Tag Archives: codewarrior project

FreeRTOS for the Freescale DSC 56F8400 Core

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Yes, I have been busy with all the different ARM Cortex Mx cores I’m using in my projects. But beside of the ‘ARM domination of the world’, there are other interesting processors out there. While the ARM cores have added DSP (Digital Signal Processing) capabilities blurring the boundaries between pure MCU and DSP processors, there is still a place (or niche?) for specialized DSP processors. The power of such processors is in the domain of fast signal processing, e.g. for intelligent power switches or for advanced motor control.

TWR-56F8400 Board and Box

TWR-56F8400 Board and Box

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Workaround for Processor Expert ‘Components’ View Synchronization

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CodeWarrior for MCU10.5 comes with a new Eclipse and new Processor Expert. Things are working very well so far. But I have spotted an issue which seems to be related to the new Eclipse Juno used: sometimes the Processor Expert ‘Components’ view is not correctly showing the current project used.

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S-Record Manipulation with GNU objcopy and Burner Utility

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In my earlier post “S-Record Generation with gcc for ARM/Kinetis” I documented how to have the ARM GNU gcc toolchain to produce a S19 (Motorola (or now Freescale) S-Record) file. Here are a few more tips on that subject:

  1. Changing length of S-Records
  2. Only using 32bit addresses
  3. Combining S19 files

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First Set of nRF24L01+ Wireless Sensor Nodes with FRDM-KL25Z

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If you were wondering why I am pushing the FRDM-KL25Z boards hard to the micro-amps, then have a look at this:

nRF24L01+ Network Nodes

nRF24L01+ Network Nodes

The five boards are the first set of prototypes with a FRDM-KL25Z for a battery operated wireless sensor network based on the nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceiver.

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Eclipse Command Line Code Generation with Processor Expert

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Eclipse based IDE’s have typically one limitation: the IDE has not much scripting capabilities. Yes, I can use things like JUnit for testing, but if it comes to build and debug C/C++ applications, then support gets really rare. An exception to this is CodeWarrior for MCU which features a command line version of the IDE which can be used for test automation as I used it in one of my tutorials. What I missed so far is to have a command line interface for Processor Expert to generate code. This is now possible with CodeWarrior for MCU10.5 :-).

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USB for the Freescale ARM Kinetis KL46Z and K21D50M

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As I was so pleased with the FRDM-KL46Z board, that I have ordered the Tower version of it, the TWR-KL46Z48M:

FRDM-KL46Z with TWR-KL46Z48M

FRDM-KL46Z with TWR-KL46Z48M

What I missed so far was USB support for the KL46Z. So time to have a quick look at board(s) and to add USB support for it.

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Driver for Microchip 24xx Serial EEPROM

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For many projects I need to store configuration or sensor data. For this I’m using either an SD card or program the internal flash memory of the microcontroller. Using the internal flash is a good thing as it does not need an external component. However, the typical number of programming cycles is limited to 10k-50k which is a limiting factor if data has to be recorded over a long time or very often. That’s why I’m using the very popular external 24xx external EEPROM devices from Microchip.

24LC512 connected to FRDM-KL25Z

24LC512 connected to FRDM-KL25Z

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Using the FRDM-KL25Z as a USB Mouse Device

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I finally completed my project turning the FRDM-KL25Z board into a USB mouse device :-). The form factor and the capabilities of the Freedom board makes it a great board for implementing it as a ‘custom mouse’. All what I need is the USB stack running on it and have it acting as USB HID Mouse device.

FRDM-KL25Z enumerated as USB HID Mouse Device

FRDM-KL25Z enumerated as USB HID Mouse Device

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Tutorial: Ultra Low Cost 2.4 GHz Wireless Transceiver with the FRDM Board

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For my embedded systems lecture I need a wireless connection to the robot we will develop during that course. So far I have SMAC (IEEE802.15.4) and Bluetooth worked out. But that IEEE802.15.4 (ZigBee) is expensive, and the cheap Bluetooth modules are great for robot-to-host connection, but not for swarm robots which need to communicate to each other. Alex Vecchio (see this post) pointed me to a $2.75 (!) wireless module featuring the Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01+. Exactly what I needed, with an incredible low price :-).

nRF24L01+ Module Detail

nRF24L01+ Module Detail

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Hacking the Heating System for Cooling – Geothermal Drilling with extra Benefits

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Summer finally has arrived in Switzerland. Yes, I live in a moderate climate zone, but if the outside temperature goes above 28-30° Celsius as these days, then sleeping at night is not that comfortable as it should be in my view. Luckily, I’m in a good constructed house with good insulation, so it takes a few days until it heats up. But I love to keep the temperature below 25° Celsius, especially at night. I do have a heating system which combines geothermal and solar heating. The question is: how can I use it for cooling during hot summer days? The solution: some extra plumbing, a Freescale Tower system and the Freescale FRDM-KL25Z board 🙂

FRDM-KL25Z with Arduino Data Logger Shield

FRDM-KL25Z with Arduino Data Logger Shield controlling Heating/Cooling System

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