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Let's take your FRDM-KE16Z for a test drive!
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This bubble demo leverages the on board accelerometer. When the board is flat, the RGB LED is turned off, and when the board is tilted, the blue or red LEDs gradually illuminate based on the degree of tilt on the X- and Y-Axis.
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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 the FRDM-KE16Z SDK package.
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NXP offers a complimentary toolchain called MCUXpresso IDE.
If you prefer using a different toolchain, the Kinetis SDK includes support for other tools such as IAR , Keil and command-line GCC .
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Many of the example applications output data over the MCU UART so you'll want to make sure that the driver for the board's virtual COM port is installed. Before you run the driver installer, you MUST have the board plugged into your PC.
With the serial port driver installed, run your favorite terminal application to view the serial output from the MCU's UART. Configure the terminal to 115,200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. To determine the port number of the FRDM-KE16Z'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.
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The MCUXpresso SDK comes with a long list of demo applications and driver examples. To see what's available, browse to the SDK boards folder of your SDK installation and select your board, the
FRDM-KE16Z (<sdk_install_directory>/boards/frdm-ke16z
).
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If one or more of the demo applications or driver examples sounds interesting, you're probably wanting to know how you can build and debug yourself. The Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK guide provides easy, step-by-step instructions on how to configure, build, and debug demos for all toolchains supported by the SDK.
Use the guide below to learn how to open, build and debug an example application using the Kinetis Design Studio (KDS) IDE.
Before using KDS IDE with KSDK, it is recommended that you make sure that your tools are up-to-date. The steps discussed below are shown using the Windows version of KDS, but are identical for Mac and Linux users.
Select "Help" → "Check for Updates"
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.
Note: The steps required for Linux and Mac OS are identical to those for Windows.
Select File → Import from the KDS IDE menu. In the window that appears, expand the "Project of Projects" folder and select "Existing Project Sets". Then, click the "Next" button
Click the "Browse" button next to the "Import from file" option
Point to the example application project, which can be found using this path:
<install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/kds
For this guide, choose the specific location:
<install_dir>/boards/frdmke16z/demo_apps/hello_world/kds
After pointing to the correct directory, your "Import Working Sets and Projects" window should look like the figure below. Click the "Finish" button
There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:
Choose the appropriate build target, "Debug" or "Release", by clicking the downward facing arrow next to the hammer icon, as shown below. For this example, select the Debug target
The library starts building after the build target is selected. To rebuild the library in the future, click the hammer icon (assuming the same build target is chosen)
The FRDM-KE16Z board comes loaded with the mbed/CMSIS-DAP 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.
Note: Mac users must install the J-Link OpenSDA application to use the KDS IDE to download and debug their board.
Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
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:
For Linux OS users only, run the following commands in your terminal. These install libudev
onto your system, which is required by KDS IDE to launch the debugger:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libudev1
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.0
Ensure that the debugger configuration is correct for the target you're attempting to connect. This refers to the OpenSDA interface of your board
To check the available debugger configurations, click the small downward arrow next to the green "Debug" button and select "Debug Configurations"
In the "Debug Configurations" dialog box, select a debug configuration that corresponds to the hardware platform you're using. For Windows or Linux users, select the "mbed/CMSIS-DAP" option under OpenOCD. For Mac users, select "J-Link"
After selecting the debugger interface, click the "Debug" button to launch the debugger
The application is downloaded to the target and automatically run to main():
Start the application by clicking the "Resume" button:
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
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.
If not already done, 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
Using the hello_world
demo as an example, the path is:
<install_dir>/boards/frdmke16z/demo_apps/hello_world/iar
Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the "hello_world - Debug" target
To build the application, click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below
The build will complete without errors
The FRDM-KE16Z board comes loaded with the PEmicro 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.
Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
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:
Click the "Download and Debug" button to download the application to the target
The application is then downloaded to the target and automatically runs to the main() function
Run the code by clicking the "Go" button to start the application
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
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.
Open the MDK IDE, which is called µVision. In the IDE, select the "Pack Installer" icon
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-KE16Z platform, the Kinetis KExx_DFP family pack is selected. Click on the "Install" button next to the pack. This process requires an internet connection to successfully complete
After the installation finishes, close the Pack Installer window and return to the µVision IDE
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.
If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace in:
<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:
<install_dir>/boards/frdmke16z/demo_apps/hello_world/mdk/hello_world.uvmpw
To build the demo project, select the "Rebuild" button, highlighted in red
The build will complete without errors
The FRDM-KE16Z 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.
Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
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:
After the application is properly built, click the "Download" button to download the application to the target
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
Run the code by clicking the "Run" button to start the application
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
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.
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.
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 utilize 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.
Download the latest MinGW mingw-get-setup
installer from
MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows Files
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.
Ensure that the "mingw32-base" and "msys-base" are selected under Basic Setup
Click "Apply Changes" in the "Installation" menu and follow the remaining instructions to complete the installation
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:
<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.
C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools Arm Embedded\4.9 2015q3
Download CMake 3.0.x from CMake
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
Follow the remaining instructions of the installer
You may need to reboot your system for the PATH changes to take effect
To build an example application, follow these steps:
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"
Change the directory to the example application project directory, which has a path like this:
<install_dir>/boards/<boards_name>>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc
For this guide, the exact path is:
<install_dir>/boards/frdmke16z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc
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:
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 .
Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
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:
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"
Modify the settings as shown below. The target device selection chosen for this example is the "MKE16Z64xxx4" and use the SWD interface
After it is connected, the screen should resemble this figure:
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"
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:
<install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc/debug
<install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/armgcc/release
For this example, the path is:
<install_dir>/examples/frdmke16z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc/debug
Run the command:
arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe <demo_name>.elf
For this example, it is:
arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe bubble_level_ftm.elf
Run these commands:
hello_world
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Let's create our own project and make a simple SDK-based application. NXP provides an intuitive, simple project generation utility that allows creation of custom projects based on the MCUXpresso SDK.
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Open the utility by clicking on the MCUXpresso Config Tools executable for your computer's operating system. Point the tool to your SDK installation path, name your project, and select the board that it uses as a reference. Click on Finish.
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Open the project in your toolchain of choice by using the same process described in section 3.3.
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Now, let's make our new project do something other than spin in an infinite loop.
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With the changes made to your main() function, build your application. Once the build is complete, download the application to your board.
If you need help figuring out how to build, download or run an application, reference your tool-specific guide from section 3.3.
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With the application downloaded, you will see the FRDM-KE16Z's red LED blinking. You can also view terminal output using PRINTF.
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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.
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.
Connect with other engineers and get expert advice on designing with the FRDM-KE16Z on one of our community sites.
Installing Software for the FRDM-KE16Z
Jump Start Your Design with the MCUXpresso SDK
Install Your Toolchain
PC Configuration
Build and Run SDK Demos on the FRDM-KE16Z
Explore the SDK Example Code
Build, Run and Debug SDK Examples