Getting Started with the FRDM-K64F

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• True debug support via SWD and JTAG
• High software flexibility
• Full set of peripheral drivers with source
• Application examples and project files

Find out more .

• A scalable, open source, real-time operating system (RTOS)
• Supports multiple hardware architectures
• Optimized for resource constrained devices
• Built with security in mind

Note: Selecting Zephyr OS will direct you to the Zephyr OS developer website.

Find out more .

• Online compiler, no SWD or JTAG debug
• Simple, heavily abstracted programming interface
• Useful but limited drivers with source
• Community-submitted examples

Note: Selecting Mbed will direct you to the Mbed developer website.

Import the MCUXpresso SDK

1. Open up the MCUXpresso IDE
2. Switch to the "Installed SDKs" view within the MCUXpresso IDE window
3. Open Windows Explorer and drag and drop the FRDM-K64F SDK (unzipped) file into the "Installed SDKs" view
4. You will get the following pop-up. Click on "OK" to continue the import:
5. The installed SDK will appear in the "Installed SDKs" view as shown below:

Build an Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world example.

1. Find the "Quickstart Panel" in the lower left-hand corner

   

2. Then, click on "Import SDK examples(s)"

   

3. Click on the frdmk64f board to select that you want to import an example that can run on that board and then click on "Next"

   

4. Use the arrow button to expand the "demo_apps" category and then click the checkbox next to hello_world to select that project. To use the UART for printing (instead of the default semihosting), clear the "Enable semihost" checkbox under the project options. Then, click on "Next"

   

5. On the "Advanced Settings" wizard, clear the checkbox "Redirect SDK "PRINTF" to C library "printf"" to use the MCUXpresso SDK console functions for printing instead of generic C library ones. Then, click on "Finish"

   

6. Now, build the project by clicking on the project name and then click on the Build icon

   

7. You can see the status of the build in the Console tab

   

Run an Example Application

1. Now that the project has been compiled, you can flash it to the board and run it
2. Make sure that the FRDM-K64F board is plugged in, select your project and click on Debug 'frdmk64f_demo_apps_hello_world [Debug]'

3. MCUXpresso IDE will probe for connected boards and should find the MBED CMSIS-DAP debug probe that is part of the integrated OpenSDA circuit on the FRDM-K64F. Click on "OK" to continue

   

4. The firmware will be downloaded to the board and the debugger started

   

5. Open up a terminal program and connect to the COM port the board counted as. Use 115,200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit

6. Start the application by clicking the "Resume" button:

   

7. The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

   

8. Use the controls in the menu bar to pause, step into and step over instructions and then stop the debugging session by clicking on the Terminate icon:

   

Build an Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world application. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

1. If not already done, open the desired example application workspace. Most example application workspace files can be located using the following path:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/<sdk_board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/iar 

   Using the hello_world demo as an example, the path is:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/frdmk64f/demo_apps/hello_world/iar 

2. Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the "hello_world - Debug" target

   

3. To build the application, click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below

   

4. The build will complete without errors

Install CMSIS device pack

After the MDK tools are installed, Cortex® Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) device packs must be installed to fully support the device from a debug perspective. These packs include things such as memory map information, register definitions and flash programming algorithms. Follow these steps to install the appropriate CMSIS pack.

1. Open the MDK IDE, which is called µVision. In the IDE, select the "Pack Installer" icon

2. In the "Pack Installer" window, navigate to the section with the Kinetis packs (they are in alphabetical order). The Kinetis packs start with "Keil::Kinetis" and are followed by the MCU family name, for example "Keil::Kinetis_K60_DFP". Because this example uses the FRDM-K64F platform, the K60 family pack is selected. Click on the "Install" button next to the pack. This process requires an Internet connection to successfully complete

3. After the installation finishes, close the "Pack Installer" window and return to the µVision IDE

Build the Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world application. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

1. If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace in:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/<sdk_board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/mdk 

   The workspace file is named <application_name>.uvmpw, so for this specific example, the actual path is:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/frdmk64f/demo_apps/hello_world/mdk/hello_world.uvmpw 

2. To build the demo project, select the "Rebuild" button, highlighted in red

3. The build will complete without errors

Run an Example Application

The FRDM-K64F board comes loaded with the mbed/CMSIS-DAP debug interface from the factory. If you have changed the debug OpenSDA application on your board, visit OpenSDA for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or Tera Term) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:
   • 115,200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
3. After the application is properly built, click the "Download" button to download the application to the target
4. After clicking the "Download" button, the application downloads to the target and should be running. To debug the application, click the "Start/Stop Debug Session" button, highlighted in red
5. Run the code by clicking the "Run" button to start the application
6. The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

Set Up Toolchain

This section contains the steps to install the necessary components required to build and run a KSDK demo application with the Arm GCC Toolchain, as supported by the Kinetis SDK. There are many ways to use Arm GCC tools, but this example focuses on a Windows environment. Though not discussed here, GCC tools can also be used with both Linux OS and Mac OSX.

Install GCC Arm Embedded Toolchain

Download and run the installer from GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain . This is the actual toolchain (i.e., compiler, linker, etc.). The GCC toolchain should correspond to the latest supported version, as described in the Kinetis SDK Release Notes.

Install MinGW

The Minimalist GNU for Windows (MinGW) development tools provide a set of tools that are not dependent on third-party C-Runtime DLLs (such as Cygwin). The build environment used by the KSDK does not use the MinGW build tools, but does leverage the base install of both MinGW and MSYS. MSYS provides a basic shell with a UNIX-like interface and tools.

1. Download the latest MinGW mingw-get-setup installer from MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows Files
2. Run the installer. The recommended installation path is C:\MinGW, however, you may install to any location

Note: The installation path cannot contain any spaces.

3. Ensure that the mingw32-base and msys-base are selected under Basic Setup
4. Click "Apply Changes" in the "Installation" menu and follow the remaining instructions to complete the installation

5. Add the appropriate item to the Windows operating system path environment variable. It can be found under Control Panel → System and Security → System → Advanced System Settings in the "Environment Variables" section. The path is:

   1Copy<mingw_install_dir>\bin

   Assuming the default installation path, C:\MinGW, an example is shown below. If the path is not set correctly, the toolchain does not work.

   Note: If you have C:\MinGW\msys\x.x\bin in your PATH variable (as required by KSDK 1.0.0), remove it to ensure that the new GCC build system works correctly.

   

Add a New Environment Variable for ARMGCC_DIR

1. Create a new system environment variable and name it ARMGCC_DIR. The value of this variable should point to the Arm GCC Embedded tool chain installation path, which, for this example, is:

   1Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools Arm Embedded\4.9 2015q3 

2. Reference the installation folder of the GNU Arm GCC Embedded tools for the exact pathname of your installation

Install CMake

1. Download CMake 3.0.x from CMake

2. Install CMake, ensuring that the option "Add CMake to system PATH" is selected when installing. It's up to the user to select whether it's installed into the PATH for all users or just the current user. In this example, the assumption is that it's installed for all users

   

3. Follow the remaining instructions of the installer

4. You may need to reboot your system for the PATH changes to take effect

Build an Example Application

To build an example application, follow these steps.

1. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded Toolchain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs → GNU Tools Arm Embedded <version>" and select "GCC Command Prompt"

2. Change the directory to the example application project directory, which has a path like this:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc 

   For this guide, the exact path is:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/frdmk64f/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc 

3. Type build_debug.bat on the command line or double click on the build_debug.bat file in Windows operating system explorer to perform the build. The output is shown in this figure:

Run an Example Application

The GCC tools require a J-Link debug interface. To update the OpenSDA firmware on your board to the latest J-Link app, visit OpenSDA. After installing the J-Link OpenSDA application, download the J-Link driver and software package from SEGGER Downloads .

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or Tera Term) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:
   • 115,200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
3. Open the J-Link GDB Server application. Assuming the J-Link software is installed, the application can be launched by going to the Windows operating system Start menu and selecting "Programs → SEGGER → J-Link <version> J-Link GDB Server"
4. Modify the settings as shown below. The target device selection chosen for this example is the “MK64FN1M0xxx12” and use the SWD interface
5. After it is connected, the screen should resemble this figure:
6. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded Toolchain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs → GNU Tools Arm Embedded <version>" and select "GCC Command Prompt"


7. Change to the directory that contains the demo application output. The output can be found in using one of these paths, depending on the build target selected:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc/debug 

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc/release 

   For this guide, the path is:

   1Copy <install_dir>/boards/frdmk64f/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc/debug 

8. Run the command arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe <demo_name>.elf. For this example, it is arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe hello_world.elf


9. Run these commands:

   • target remote localhost: 2331
   • monitor reset
   • monitor halt
   • load
   • monitor reset
10. The application is now downloaded and halted at the reset vector. Execute the "monitor go" command to start the example application
11. The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed in the terminal window