Getting Started with the KW45B41Z Evaluation Kit

The KW45B41Z SDK provides a collection of example applications.

Build and Flash Cortex-M33 Application

The following steps will guide you through the hello_world demo application using MCUXpresso IDE for the Cortex-M33 application. The MCUXpresso IDE installation can be found at the section “2. Get Software” of this Getting Started guide.

1. Open the MCUXpresso IDE
2. Switch to the Installed SDKs view within the MCUXpresso IDE window

3. Drag and drop the KW45B41Z SDK (zipped) file into the Installed SDKs view
4. The installed SDK will appear in the Installed SDKs view as shown below:

5. Find the Quickstart Panel in the lower left-hand corner

6. Then click on Import SDK example(s)…

7. Click on the KW45B41Z-EVK board to select that you want to import an example that can run on that board and then click on Next

8. 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), select UART as the SDK Debug Console checkbox under the project options. Then, click on Finish

9. Select the project and build it

10. The project will build without problems

11. Connect the board to your computer with the micro USB to J14 'LINK USB' port
12. Download the application to your KW45B41Z-EVK

13. Select the J-Link debug probe

14. Run the application

Build an Example Application

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

Instructions for compiling and debugging the DSP code can be found in Section 2 of the “Use MCUXpresso IDE” tutorial. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

Please use IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 9.10 or above.

1. First, unzip the previously downloaded KW45B41Z SDK package.
2. 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 mu_polling demo as an example, the path is:

1Copy<install_dir>/boards/KW45B41Z/dsp_examples/hello_world/cm33/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 Jlink. 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 the project → Options → General Options → Target → Device, Select the NXP KW45B41Z83; this board is supported in IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 8.50.9 or Higher.

Run an Example Application

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable to J14 “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

Build and Debug the DSP Application

To build and debug the code for the DSP part of this application, open the “Use MCUXpresso IDE” tutorial and follow the instructions starting at “2. Build and Debug the DSP Application”.

Build an Example Application

The following steps will guide you through the manipulation of the general-purpose outputs. The example it will be a wireless uart.

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

2. Then click on Import SDK examples(s)…

3. Click on the K32W1 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 wireless_examples category, then expand the bluetooh examples, click on the check box next to w_uart to select it. To use the UART for printing (instead of the default semihosting), Select UART as the SDK Debug Console checkbox under the project options. Then, click on Finish

5. Click on the “KW45B41Zevk_wireless_uart_bm” project in the Project Explorer View and build, compile and run the demo as described previously

6. You should be able to connect to the wireless uart using the IoT Tool Box

Note: On “Use Pin Tool” tutorial you will learn how to change the configuration of the board.

7. Terminate the debug session

The following steps will guide you through the manipulation of the general-purpose outputs. The example sets up a Led blinky project and change a LED brightness.

1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tool
2. In the wizard that comes up, select the “Create a new configuration based on an SDK example or hello word project” radio button and click on Next

3. On the next screen, select the location of the MCUXpresso SDK that you had unzipped earlier. Then select the IDE that is being used. Note that only IDEs that were selected in the online SDK builder when the SDK was built will be available and click on clone select example

Then select the project to clone. For this example, we want to use the gpio led output project. You can filter for this by typing “led” in the filter box and then selecting the “led_blinky” example project. You can then also specify where to clone the project and the name. Then click on Finish.


4. After cloning go to the directory you selected and open the project for your IDE. Import, compile and run the project as done in previous sections
5. You should see the GREEN LED changing the brightness

Note: On “Use Pin Tool” tutorial you will learn how to change the LED output pin of the board.

6. Terminate the debug session.

Note: Previously, you had to clone an SDK project like in the previous step.

1. To open pin tools in MCUXpresso IDE:
1. Open the pins tool by right clicking on the “KW45B41Zevk_led_blinky” project and selecting “MCUXpresso Config Tools” and then “Open Pins”

2. The pins tool should now display the pin configuration for the led blinky project

2. To open pin tools in MCUXpresso Config tools:
1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tool
2. In the wizard that comes up, select the “Open existing configuration” radio button, then select the project that you had clone and click on Next

3. Open the pins tool by selecting Tools → Pins from the toolbar

4. The pins tool should now display the pin configuration for the led blinky project

3. Use the pins tools to modify the GPIO routed pin:
1. We'll use MCUXpresso IDE for the rest of the instructions, but the same steps can be done in MCUXpresso Config tools for third party IDEs. In the Pins view deselect “Show dedicated pins” and “Show no routed pins” checkboxes to see only the routed pins. Routed pins have a check in a green box next to the pin name. The functions selected for each routed pin are highlighted in green

2. In the current configuration, GPIOA is routed as a PTA19. Let's disable, PTA19 and change the mux setting of PTA21 to use its functionality
3. 4. Disable PTA19 by clicking the “GPIOA” field under the GPIO column. A new window will appear. Deselect the GPIOA checkbox and click on Done. The pin will then be disabled (pin will no longer have check in box) and thus disappear from the list

4. Now, route GPIOA as a PTA21. First, select the “Show not routed pins” so that all the pins are displayed again. Then, search PTA21 in the pins view. Finally, click the box under the GPIO column “GPIAO21”. The box will highlight in green and a check will appear next to the pin

5. Now it's time to implement these changes into the project by exporting the new updated pin_mux.c and pin_mux.h files that are generated by the Pins tool. Click on Update Project in the menu bar

6. The screen that pops up will show the files that are changing and you can click on “diff” to see the difference between the current file and the new file generated by the Pins tool. Click on “OK” to overwrite the new files into your project

Note: The clocks and other files may also be tagged as being updated since the header has been changed.


7. Now inside the IDE, open the pin_mux.c file under board folder

8. Search for BOARD_InitPins(void) function. Note that when we change the sct routed pin in the tool the GPIAO was selected and configured as PTA19 (green led). Now, we have the declaration of GPIOA and configured as PTA21 (red led)

9. Build and download the project as done in the previous section
10. Run the application. You should now see the RED LED changing the brightness
11. Terminate the debug session