Bridge, encoders):

ZumoBaseBoardOverview

Zumo Base Board Overview

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