Getting Started with FRDM-MCXA156

The most recent versions of MCUXpresso IDE count with a terminal emulation application. This tool can be used to display information sent from your NXP development platform's virtual serial port.

1. Open the MCUXpresso IDE

2. Launch the MCUXpresso IDE terminal by clicking on the "Open a Terminal" button on the top of the IDE or press "Ctrl + Alt + Shift + T"

3. Select Serial Terminal

4. Configure the serial port settings (using the LPC-Link2 COM port number) to 115,200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit, then press the "OK" button

5. Verify that the connection is open. If connected, MCUXpresso IDE will look like the figure below at the Terminal view

6. You're ready to go

Tera Term is a very popular open source terminal emulation application. This program can be used to display information sent from your NXP development platform's virtual serial port.

1. Download Tera Term from SourceForge. After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue

Download

2. Launch Tera Term. The first time it launches, it will show you the following dialog. Select the Serial option. Assuming your board is plugged in, there should be a COM port automatically populated in the list

3. Configure the serial port settings (using the COM port number identified earlier) to 115,200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. To do this, go to Setup → Serial Port and change the settings
4. Verify that the connection is open. If connected, Tera Term will show something like below in its title bar

PuTTY is a popular terminal emulation application. This program can be used to display information sent from your NXP development platform's virtual serial port.

1. Download PuTTY using the button below. After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue

Download

2. Launch PuTTY by either double clicking on the *.exe file you downloaded or from the Start menu, depending on the type of download you selected
3. Configure In the window that launches, select the Serial radio button and enter the COM port number that you determined earlier. Also enter the baud rate, in this case 115,200

4. Click Open to open the serial connection. Assuming the board is connected and you entered the correct COM port, the terminal window will open. If the configuration is not correct, PuTTY will alert you

5. You're ready to go

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world application. The instructions for compiling and debugging the Cortex M33 core are covered in the instructions below.

Build an Example Application

Please use IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 9.50.1 or above.

1. First, unzip the previously downloaded FRDM-MCXA156 SDK package

2. Open the desired example application workspace. Most example application workspace files can be located using the following path:

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

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

4. Open the project properties by doing a right-click on the project and selecting "Options"

5. Now, go to the "Debugger" section and change the debugger driver to CMSIS DAP. Press the OK button

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

7. The build will complete without errors


Note: In case of building errors, make sure that the correct board is selected, right-click in Project → Options → General Options → Target → Device. Select the NXP MCXA156; this board is supported in IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 9.50.1 or higher.

Run an Example Application

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable to J21 "MCU-Link USB"

2. Click the "Download and Debug" button to download the application to the target

3. The application is then downloaded to the target and automatically runs to the main() function
4. Run the code by clicking the "Go" button to start the application

5. The hello_world application is now running on the Cortex-M33

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. Please use MDK-Arm Microcontroller Development Kit (Keil)® version 5.38.1 or above.

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

2. In the Pack Installer window, search for "MCXA" to bring up the MCXA1xx family. Click on the MCXA1XX name, and then in the right-hand side you'll see the NXP: MCXA156_DFP pack. 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:

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

2. Select Debug configuration

3. Do right-click on the project and select the project options:

4. Now, go to the Debug option and select CMSIS-DAP ARMv8-M Debugger. Click on the OK button

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

6. The build will complete without errors

Getting Started with MCX A Family

Prerequisites

This example is written for Windows 10, but MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code can also be easily installed on MacOS and Linux.

• Follow software installation for MCUXpresso for VS Code extension
• Download or receive MCUXpresso SDK for FRDM-MCXA156 (SDK_2_16_000_FRDM-MCXA156.zip)

Hardware Requirements

• FRDM-MCXA156
• 1 x Type-C USB Cable

Preparing the Hardware

This lab targets the NXP MCX A Evaluation Kit (FRDM). The kit provides a rich set of connected peripherals to help evaluate the device. It includes an onboard Debug Probe. The Debug Probe is pre-programmed with CMSIS-DAP firmware for this lab. To display debug messages in the examples, the lab connects to the COM port available through the same Debug Probe.

Open MCUXpresso for VS Code

1. Open Visual Studio Code, click on the MCUXpresso icon [x] on the left panel
2. To move forward with the next step click on "Installed Repositories" panel that will appear as shown in the picture below

Add NXP MCUXpresso SDK

The NXP extension adds tools to help add software repositories into the Visual Studio Code workspace. The software repository can be provided from three sources:

• Remote Git URL
• NXP MCUXpresso SDK archive file
• Existing Git folder

This section will import the MCUXpresso SDK for the MCX A microcontroller using the SDK archive file provided as prerequisite.

1. Click the "Import Repository" button in the "Installed Repositories" panel. A button is visible before the first repository is added. In the future, users could click the '+' symbol in the top right of the Installed Repositories section for adding repositories

2. Select the "Local Archive" option to import the provided MCX A SDK archive file
3. Browse to the location of the MCX A SDK file for the "Archive" entry (in the Downloads folder)
4. Browse to a folder to be a common "Destination" to store SDKs (i.e. C:\Users\NXP\Desktop\VSCODE_SDK). Enter a name for the new SDK, in this case: SDK_2_16_000_FRDM-MCXA156

5. Click Import. The MCX A SDK is extracted to the local folder and added to your "Installed Repositories" panel

Import Example Project

The NXP extension provides a "Projects" pane to help developers import projects into their workspace. The user has three sources for importing a new project: a Repository; an existing local project; or an archived project. This section will import an MCX A example from the SDK just added to the "Installed Repositories" panel.

1. Click Import Example from Repository. A button is visible when no projects are in the current workspace. In the future, the symbols in the top right of the Projects section can be used to import additional projects. Click the '[II\]' symbol to add Repository Examples. Click the '[+]' symbol to import projects on the PC that were created earlier by the MCUXpresso for VS Code extension. Click the '[ ]' symbol to import a project in an archive file created earlier by the MCUXpresso for VS Code extension

2. Fill out the appropriate information in the "Import Example from Repository" window. Click "Choose a Repository" to select from a list of available/installed repositories. Select SDK_2_16_000_FRDM-MCXA156
3. Click "Choose a Toolchain" to select from a list of available build tools. The MCUXpresso Installer provides a default option of gcc-arm-none-eabi-12.3.1. The tool also looks in other default locations for MCUXpresso IDE installations. These may be listed as alternative options for GNU Arm Toolchains. Select the gcc-arm-none-eabi-12.3.1 option
4. Click "Choose a Board" to view the boards supported in the selected repository. A longer list of boards can be filtered by typing in the available selection area. Select "FRDM-MCXA156". After a board is selected, a picture of the board will be displayed to help confirm the correct selection
5. Click "Choose a Template" to show a list of available examples in the selected repository. The long list of examples can be filtered by typing in the available selection area (i.e. type Hello to filter Hello World examples). Select demo_apps/hello_world

6. Click Browse for the "Location" field. Choose a folder location for new projects to be created
7. Click "Create". This will add a new "Hello World" example for the MCX A to your "Projects" panel

Build Project

The build process is configured when the project is created. The user can initiate the build from an icon in the project view. To the right of the project name, the build icon will start the build for that project. You need to return to the MCUXpresso extension perspective by clicking the “X” icon in the left navigation pane. You may still be in the Explorer perspective from prior section.

1. Click the build icon to the right of the hello_world project. This will start the build process. The "Output" terminal tab at the bottom of the screen displays the build progress
2. Alternatively, you can right-click on the project name to display additional build options. Clicking "Rebuild" or "Clean Build" will remove build artifacts from prior builds to allow the project to be built again. Otherwise, clicking "Build Selected" will result in an output of "no work to do"

The build process should complete with an exit code of 0… Success!

Flash and Debug Project

MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code allows users to program and debug projects for NXP microcontrollers. These steps require that Debug Probe drivers are properly installed and configured. MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code allows the use of popular debug probes from NXP, SEGGER and PEmicro. MCUXpresso Installer included the option to properly install support for the different debug probes.

The built project output binary is flashed to the target board before launching a debug session. The Debug session provides controls and views to help the developer analyze the operation of the project. The following steps will show how to successfully flash and program the MCX A FRDM Evaluation Kit.

1. Confirm that the onboard debug probe is connected to the PC USB port
2. Click the "Refresh" arrow in the "Debug Probes" pane to detect connected Debug Probes


3. Starting a Debug session begins by programming the target device with the built project image. Click the common "Play" triangle icon to the right of the selected project

   

   Visual Studio Code Debug sessions provide a different "Run and Debug" perspective for the user. This is reflected by the "Bug" icon in the primary left navigation pane now being highlighted. Key tools are labeled in the following image:

   1. Start Debug: Another place to launch debug
   2. Debug Controls: Pause; Step Over; Step Into; Step Over; Restart; Stop
   3. Variables: Locals and Registers
   4. Watch: Add expressions to continue to monitor
   5. Breakpoints: Add, Toggle and View targeted code
   6. Call Stack: List of active subroutines in the program
   7. Status Ribbon: Bottom of screen changes status text and/or color to orange
   

1. Download J-Link Software. Enter to SEGGER download page: SEGGER Downloads

2. Expand "J-Link Software and Documentation Pack" section

3. Select the software that matches your OS and download the newest version

   

   Accept the Terms and download the software

4. Execute the .exe file you just downloaded by doing double-click. Follow the setup instructions until the J-Link installation is complete
5. You're ready to go