Tag Archives: software project

Tutorial: DIY Kinetis SDK Project with Eclipse – Startup

Posted on by
35

This is the start of a multi-post tutorial about the Freescale Kinetis SDK, released back in April as beta version. The SDK a set of peripheral drivers, and will become the standard software foundation and drivers provided by Freescale for their ARM Cortex based devices. Similar what other vendors already do. While this is a good step, it is the same time very disruptive for my university projects with new Freescale Cortex-M devices. And with everything new (and beta), it needs time to learn. So this post is about creating a Do-It-Yourself Kinetis SDK project from scratch for Eclipse. This part is about the startup code: about everything to get the application started.

FRDM-K64F with SD, nRF24L01+ and HC-06 Bluetooth

FRDM-K64F with SD, nRF24L01+ and HC-06 Bluetooth

Continue reading →

Combining GPS Data Logger with Google Earth

Posted on by
6

So I have now a portable GPS data logger (see “Tutorial: Freedom Board with Adafruit Ultimate GPS Data Logger Shield“). What to do with it? It would be cool to see the data and tracks in Google Earth? Yes, that’s doable in a few steps…

GPS Logger Waypoint Data with Googl Earth Street View

GPS Logger Waypoint Data with Google Earth Street View: Riding through Schwyz towards the Mythen Mountain peaks

Continue reading →

Tutorial: PWM with DMA on ARM/Kinetis

Posted on by
62

For a project I need to change the PWM duty cycle after a PWM period is over. One way to do this is to have an interrupt at the end of the PWM period, and then set the new PWM duty (compare) register value in the interrupt. That works fine for ‘slow’ PWM frequencies, but if the PWM frequency is high, the CPU load is massively increasing. A better way is to use DMA (Direct Memory Access).

FRDM-KL25Z with DMA PWM and Logic Analyzer

FRDM-KL25Z with DMA PWM and Logic Analyzer

Continue reading →

Configuration Data: Using the Internal FLASH instead of an external EEPROM

Posted on by
121

Many applications need to store persistent (non-volatile) data at runtime: configuration data, error logs, sensor data, calibration values, etc. The question is: where to store that data? If it is only a few kBytes, an SD card or similar is an overkill. Adding an external EEPROM? Sure, that works, but adds an extra part to the design. Some microcontroller have internal EEPROM. But what if not? Why not using the microprocessor internal flash memory?

Internal FLASH vs. external EEPROM

Internal FLASH vs. external EEPROM

Continue reading →

Tutorial: Freedom Board with Adafruit Ultimate GPS Data Logger Shield

Posted on by
9

Many times I start with a project and tutorial, only to get interrupted for emergency tasks and assignments. For a long time I wanted to add GPS (Global Positioning System) functionality to one of my projects. While I started a few months ago on this, it took me until this week-end to finish the at least the first part: a SD card data logger with GPS :-): I calculate global positioning and time information, can use it in Google maps and store it on a SD card:

Adafruit GPS Data Logger Shield on a FRDM-KL25Z Board

Adafruit GPS Data Logger Shield on a FRDM-KL25Z Board

Continue reading →

How to Add Register Details View in Eclipse

Posted on by
38

The standard Eclipse registers view only shows the core registers:

Standard Registers View in Eclipse

Standard Registers View in Eclipse

I think it would be great to have a view to see all the device peripheral registers too?

Embedded System Registers View

Embedded System Registers View

If you want the same, then this article is for you. It works both for stock Eclipse and Freescale Kinetis Design Studion (KDS) 🙂

Continue reading →

Enhanced RNet Wireless Components and Communication Stack

Posted on by
3

I’m using both the Freescale MC1320x and Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz in many projects. To make it even easier to use these transceivers in the RNet stack, I have updated it with several new functions.

MC13202 and nRF24L01+

MC13202 and nRF24L01+

Continue reading →

FRDM with Arduino Ethernet Shield R3, Part 4: MinIni

Posted on by
34

I admit: my Ethernet Shield project got stuck because of too many urgent other priorities. I was not happy with the way the project was using configuration data from FLASH memory: I have now multiple ethernet shields in use, and configuring the IP address for each shield is a pain. I have not got DHCP working (yet), so why not using the SD card on the shield for configuration data? And right on time I received a tip from Marc about MinIni: perfect, exactly what I need!

Ethernet Shield with SD card

Ethernet Shield with SD card

Continue reading →

Pin Muxing: Using the NMI Pin as GPIO Pin

Posted on by
20

Many modern microcontroller have a cool feature: Pin Muxing. What it means is that I can ‘mux’ the pins for different purposes: such as I can use a SPI or I2C pin as GPIO (General Purpose Pin) or vice versa. In an ideal world, I would be able to ‘route’ or ‘mux’ pins freely around. In practice these ‘way switches’ are more or less limited.

In “Using the Reset Button on the Freedom Board as User Button” I muxed the FRDM-KL25Z reset pin as GPIO pin. The same approach can be used for muxing the NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) pin for the Freescale Kinetis devices. I’m showing it here how to do this with Processor Expert as this allows me to do this with a few mouse clicks.

NMI Pin Used as GPIO Pin

NMI Pin Used as GPIO Pin

Continue reading →

Getting Bluetooth Working with JY-MCU BT_BOARD V1.06

Posted on by
78

For my embedded course at the University of Lucerne of Applied Sciences and Arts I needed more Bluetooth modules for the Zumo/Sumo robots. I run out of stock as the modules are getting popular and are used in many student projects. So I ordered a handful more from DX/DealExtreme of the same HC-06 type/part number I already ordered a while back. I expected that they will work as the modules I had ordered from DX half a year ago. Was that naïve? Probably. Because they did *not* work, and caused me to reverse engineer the modules and to apply a hardware fix to get them working….

Set of JY-MCU Bluetooth Modules

Set of JY-MCU Bluetooth Modules

Continue reading →