Processor Expert components have an interesting concept: Events. Events are shown in green color with the ‘E’ (for Event):
TimerInt Component with Events
Processor Expert Events
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Tag Archives: Eclipse
Tutorial: FreeRTOS with the Kinetis SDK and Processor Expert
Freescale had announced at FTF back in April this year that they will use Kinetis Design Studio and the Kinetis SDK for all new Kinetis devices. The switch from CodeWarrior to Kinetis Design Studio (see “Comparing CodeWarrior with Kinetis Design Studio“) was not much of big deal for my projects (although CodeWarrior still has better features), and projects are rather easily portable. However, the move to the Kinetis SDK has been massively disruptive: Before it was easy to move projects from one device to another with Processor Expert, even from S08 to ColdFire to Kinetis. Now with the Kinetis SDK everything is very different. At least Freescale now officially supports FreeRTOS, and for myself as a big fan of that open source RTOS, that was some good news.
Blinking Red LED with FreeRTOS Task using Kinetis SDK, FreeRTOS and Processor Expert
So in this tutorial I’m showing how FreeRTOS can be used with the Kinetis Design Studio. That makes at least using the Kinetis SDK bit more familiar to me :-).
Debugging Failure: Check List and Hints
I think the biggest frustration point for any new or even seasoned engineer is the debugging phase: my application finally builds fine, but I’m not able to connect and download it to the target board :-(. In my view the debugging part is the most fragile part of the development process. I’m always very relieved if I can connect to a brand new board, because I know if it does not work, then the problem could be a very bad one, costing my several hours or even days to overcome it.
Remote Communication Error, what now?
RAM Target with Kinetis Design Studio and FRDM-K64F
Newer microcontroller have increase RAM areas, making it suitable to run the application from RAM instead of FLASH. For the FRDM-K64F board and the Kinetis Design Studio (V1.1.1), I have explored how to run the application out of RAM instead of FLASH memory, both for P&E and Segger connections.
MK64FN1M0VLL12
Processor Expert Value Proposals
The cool thing with Processor Expert is that it gives me guidance through the settings. And there is a nice (rather hidden feature) which proposes me values I can enter:
💡 First, switch to the non-Tabs (classic) view, as the classic view is using the screen real estate better, and shows you *all* the information needed, and does not hide some.
So if you have some values to correct because other settings have changed:
Values to Enter
Export and Import Processor Expert Component Settings
When I create a new Processor Expert project for a board I already have the components configured, then an easy way to transfer components from one project to another is to copy-paste the components. In the ‘source’ project I select the components I want to use, choose Copy (or CTRL+C shortcut on Windows):
Copy of Processor Expert Components
C++ with Kinetis Design Studio
Unlike CodeWarrior, the Kinetis Design Studio (at least in V1.1.1) does not offer a choice between C and C++ projects. That makes sense with the GNU ARM Eclipse plugins, other than the CodeWarrior gcc integration, there is no need for setting up a special tool chain for C++ (see “Compiling C Files with GNU ARM G++“). While this is great, things are not perfect yet, so I’m providing in this post the information needed to properly setup a C++ project with Kinetis Design Studio V1.1.1.
Debug View of Startup Code Calling C++ Constructors
USB CDC with the FRDM-K64F, finally!
Sometimes I think that a problem should be solvable in a few minutes, and then it turns out that it lingers around for months. Very, very frustrating! Such a thing is getting the USB 4.1.1 stack running on the FRDM-K64F board. I have that board since April 2014, and it took me 7 months to get the FSL USB stack running on it :-(.
FRDM-K64F Board
McuOnEclipse Releases on SourceForge
When I started the McuOnEclipse project back in 2012, I did not expect that it would create that much of attention :-). So far I’m sharing the project files on GitHub (see “McuOnEclipse goes Git“). GitHub is excellent for sharing sources, but not a good way to share release (binary) files. It is somewhat ok for small/few files, and initially that worked well for the few Processor Expert files (see “Processor Expert Component *.PEupd Files on GitHub“). However, with the amount of components and binary releases, the GitHub repository gets bloated. So I’m performing some maintenance work, and so I’m moving binary releases to a new McuOnEclipse SourceForge site.
McuOnEclipse On SourceForge
Failed to Debug with GDB: Breakpoints or Expressions on non-existing Locations
Sometimes, there are ugly bugs in tools, and without knowing about them, it is likely to spend hours and hours, and of course to be frustrated. Knowing about these issues does not remove the issue, but at least helps to cut time to deal with it. And here is one which was nagging on me for a while with the GNU GDB debugger in Eclipse…..
💡 I have used the Q4 2014 GNU ARM Embedded (launchpad) toolsuite/gdb (4.9-2014-q4-major), and I have found that with that gdb version the issue described is fixed. If you are using Kinetis Design Studio, see “Switching ARM GNU Tool Chain and Libraries in Kinetis Design Studio” how to upgrade the tool chain.
I was happily debugging my project, making some changes, and suddenly I cannot debug it any more. What happens is that I can download the binary with GDB, but it immediately terminates and disconnects:
Terminating Gracefully Target Disconnected
After digging and doing some trial and errors, I have found what is causing this.
Initializing. Target has been RESET and is active. Disconnected from "127.0.0.1" via 127.0.0.1 Terminating Gracefully... Target Disconnected.
MCU on Eclipse 