I’m working with a student on building a small autonomous robot platform, based on the FRDM-KL25Z board. We integrated new software modules, compiled and linked, and then downloaded the application to the board. While debugging and stepping through the application startup, I had this:
The Debugger has lost communication on connection
Outsch! That’s not good. Even worse, trying to connect again to the board failed :-(. What happened?
Beside of USBDM, there is another Open Source implementation of a debug interface for the Freedom Board OpenSDA: CMSIS-DAP.
CMSIS-DAP (Source: http://nimblemachines.com/cmsis-dap/)
CMSIS-DAP stands for ‘Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard – Debug Access Port’) has been published by ARM Inc. With this, there is an open source alternative to proprietary implementation (e.g. P&E OpenSDA or Segger OpenSDA).
Beside of the ARM MDK IDE, CMSIS-DAP is supported by Coocox and IAR. And IAR is what I’m using in this post.
Looks like there is some movement on the ‘OpenSDA Front’: After CodeRed has released their RedProbe OpenSDA firmware, now Segger has released an OpenSDA firmware.
With this, I get a low-cost debugging solution similar to the well-known J-Link run control devices. The OpenSDA Segger Firmware is something like a J-Link-lite.
FRDM-KL25Z with Segger OpenSDA Debug Firmware
Yesterday was a great day: The book “Software Engineering for Embedded Systems” finally arrived 🙂 :
Software Engineering for Embedded Systems
Why I’m excited about this? Because I had the honor to contribute a chapter to that book 🙂
If you are following my recent posts, then you know I started using USBDM on OpenSDA as an alternative run control solution. Now with the advent of MCU10.4, the question is: how to use USBDM with it, because the USBDM installer obviously only knows the version up to MCU10.3?
USBDM 4.10.4a Installer
Ok, this one might not work for everyone. And maybe I’m seeing a ghost. But a nice and real one, at least for me :-). It seems that with the new CodeWarrior for MCU10.4 installation I was able to recover a bricked OpenSDA FRDM-KL25Z board 😯
Recovered OpenSDA Board
Freescale has released this week an updated version of CodeWarrior: version 10.4. I’m usually not switching a tools version in the middle of a university semester. Unless I see a real benefit, and the risk is low. Well, I have used it now for a few days, and I have decided to move my projects from 10.3 to 10.4. Why? Read on…
CW for MCU10.4
I mentioned in “Debug External Processors with USBDM and Freedom Board” post that I had a problem to debug the FRDM-KL05Z with USBDM. Well, after a long night with some sleep, with more thinking and searching, finally I have it resolved: I can debug my FRDM-KL05Z with USBDM 🙂
FRDM-KL05Z Debugging with USBDM
Teaching at a university means to work in a very special environment. What students love is ‘Open Source’: because it allows them to ‘see’ things and learn from the technology. The other thing is: students have a low budgets, so they appreciate if they can use inexpensive or low-cost hardware and software. The FRDM-KL25Z Freedom board for sure meets that low price, and no extra programming device needed.
Now they are building their own boards, and they wish to program and debug it. They can borrow the Segger J-Links and P&E Multilinks we have available at the university. But why not use the Freedom board as ‘hobby’ debug and programming solution? As explored in “Using the Freedom Board as SWD Programmer“, they can use the default factory installed OpenSDA to program another microcontroller of same type. But not to debug it.
While writing the “Using the Freedom Board as SWD Programmer” article, I was looking into USBDM. USBDM has added in January 2013 support for OpenSDA. But at that time, it was somehow not working for me, and I had not enough time to find out what the problem was. Time to get that fixed. Good news: With help and tips from the USBDM community, I have it finally working 🙂
USBDM Debugging another FRDM-KL25Z
MCU on Eclipse 