If you think that my LED tutorial is too complicated to program a simple LED, then this article might be of interest for you. Because there is an easy and basic way: And I mean it: really basic. And the name is the program(ming language) ;-).
One of my very first contact with computers was the Commodore C64: this was a very successful home computer system back in the 1980’s: a 8bit machine with 64 KByte of RAM and a built-in Basic Interpreter in ROM:
Commodore C64 Startup Screen
It is already two weeks into 2013, and not to late to mention Christmas: I have received another gift :-). It did not make it for Christmas itself: Because of the overloaded postal service and because the Swiss customs wanted to deeply inspect the board (they probably wanted to try the board too 😉 ). So it had it finally in my hands last week: The Avnet Wi-Go Board:
Avnet Wi-Go Board
And here it is again: a Hard Fault exception raised by the ARM Cortex-M0+ on my Freedom board:
Hard Fault in Debug View
A reason for hard faults are for example dereferencing a NULL pointer. The issue with the ARM Cortex hard fault exception stack is: it is not easy to find out where in the code the problem is.I have created a Processor Expert component to help me to find the location of such an exception. With the Eclipse based CodeWarrior for MCU10.3 there is another way: Trace with the MTB (Micro Trace Buffer)!
Eclipse based CodeWarrior for MCU10.3 comes with gcc build tools for Kinetis/ARM cores. While it features the parallel build make, I noticed that especially for larger projects build times are not as fast as it should be. The good news is: I was able to cut down my build time to less than half with a simple change :-).
When I looked at the output folder where all the object and make files are stored by Eclipse, I noticed that it has as well the listing files generated:
Listing Files in output folder
Some times, especially after making some clock/timing changes in Processor Expert, I have an error showing up in the Processor Expert components:
Processor Expert Components with Errors
Many times Processor Expert is right. But not always: It is possible that Processor Expert is stuck on the error, and there seems no way out. But there is a trick to resolve it….
When I have asked by a student last year if I’m uing Git, I said “Git what?”. Yep, a shame I did not know what Git was a this time. But it is never to late to learn new things.
I was coming from CVS, moved to the successor of it (SVN) and was happy with it. Especially with having a local SVN server and repository, that was (and still is) a great thing. But to truely collaborate with a worldwide community, it is time to use something different: Git.
GitHub Bootcamp: 4 simple steps to git
I know for myself: the earlier I’m able to fix a bug, the better. So I’m always grateful for things which help me to find issues in my sources as early in the development process as possible. Eclipse and CodeWarrior already help me to find syntax errors in my code while I’m typing:
Eclipse highlighting syntax error
With the built-in syntax checker of Eclipse, this helps me many times to get things right without the need to build my code with the compiler. But when I’m able to compile successfully my code, this does not mean it is without bugs. It would be good to catch as many errors *before* downloading and running it on the target.
I have the Arduino Motor Shield working, the Ultrasonic module is pinging around, Christmas brought some small DC toy motors, and a bag of plastic gears is on my desk. All the good ingredients for a small robot: the Freedom Robot!
❗ Warning: Multiple Coke bottles have been destroyed, and a FRDM box got hurt during his experiment! 😯 Do not try yourself if you cannot handle it.:-)
Smile
Question: What makes 8 times ‘beep’, but I cannot hear it?
Answer: My ultrasonic range finder 🙂
FRDM-KL25Z with HC-SR04
What I have added to my FRDM-KL25Z board is an ultrasonic distance sensor, measuring distances up to 4 meters.
Thanks for reading and following this blog, for all the comments and suggestions and the encouraging feedback! And many new exciting projects are waiting for 2013 :-).
Happy New Year!
Erich
PS: If you believe in statistics and numbers, then here is something for you: The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
MCU on Eclipse 