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1.1 Choose a development path.
1.2 Jump Start Your Design with the MCUXpresso SDK!
The MCUXpresso 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 SDK release for the IoT module:
You can also use the online SDK Builder to create a custom SDK package using the SDK builder.
1.3 Install Your Toolchain
NXP offers a complimentary toolchain called MCUXpresso IDE.
Want to use a different toolchain?
No problem! The MCUXpresso SDK includes support for other tools such as IAR, Keil and command-line GCC.
1.4 Update QCA firmware for latest SDK
The firmware on the Longsys GT1216 module used on the LPC54018 IoT Module requires a manual update to work correctly with MCUXpresso SDK releases starting from SDK 2.4.0. Follow these steps to perform the update.
2.1 Create an AWS account.
- Open the AWS homepage aws.amazon.com and choose to Create a Free Account.
- Follow the online instructions to create a free account. Part of the sign-up procedure involves:
- Add payment information, where you will be charged $1.00 USD. No additional charges will apply
- For account verification, please enter the PIN on your phone when amazon verification call is received.
- Wait up to 24 hours for your AWS account to be activated.
2.2 IAM policies
Before beginning, you need an IAM user with permission to access AWS IoT and Amazon FreeRTOS. Click below for instructions on how to create a new user with such authorities.
2.3 Create an IoT thing, private key, and certificate for your device
Amazon FreeRTOS – an open-source MCU operating system built on the FreeRTOS kernel, offers developers a universal connection to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.
AWS IoT is an amazon web service that provides secure, bi-directional communication between Internet-connected devices such as embedded micro-controllers and the AWS Cloud. AWS IoT provides a registry that helps you manage “things”. A thing is a representation of a specific device or logical entity (for example a light bulb, sprinkler, switch, etc.) It can be a physical device or sensor.
Now it's time to use the AWS IoT service to create an IoT thing. Click in the button below for a step-by-step guide.
Create an Activate AWS User
- Use your AWS root credentials to sign in to the IAM AWS console
- In the navigation pane, choose Users and then choose Add user.
- Type a username, such as Administrator. Select the checkbox next to the AWS Management Console access, select custom password, and then type your new password in the text box. Click Next: Permissions
- Select Attach existing policies directly type “AmazonFreeRTOSFullAccess” in the search text box, look for the check box button next to the policy name and click it. Then repeat for “AWSIoTFullAccess,” and “AdministratorAccess.” Finally choose Next: Review
- Verify that you have the AdministratorAccess, AmazonFreeRTOSFullAccess and AWSIoTFullAccess policies attached to your account, then click Create user
- Sign out from your root account. Sign in using the newly created user account and password by clicking on the link next to Users with AWS Management Console access can sign-in at...
Create an Activate AWS User
- Open a web browser and go to AWS IoT console locate at console.aws.amazon.com/iot
- If this is the first time you access to the AWS IoT console click on Get started
- In the left navigation pane, choose Secure, and then choose Policies. If you do not have any policies registered in your account, the You don't have any policies yet page is displayed. If you see this page, choose to Create a policy
- Type "myIoTPolicy" in the Name text box to identify your policy. In the Add statements section, click Advanced mode. Modify lines 5, 6, and 7 with the following content:
- In the left navigation pane, choose Manage, and then choose Things. If you do not have any IoT things registered in your account, the You don't have any things yet page is displayed. If you see this page, choose Register a thing. Otherwise, choose to Create
- On the Creating AWS IoT things page, choose to Create a single thing
- On the Add your device to the thing registry page, type myShadowThing in the name text box, then click Next
- On the
Add a certificate for your thing page, under
One-click certificate creation , choose to Create certificate - Download your private key and certificate by choosing the Download links for each. Choose Activate to switch on your certificate. Then click Attach a policy
- Select the checkbox next to myIoTPolicy and choose Register Thing
Choose Create
3.1 Import an AWS example project from the MCUXpresso SDK
Use the MCUXpresso IDE to clone an AWS example project.
3.2 Configure your AWS credentials to the project
Load your AWS IoT thing's credentials into the project and configure the Wi-Fi parameters.
3.3 Build your application
Build your AWS IoT Shadow application using MCUXpresso IDE.
3.4 Connect a debugger probe
Connect a debugger probe to your LPC54018 IoT Module.
3.5 Download and Run your application
Download and run your AWS IoT Shadow application into the LPC54018 IoT Module.
3.6 Success!
You will see your thing's shadow being updated. Confirm communication to AWS IoT using the Terminal.
Import an AWS example project from the MCUXpresso SDK
- Open the MCUXpresso IDE.
- Click Import SDK Example(s) from the QuickStart Panel.
- Select the lpc54018iotmodule board in the Import Wizard. Then, select Next.
- Type “aws_shadow” into the search bar, and select the “aws_shadow_wifi_qspi_xip” project under aws_examples. Then, click on Finish.
- Verify that project is loaded into the workspace as shown below.
Configure your AWS credentials to the project
- Open the MCUXpresso IDE.
- Open your previously imported “aws_shadow” example project.
- Locate the file …/amazon-freertos/include/
aws_clientcredential.h and configure:
- Broker endpoint (Copy the URL from AWS IoT -> ‘myShadowThing’ -> Interact)
- Thing name (“myShadowThing”)
- Wi-Fi SSID
- Wi-Fi Password
- From the SDK folder, locate the
Certificate Configurator in the following path: …/SDK_2.3.0_LPC54018-IoT-Module/rtos/amazon-freertos/demos/common/devmode_key_provisioning/CertificateConfigurationTool/
CertificateConfigurator.html
Note: You can locate your SDK_2.3.0_LPC54018-IoT-Module.zip file by right-clicking on your Installed SDK item and click on “Open Location.” - Open the Certificate Configurator file; this tool will generate a "aws_clientcredential_keys.h" header file, based on the certificate files you previously downloaded.
- Browse to the Certificate and Key files you previously downloaded from your Thing (myShadowThing) and click on “Generate and save aws_clientcredential_keys.h”
- Copy the newly generated aws_clientcredential_keys.h and replace the one from your aws shadow project. The file is located at: …/lpc54018iotmodule_aws_examples_aws_shadow_wifi_qspi_xip\amazon-freertos\include\
Note: If no file is downloaded, allow blocked content in the explorer.
Build and Run your application
- Open the MCUXpresso IDE.
- Open your previously imported “aws_shadow” example project.
- Select the project folder and click on Build.
- Wait until the project is built.
- Verify the build finished without any errors.
Connect a debugger probe | LPC-Link2
- Connect a LPC-Link2 debug probe to your LPC54018-IoT Module, make sure the cable connects as shown below.
Connect a debugger probe | JLink
- Download and install the latest J-Link Software from here.
- Connect a J-Link debug probe to your LPC54018-IoT Module, make sure the cable connects as shown below.
Connect a debugger probe | JLink
- Connect the LPC54018 IoT Module to your PC using a micro-USB cable.
- Program your LPC54018 IoT Module by clicking on “Debug ‘lpc54018iotmodule_aws_examples_aws_shadow_wifi_qspi_xip” from the ‘Quickstart Panel.’
- Select your debugger probe (LPC-Link2 or J-Link) and click “OK” to start programming your board.
- Wait until the program is successfully downloaded.
- Click ‘Run’ to execute the application in debug mode.
- Open the “Device Manager” on your Windows PC.
- Open a Terminal emulator software (TeraTerm, PuTTY or similar) and connect to the COM port using any settings (it’s an USB-Virtual COM port).
- Verify that the Shadow of your thing is being updated in AWS IoT.
Note: If the debugger did not stop in the main() function, press the ‘Restart’ button in the debugger and then press ‘Run’ again.
Note: if the IoT Module doesn’t enumerate as a COM port try browsing for the driver at $SDK_PATH\boards\lpc54018iotmodule\usb_examples\usb_device_cdc_vcom\inf
Note: The terminal will only run when the software is running. Stop, reset or halt will disable USB CDC.
4.1 Amazon Links of Interest
4.2 LPC and MCUXpresso Communities
Connect with other engineers and get expert advice on designing with Kinetis MCUs and MCUXpresso Software and Tools. Join the community discussion in one of our two dedicated communities: LPC MCU Community or MCUXpresso Software and Tools Community.
4.3 More AWS examples projects
Import the aws_led_wifi example project, then follow the readme instructions located at {SDK_LOC}/board/lpc54018iotmodule/aws_examples/
Download Demo application integrating AWS and NXP components with Alexa from
BlueWind Git
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.
- Download Tera Term from SourceForge. After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue.
- 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.
- 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.
- Verify that the connection is open. If connected, Tera Term will show something like below in it's title bar.
- You're ready to go
Update QCA Firmware
Hardware Requirements
- Micro-USB Cable
- LPC54018-IoT-Module
- Debug probe: IoT Module baseboiard/LPC-Link2/J-Link probe
- Personal Computer with Windows OS
Import the MCUXpresso SDK
- Open the MCUXpresso IDE
- Select "Installed SDKs" tab within the MCUXpresso IDE window
- Open Windows Explorer, and drag and drop the previously downloaded SDK file into the Installed SDKs view.
- Click OK to the confirmation window.
- The installed SDK will appear in the Installed SDKs view as shown below:
Use the “Import SDK example” qca_fwupdate project from SDK
- On the Quickstart Panel, select “Import SDK example(s)
- Select the lpc54018iotmodule board and click on Next.
- In the filter textbox, type “qca”. Select the qca_fwupdate example project (wifi_qca_examples → qca_fwupdate), and click on Finish.
- Build and download the application to the target board using debugging probe (J-Link or LPC-Link2). Click on the "Debug" button from the Quickstart Panel.
- Click on “Resume” button or press ‘F8’ to start the application.
- While the application is running, locate the
host.exe application and firmware folder at:
\boards\lpc54018iotmodule\wifi_qca_examples\qca_fwupdate\fw\ - Open the command line from Windows and execute the host.exe application as follows:
> host.exe COM30 flashotp_3_3_6.bin 845dd76f5e95 -b115200
where:
| COM30 | Is the LPC54018IoT Module (port J8) CDC Virtual COM Port name. |
| flashotp_3_3_6.bin | Is the path to firmware binary |
| 845dd76f5e95 | Is the MAC address of the GT1216 module |
| -b115200 | Is a communication baudrate |
Notes:
The COM port name can be found using the "Windows Device Manager". The MAC address of your WiFi IOE Module can be found in a label on top of the LPC54018IoT Module. The host.exe application cannot resolve COM port with number greater than 99; the Windows control panel may be used to override the COM port number assigned if necessary.
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.
- Download PuTTY using the button below. After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- You're ready to go
