Tag Archives: Building

Everything about compiling, assembling and linking.

Debugging STM32F103RB NUCLEO Board with Segger J-Link

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The STMicroelectronics STM32F103 (ARM Cortex-M3) Nucleo boards include the on-board ST-Link v2 circuit which allows to debug the board. This circuit is similar to the OpenSDA circuit found on Freescale boards. Unlike the Freescale OpenSDA, the ST-Link is only the ST-Link: it is not possible to load a P&E Multilink or Segger J-Link or firmware on it. Luckily, the ST-Link has a SWD connector, but this connector is a non-standard one. So how can I debug that board with an Eclipse based environment with GNU ARM Eclipse plugins and a Segger J-Link?

Connected J-Link with Nucleo Board

Connected J-Link with Nucleo Board

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GNU Static Stack Usage Analysis

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Stack overflows are a big problem: If I see a system crash, the first thing usually is I try to increase the stack size to see if the problem goes away. The GNU linker can check if my global variables fit into RAM. But it cannot know how much stack I need. So how cool would it be to have a way to find out how much stack I need?

Static Stack Usage Analysis with GNU

Static Stack Usage Analysis with GNU

And indeed, this is possible with the GNU tools (e.g. I’m using it with the GNU ARM Embedded (launchpad) 4.8 and 4.9 compilers :-). But it seems that this ability is not widely known?

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Overview: From Snippets to Code Generation

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To build an application for a modern microcontroller today is not a simple thing. Well, it depends what ‘simple’ means. But compared to the ‘old days of 8bit micro controllers’ (which are still in use!) developing for a complex 32bit device is definitely a different thing. Not only the complexity has changed, but as well the breath of tools and helpers. In my view, the only constant is ‘change’, and I have changed the way how to develop several times in my career. In this post I present several different techniques I’m using in my development.

Processor Expert CPU View

Processor Expert CPU View

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Board Take-Over: Using Segger J-Link to Debug NXP

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So NXP has announced that they want to take over Freescale (see this press release). In an earlier post I experimented how Freescale tools could be used in NXP tools, see “Merging NXP LPCXpresso IDE with Freescale Kinetis Design Studio, Processor Expert and Kinetis SDK“. Just for fun, I want to do the acquisition the other way round: Using Freescale (now NXP) software and tools to build and debug the LPC824 from NXP :-).

Debugging the NXP LPC824 with Freescale J-Link Lite

Debugging the NXP LPC824 with Freescale based J-Link Lite

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Sneak Preview: Profiling Bare Metal Microcontroller Applications with GNU gprof

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I’m working on a conference paper and presentation, and tonight I had a break-through :-). So how cool is this: Profiling with GNU gprof a bare-metal embedded Cortex-M application (Freescale Kinetis K64F running the Freescale Kinetis SDK) in Eclipse:

Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling

Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling

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Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 4: Timer

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This is Part 4 of a Mini Series. In Part 3, I described the software concepts (see “Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 3: Concepts“). In this post I describe how to set-up the timer to trigger later DMA operations. The goal is to drive Adafruit’s NeoPixel (WS2812B) with the Freescale FRDM-K64F board:

NeoPixels with FRDM-K64F

NeoPixels with FRDM-K64F

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Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 2: Software Tools

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This is Part 2 of a Mini Series. In Part 1, I described how to set up the hardware (see “Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 1: Hardware“). Now it is time to have the software tools ready. In this post I describe to have the IDE (Freescale Kinetis Design Studio) with the Freescale SDK installed, along with the correct firmware on the FRDM-K64F Board. The goal is to drive Adafruit’s NeoPixel (WS2812B) with the Freescale FRDM-K64F board:

Freescale FRDM-K64F with NeoPixels

Freescale FRDM-K64F with NeoPixels

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How to use Kinetis Design Studio!!

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Getting the hands on an embedded project has always been exciting for me. So, here I am again with my blog trying to provide you with an easy to use guide for the Kinetis Design Studio 3.0.0 (KDS_3.0.0). Well, as you all know I am an intern at Freescale working for the first time on KDS, I will tell you what all we can do to start working on it with a perspective of a novice. But personally I feel KDS is one of the most encouraging IDE you can work on. So how do I start with my code for our NeoMatrix board? I am currently working with one of the demo codes for the NeoMatrix:

https://mcuoneclipse.com/2015/07/10/lets-play-with-freescale-frdm-k64f/

So, my first task is to write the code in KDS for the NeoMatrix_Demo. How do I do that? After opening the KDS 3.0.0, I need to go to File and select New and then Kinetis Project. You can see that the New Kinetis Project wizard appears once you click the File>New> Kinetis Project. Type a name and click next.

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Using Segger Real Time Terminal (RTT) with Eclipse

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I have used semihosting more and more in my projects. However, there are several disadvantage of using it:

  • Without special handlers, it only works with an active debug connection going on. Without a debugger attached, the application blocks otherwise.
  • Because it needs debugger interactions, it is rather slow (only several hundreds of bytes per second)

The good news is that Segger supports with their debug probes a faster approach with what they name Real Time Terminal (RTT). And it even runs without a debugger attached to the board: all what I need is a Segger J-Link probe (or Segger J-Link OpenSDA) plus a telnet client.

Segger RTT Viewer

Segger RTT Viewer

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Open Source Static Code Analysis: Cppcheck with Eclipse

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I have a challenge for you: Can you spot the problem in the following source?

TMOUT1_CounterHandle TMOUT1_GetCounter(TMOUT1_CounterType nofTicks)
{
  TMOUT1_CounterHandle handle;
  CS1_CriticalVariable();
  handle = 0;
  if (nofTicks==0) {
    nofTicks = 1; /* wait at least for one tick, otherwise will timeout immediately */
  }
  CS1_EnterCritical();
  while (!TMOUT1_FreeCounters[handle] && handle<TMOUT1_NOF_COUNTERS) {
    handle++;
  }
  if (handle<TMOUT1_NOF_COUNTERS) {
    TMOUT1_FreeCounters[handle]=FALSE;
    TMOUT1_Counters[handle] = nofTicks;
  }
  CS1_ExitCritical();
  if (handle==TMOUT1_NOF_COUNTERS) {
    return TMOUT1_OUT_OF_HANDLE;
  }
  return handle;
}

No? Well, I have not spotted the problem the first time neither. However, a reader of this blog did: he used a cool tool named ‘cppcheck’: that tool reported the following:

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