Getting Started with the LPC845-BRK Breakout Board | NXP Semiconductors

Getting Started with the LPC845-BRK Breakout Board

Last Modified: Mar 26, 2019Supports LPC845 Breakout Board

1. Plug It In

Let's take your LPC845 Breakout board for a test drive! You have the choice of watching the sequence in a short video or following the detailed actions listed below.

Get Started with the LPC845 Breakout Development Board - Demo

1.1 Attach the USB Cable

If you are using Windows 7 or 8 first you must install the VCOM device driver, that is included in this package. If you are using another operation system just Connect a micro USB cable from connector CN3 to a host computer or power supply to power up the board.

1.2 Run the Out-of-Box Demo

Then the board is first plugged in the host computer may take several seconds to enumerate the VCOM and debug probe for the first time. Once the board powers up, the green LED acts as a "breathing" LED, slowly turning on and off. When the touch pad is pressed the red LED turns on and the green one turns off. Finally, when the user button is pressed the blue LED will turn on for about half a second (the green LED isn’t affected by the User button). The Board will also output some diagnostic messages over the VCOM port (9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit - see the next steps for more information on using these applications).

2. Get Software

Installing Software for LPC845 Breakout Board

2.1 Getting Started with the MCUXpresso SDK

Want to learn about SDK

The MCUXpresso Software Development Kit (SDK) is complimentary and includes full source code under a permissive open-source license for all hardware abstraction and peripheral driver software.

Click below to download a pre-configured Windows SDK release for the LPC845 MCU (we will be able to use that SDK for our Breakout Board, just with a few modifications), which includes IDE support for MCUXpresso, Keil MDK, Command-line GCC and IAR Embedded Workbench.

Get MCUXpresso SDK

You can also use the online SDK Builder to create a custom SDK package for the LPC845.

2.2 Install Your Toolchain

NXP offers a complementary, GNU/Eclipse based toolchain called MCUXpresso IDE.

Get MCUXpresso IDE

Want to use a different toolchain?

Need help choosing

No problem, The MCUXpresso SDK includes support for other tools such as IAR, Keil and command-line GCC.

2.3 MCUXpresso Config Tools

The MCUXpresso Config Tool is an integrated suite of configuration tools that guides users in creating new MCUXpresso SDK projects, and provides pin and clock tools to generate initialization C code for custom board support. It is fully integrated into MCUXpresso or you can download a seperate tool. Click the Get MCUXpresso Config Tools below to get the Config Tools installer.

Get MCUXpresso Config Tools

To learn more about the basic interactions between the tools while working with either an imported MCUXpresso SDK example project or creating a new project within the IDE, watch this three-part video series.

Check out this document for more information on how to configure pins on this device.

2.4 Serial Terminal

Many of the MCUXpresso SDK examples applications output data over the MCU UART. Install and configure your preferred terminal software to 115200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. To determine the port number of theLPC55S06-EVK 's virtual COM port, open the device manager and look under the "Ports" group.

Not sure how to use a terminal application? Try one of these tutorials: Tera Term Tutorial, PuTTY Tutorial.

In the next steps, we will show you how to use the recent versions of MCUXpressor IDE count with a terminal emulation application.

3. Build, Run

Build and Run Demos on the LPC845 Breakout Board

3.1 Running a Blinky Example Program

NXP provides an example package with interesting demo applications to take advantage of the peripherals that the board includes. The getting started video provides easy, step-by-step instructions on how to configure, build and debug the LED blinky example.

Use the guide below to learn how to open, build and debug an example application using the MCUXpresso IDE.

Using a different toolchain?

This demo is also available for IAR and KEIL.

4.Modify an SDK Example

4.1 Clone an Example Project from MCUXpresso SDK

Option A: Use the MCUXpresso IDE to clone an example project.

Option B: Use the MCUXpresso Config Tool to clone an existing MCUXpresso SDK example for use with third-party IDEs.

4.2 Apply Board Support Configuration

NXP provides a leader .mex file configuration that includes the initialization of the peripherals that show in the package (SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, etc), Could take advantages of this and apply this configuration to an SDK project to run it in the LPC845 Breakout Board.

This example is a good oportunitie to use the MCUXpresso Terminal application, see how to configure in the tutorial below.

Option A: Use MCUXpresso IDE to apply a customized board configuration, build and debug an existing project.

Option B: Use MCUXpresso Config tool to apply a customized board configuration, build and debug an existing project.

Touch and Sensing

Touch and Sensing

NXP provides software libraries and tools to complement our IEC 61000-4-6 certified and low-cost capacitive touch solutions for the LPC8xx MCUs, empowering you to move rapidly and smoothly from initial prototyping to full product development.

Document Description
AN12178 A Simple Way of Using CapTouch on LPC800 MCUs Using the CapTouch module on LPCxx MCUs to support the low-cost and hardware resource-limited platform.
AN12083 Capacitive Touch software and sensitivity test results on LPC800 CAPTouch Module Software enables the Capacitive Touch application on the LPC8xx family, with filters and algorithms for the touch key detection. Tests illustrate the sensitivity performance of the Capacitive Touch application.
Capacitive Touch Sensor Design How to design the Capacitive Touch Sensor for the LPC845 Cap Touch Interface.

MCUXpresso SDK Example

Several examples, demos and drivers are available within the SDK to help you get started. A common example related to touch sensing is listed below.

Touch Examples

The LPC845_BoB_CAPTocuh application shows how to interface with the on-board cap touch button using SDK drivers.

Path: <SDK_PATH>/boards/lpc845breakout/touch_examples

Display and Graphics

Display and Graphics

Document Description
OLED Display Application Example using LPC845 Breakout Board and SPI How to use the LPC845BRK with an OLED display based on the SSD1306 controller and using SDK drivers for SPI.

Motor Control

Motor Control

Motor control is a complicated and advanced topic, with a wide range of intricacies and pitfalls that depend on the number of motors, motor type and sensored or sensorless motor drivers.

NXP has a number of ready-to-use motor control algorithms (middleware), and the best way to get started is with the FreeMaster examples included in the MCUXpresso SDK. These examples utilize the FreeMASTER Run-Time Debugging Tool, a user-friendly real-time debug monitor and data visualization tool that enables runtime configuration and tuning of embedded software applications.

FreeMASTER supports non-intrusive monitoring of variables on a running system and can display multiple variables on oscilloscope-like displays as standard widgets (gauges, sliders and more) or as data in text form, offering simple-to-use data recorders. It can link with HTML, MATLAB® or Excel to other scriptable frameworks or even popular visual programming tools like Node-RED.

Document Description
FreeMASTER How To A starting guide for engineers using FreeMASTER tool.
FreeMASTER 3.0 Installation Guide This article will walk you through the installation process of FreeMASTER 3.0.
FreeMASTER Four-Part Webinar Series On-demand training provides an overview of the FreeMASTER software, its features, capabilities, available examples, application use cases and how to easily get started.

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

Several examples, demos and drivers are available within the SDK to help you get started. Some common examples related to motor control are listed below.

Driver Examples

Multiple PWM outputs are demonstrated through Sctimer and Ctimer.

Path: <SDK_PATH>/boards/lpc845breakout/driver_examples_ctimer

Path: <SDK_PATH>/boards/lpc845breakout/driver_examples_sctimer

FreeMASTER Examples

Watch variables and graphs over various interface options.

Path: <SDK_PATH>/boards/lpc845breakout/freemaster_examples

Device Management and Secure OTA

Device Management and Secure OTA

Document Description
AN12393 LPC845 I2C Secondary Bootloader This document discusses the system setup where the host processor can program the LPC845 via I2C interface assisted by the SBL code.
AN12407 LPC845 SPI Secondary Bootloader This document discusses the system setup where the host processor can program the LPC845 via SPI interface assisted by the SBL code.

PuTTY Tutorial

PuTTY Tutorial

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.
  2. Download

  3. 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.
  4. 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 115200.
  5. 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.
  6. You're ready to go

Tera Term Tutorial

Tera Term Tutorial

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.
  2. Download

  3. 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.
  4. Configure the serial port settings (using the COM port number identified earlier) to 115200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. To do this, go to Setup → Serial Port and change the settings.
  5. Verify that the connection is open. If connected, Tera Term will show something like below in its title bar.
  6. You're ready to go

Support

Training

Training Description
LPC800 Training Full list of on-demand training, how-to videos and webinars from NXP about this product.
Using the MCUXpresso Pins Tool in a FreeRTOS project How to configure pin routing in a FreeRTOS project using the Freedom-K66F board.

Forums

Connect with other engineers and get expert advice on designing with the LPC80x family on one of our community sites.