Thanks to the GNU ARM Eclipse plugins from Liviu it is easy to build and debug projects for all the different ARM cores. But I need to specify the device name in the debug configuration:
Device Name for Segger GDB Configuration
There must be an easier way for this? Yes, indeed, there is 🙂
Segger just has released their OpenSDAv2 firmware. The OpenSDAv2 firmware is different from the OpenSDAv1 as it is using a different memory map and bootloader. The OpenSDAv2 e.g. is present on the new FRDM-K64F board. The availability of the Segger firmware is definitely good news for any owner of the FRDM-K64F board: so far only the CMSIS-DAP firmware was available (on top of the mbed bootloader). With this, it was not possible to use the board with CodeWarrior, except with using an external P&E Multilink or Segger J-Link. With that new Segger J-Link OpenSDAv2 firmware, I can now use the FRDM-K64F with any IDE which supports the Segger J-Link :-).
FRDM-K64F with Segger OpenSDAv2 Firmware
The existing OpenSDAv1 (see “OpenSDA on the Freedom KL25Z Board“) bootloader is using the industry standard Motorola S-Record (S19) Files. However, new FRDM-K64F board (see “FTF: FRDM-K64F, Kinetis Design Studio and Kinetis SDK“) has OpenSDAv2 on it, which is an mbed bootloader. So how to create files with an IDE other than mbed for that bootloader which is present on the FRDM-K64F board by default? Well, creating binary files is one thing, but to have it working with the mbed bootloader is another challenge :-(.
FRDM-K64F with mbed MSD bootloader
The mbed for FRDM-K64F firmware (http://mbed.org/handbook/Firmware-FRDM-K64F) has great potential. Unfortunately it seems that edges are still very rough: It happens very often that my FRDM-K64F board gets locked up :-(. I can see that the target CPU is constantly resetting: the red reset LED is always on:
FRDM-K64F Red Reset LED always on
Maybe you had this problem too: you shared a project with somebody, only to realize that your carefully crafted debug configuration was not shared?
Eclipse has the concept to store settings in the ‘framework’. The ‘framework’ is the Eclipse internal data, basically what is inside the .metadata folder of the workspace.
metadata folder in workspace
As mentioned in Part 9: There is a new GNU ARM Eclipse plugin 2.1.1, and this one makes project creation for Freescale devices easier than ever 🙂
GNU ARM Eclipse 2.1.1
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:
Freescale might not have thought about this: how to use Freescale boards and silicon to develop for non-Freescale silicon? 😉
I tinkered around using the FRDM (e.g. FRDM-KL25Z) board as a general purpose programming or debugging device. See the links to the posts at the end of this article. I have used it to program and debug other Freescale ARM processors. It requires board changes and the usage of a different OpenSDA firmware which has its own limitations (no USB CDC serial bridge). But for about $15-20 I have a device to program my own external boards :-).
If you are using Keil tools, then the good news is: With CMSIS-DAP you can debug any other (even non-Freescale) ARM device as long it is supported by the IDE :mgreen:
FRDM-KL25Z debugging the nRF51422-DK (Source: Keith Wakeham)
Microsoft has released the Windows 8.1 Preview. So you can try out the next update of Windows 8. In short: Do NOT use Windows 8.1 Preview if you are using a Freescale FRDM board! Otherwise you will not be able to change the OpenSDA firmware (MSD or debug application).
❗ Update: P&E has released a new firmware v114 which combines USB CDC, MSD bootloader and debug application, and this firmware fixes the issue described in this post.
Well, I have not used it personally: I never use ‘test’ or ‘preview’ versions on my ‘production’ machine. It is ok to try things out on separate ‘scratch’ machines, but not on something I need to have stable for my work. Well, some of the students in my INTRO class were not able to resist and downloaded and installed Windows 8.1 Preview on their machines. With the result that the OpenSDA Bootloader does not work with Windows 8.1 Preview:
❗ It seems that the problem exists as well with the Windows 8.1 ‘final’ release.
In case you have this problem with the FRDM boards: You are using the FRDM bootloader mode (it shows up as BOOTLOADER) or the MSD mode (e.g. it shows up as FRDM-KL25Z) (see OpenSDA on the Freedom KL25Z Board) and it does not respond any more, or does not work as expected, then read on…
MCU on Eclipse 