Tag Archives: J-Link

Remote Debugging with DevContainer and VS Code

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This is the second part describing how to use DevContainer for embedded applications with VS Code.

In Optimizing Embedded Development with VS Code and DevContainer I use VS Code with a docker ‘development’ container. The container is created with a recipe to install the development tools and SDK. With VS Code and DevContainer I have the same developer experience as I would develop locally on the host.

One thing not addressed in that earlier article is debugging. Using USB debug probes like a SEGGER J-Link or NXP MCU-Link is a challenge inside a container. This applies to any other debug probe as well.

The solution is to transform an USB based debug probe into one with a network connection:

VS Code DevContainer with Hardware Debugging
VS Code DevContainer with Hardware Debugging

In this article, I show how to do this.

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Optimizing Embedded Development with VS Code and DevContainer

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Embedded System have a lifetime of 10 or 15 years. During that time the software and tools has to be maintained. This can be very challenging. Who knows if that compiler or tool used is still available in 10 years from now? Additionally installing and configuring the tool chain and environment for a new team member is difficult. Even worse: using a different host operating system for the cross development can produce different results or introduce issues.

VS Code running with DevContainer
VS Code running with DevContainer

One solution for all these problems is to use Docker images and containers. I can pack all the necessary tools and software into a virtual environment and container. But developing inside a container comes with many challenges. In this article I’ll show how Visual Studio Code or VS Code makes working with containers very easy. In this article I show how easy it is to use modern development tools and methodologies for embedded development.

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Modern On-Target Embedded System Testing with CMake and CTest

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One key element of a CI/CD pipeline is the automatic testing phase: whenever I check in new source code or manually trigger it, I can run a test suite to make sure that the changes do not break anything. For this, I have to run automated tests. For an an embedded target, it means that I have to run some tests on the board itself too.

CTest with VS Code
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Debug Probes for RP2040 with VS Code

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For systematic debugging, an engineer needs a debug probe. For the Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) device there are plenty of debug options with VS Code.

In this article I show different options, from professional tools to DIY solutions and the settings in VS Code I’m using.

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Selecting J-Link Debug Probe by Nickname

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I have lots of hardware and debug probes on my desk, and I discussed using nicknames for debug probes to better identify them.

‘Green’ and ‘Yellow’ Robots and J-Link Probes

So far so good. At that time of the previous article, it was possible to assign nicknames to J-Link debug probes, but not to use the nickname instead of the USB serial number. Well, SEGGER was fast again, and responded with a new J-Link software pack version 7.92d which implements that features: I can now use the nickname to connect to a debug probe :-).

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New SEGGER J-Link-OB LPC4322-based Firmware with Target Power

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Sometimes I have a wish. Not every time it gets fulfilled. But this time I’m lucky and happy developer. A few days ago I wrote about the LPC4322-based SEGGER OB (on-board) J-Link firmware. It works great, but the board requires another USB cable to power the target board.

Rolf Segger contacted me, and a few days later I had a J-Link firmware with a ‘power-on’ feature:

That way, only one USB cable is needed. All what you need to do is to update the firmware.

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Upgrading LPC4322-based Debug Probe Firmware on RT10xx

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Going with the factory default can be fine. But an upgrade could give a performance boost plus added functionality. Many of the NXP i.MX RT evaluation boards have an LPC4322 based debug circuit on it. One example for this is the i.MX RT1010 board.

NXP i.MX RT1010 EVK

On such boards, one of the first steps I do is: upgrading the firmware and change it to a better option: improved speed, SWO support plus avoiding issues with the USB MSD device.

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Resurrecting ‘bricked’ NXP Kinetis Devices

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Modern MCUs like the NXP Kinetis have security features which prevent reverse engineering, but can ‘brick’ devices too. Depending on the settings, it prevents read-out from the FLASH or reprogramming the device. While some of the protection is (mostly) not by-passable by design, in many case the devices looks like ‘bricked’ but still can be recovered. In this article I’ll get you some ways for a (hopefully) successful recovery.

J-Link EDU Mini recovering a tinyK22 with needle adapter
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Recovering bricked LPC55Sxx EVK Boards

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While developing applications, it can happen that things go wrong. And in my case I ended up with two LPC55Sxx EVK boards on my desk, which seemed not to be usable any more. The issue: the boards were not accessible with the debug probe, because right after main they muxed the pins in a wrong way :-(.

bricked board with set of debut probes

The standard GDB debug connections (both on-board and off-board) were not able to regain access of the board, because the MCU was running into the fault condition pretty much right out of reset.

Luckily, after a lot of trial-and-error, I have found a way to recover them.

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New “MCU-Link Pro”: Debug Probe with Energy Measurement

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After the release of the NXP MCU-Link debug probe, there have been hints in the Eclipse based MCUXpresso IDE that there must be another one coming. And indeed: another and more powerful debug probe is now available: the MCU-Link Pro. It is not only a debug probe but a power/energy measurement tool too, including an extra LPC804 mikrocontroller which can be used for all kind of things, like automation or scripting.

NXP MCU-Link Pro
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