Getting Started with the FRDM-KL46Z

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 115200 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 it's title bar.

5. You're ready to go

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 115200.

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

1. Install Eclipse Update

Before using KDS IDE with KSDK, the KSDK Eclipse Update must be applied. Without this update, Eclipse cannot generate KSDK-compatible projects.

Windows and Mac® OS Users

The steps required for Mac OS are identical to Windows; the only difference is that the IDE looks slightly different.

1. After installing KDS, check for available updates. Install the Processor Expert 3.0.1 updates from NXP only - do not install any other updates. To check for updates, select “Help” -> “Check for Updates”.

   

2. Select "Help" -> "Install New Software".

   

3. In the Install New Software dialog box, click the "Add" button in the upper right corner. Then, in the Add Repository dialog, select the "Archive" button.

   

4. In the Repository archive dialog box, browse the KSDK install directory

5. Enter the /tools/eclipse_update folder and select the KSDK__Eclipse_Update.zip file.

6. Click "Open", and the "OK" button in the Add Repository dialog box.

7. The KSDK update shows up in the list of the original Install dialogs

   

8. Check the box to the left of the KSDK Eclipse update and click the "Next" button in the lower right corner.

9. Follow the remaining instructions to finish the installation of the update.

10. After the update is applied, restart KDS for the changes to take effect.

Linux® OS Users

The following instructions were performed using Ubuntu 14.04. These steps may be slightly different for other Linux distributions.

1. Launch KDS IDE from the command line as the root user. On the command line, use this command, assuming the default KDS IDE install path:

   user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /opt/NXP/KDS_x.x.x/eclipse/kinetis-design-studio

   The KDS IDE version (shown above as x.x.x) should reflect the version installed on your machine, for example, 3.0.0.

2. You are prompted to enter the root password.

3. After installing KDS, check for available updates. Install the Processor Expert 3.0.1 updates from NXP only - do not install any other updates. To check for updates, select “Help” -> “Check for Updates”.

   

4. Select "Help" -> "Install New Software"

   

5. In the "Install New Software" dialog box, click the "Add" button in the upper right corner. Then, in the "Add Repository" dialog, select "Archive".

   

6. In the Repository archive dialog box, browse the KSDK install directory.

7. Enter the /tools/eclipse_update folder and select the KSDK__Eclipse_Update.zip file.

8. Click "Open", and "OK" in the "Add Repository" dialog box.

9. The KSDK update shows up in the list of the original Install dialogs.

   

10. Check the box to the left of the KSDK Eclipse update and click the "Next" button in the lower right corner.

11. Follow the remaining instructions to finish the installation of the update.

12. After the update is applied, restart the KDS IDE for the changes to take effect.

13. After KDS IDE restarts, shut down the IDE and restart by launching KDS IDE as the non-root user. To do this, follow the command in step 1, only without the "sudo" command.

2. Build the Platform Library

These steps show how to open and build the platform library project in KDS IDE. The platform library is required by the demo and does not build without it.

1. Select "File->Import" from the KDS IDE menu. In the window that appears, expand the "General" folder and select "Existing Projects into Workspace". Then, click the "Next" button.

   

2. Click the "Browse" button next to the "Select root directory:" option.

   

3. Point to the platform library project for the appropriate device, which can be found using this path:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/kds/KL46Z4

4. After pointing to the correct directory, your "Import Projects" window should look like the figure below. Click the "Finish" button.

   

5. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug — Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug.
   • Release — Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment.

6. 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.

   

7. 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).

3. Build a Demo Application

To build a demo application, repeat the steps listed in the "Build the Platform Library" section using a demo application project instead of the platform library project. Demo application projects are located in this folder:

/examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//kds

For this example, the path is:

/examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/kds

4. Run a Demo Application

The FRDM-KL46Z 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 http://www.nxp.com/opensda for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

Mac users must install the J-Link OpenSDA application in order to use the KDS IDE to download and debug their board.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector.

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

3. 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

4. Ensure that the debugger configuration is correct for the target you're attempting to connect to. Consult Appendix B for more information about the default debugger application on the various hardware platforms supported by the KSDK.

   • 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 debug configuration that corresponds to the hardware platform you're using. For Windows or Linux users, select is the CMSIS-DAP/DAPLink option under OpenOCD. For Mac users, select J-Link.

     After selecting the debugger interface, click the "Debug" button to launch the debugger.

     

5. The application is downloaded to the target and automatically run to main():

   

6. Start the application by clicking the "Resume" button:

   

7. 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.

   

1. Build the platform library

These steps show how to open a demo workspace in IAR Embedded Workbench, how to build the platform library required by the demo, and how to build the demo application. The example used below is for the hello_world demo, but similar steps can be applied to any demo in the KSDK.

1. Open demo workspace (*.eww file) in:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//iar

   After the workspace is open, two projects are shown: one for the KSDK platform library and one for the demo. Also, the platform library project is bold, indicating that it is the active project. The active project can be changed at any time by right clicking on the desired project and selecting "Set as Active" or via the build target drop-down at the top of the workspace browser.

   

2. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug - Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug.
   • Release - Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment. The tool allows you to select either the Debug or Release configuration on a per-project basis, but since the demo has a dependency on the platform library, whichever configuration is selected for the demo must also be selected for the platform library. Selecting a configuration in the drop-down also makes whichever project and configuration that is selected the active project. For this example, select the "ksdk_platform_lib — Debug" target.
   

3. Click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below.

   

4. When the build is complete, the library (libksdk_platform.a) is generated in one of the following directories, according to the chosen build target:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/iar/KL46Z4/debug

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/iar/KL46Z4/release

2. Build a Demo Application

The KSDK demo applications are built upon the software building blocks provided in the Kinetis SDK platform library, built in the previous section. If the platform library is not present, the linker displays an error indicating that it cannot find the library. An easy way to check whether the library is present is to expand the Output folder in the ksdk_platform_lib project. If the platform library binary is not built and present, follow the steps on page 1 to build it. Otherwise, continue with the following steps to build the desired demo application.

1. If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace (*.eww file). This example's workspace file is located in:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/iar

2. Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the "hello_world — Debug" target.

   

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

   

4. The build will complete without errors.

3. Run a Demo Application

The FRDM-KL46Z 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 http://www.nxp.com/opensda for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector.

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

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

   

4. The application is then downloaded to the target and automatically runs to the main() function.

   

5. Run the code by clicking the "Go" button to start the application.

   

6. 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.

   

1. 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.

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

   

2. In the Devices tab on the left hand side of the dialog box that appears, expand the NXP category. Then expand the KLxx Series category and highlight KL4x by clicking it once.

   

3. In the Pack Installer window on the right of the dialog box, click on the "Install" button next to the pack.

NOTE:
This process requires an internet connection to successfully complete.




4. After the installation finishes, close the Pack Installer window and return to the µVision IDE.

2. Build the Platform Library

These steps show how to open the demo workspace in µVision, how to build the platform library required by the demo, and how to build the demo application.

1. Demo workspace files can be found using this path:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//mdk

   The workspace file is named .uvmpw. For this specific example, the actual path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/mdk/hello_world.uvmpw

   After the workspace is open, two projects show up: one for the KSDK platform library, and one for the demo. By default, the demo project is selected as the active project.

   

2. Make the platform library project the active project since the library is required by the demo application to build. To make the platform library project active, right click on it and select "Set as Active Project". The active project has a black box around the project name. After it is active, the platform library project is highlighted.

   

3. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug — Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug.
   • Release — Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment.

   The tool allows selection of the build target based on the active project, so in order to change the configuration for the platform library it must be the active project. Choose the appropriate build target: "Debug" or "Release" from the drop-down menu.

   For this example, select the "ksdk_platform_lib Debug" configuration.

   

4. Rebuild the project files by left-clicking the "Rebuild" button, highlighted in red.

   

3. Build a Demo Application

The KSDK demo applications are built upon the software building blocks provided in the Kinetis SDK platform library, built in the previous section. If the platform library is not present, the linker displays an error indicating that it cannot find the library. If the platform library binary is not built and present, follow the steps on page 2 to build it. Otherwise, continue with the following steps to build the desired demo application.

1. If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace in:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//mdk

   The workspace file is named .uvmpw, so for this specific example, the actual path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/iar/hello_world.uvmpw

2. Make the demo the active project.

   

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

   

4. The build will complete without errors.

4. Run a Demo Application

The FRDM-KL46Z 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 http://www.nxp.com/opensda for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector.

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

3. After the application is properly built, click the "Download" button to download the application to the target.

   

4. 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.

   

5. Run the code by clicking the "Run" button to start the application.

   

6. 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.

   

1. Set Up Toolchain

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.

Install GCC Arm Embedded Toolchain

Download and run the installer from launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded. 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.

Install MinGW

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.

1. Download the latest MinGW mingw-get-setup installer from sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/Installer/.

2. 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.

3. Ensure that the "mingw32-base" and "msys-base" are selected under Basic Setup.

   

4. Click "Apply Changes" in the "Installation" menu and follow the remaining instructions to complete the installation.

   

5. 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:

   \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.

   

Add a New Environment Variable for ARMGCC_DIR

Create a new system environment variable and name it ARMGCC_DIR. The value of this variable should point to the Arm GCC Embedded tool chain installation path, which, for this example, is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools Arm Embedded\4.8 2014q3

Reference the installation folder of the GNU Arm GCC Embedded tools for the exact path name of your installation.



Install CMake

1. Download CMake 3.0.x from www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html.

2. 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.

   

3. Follow the remaining instructions of the installer.

4. You may need to reboot your system for the PATH changes to take effect.

2. Build the Platform Library

1. Open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

2. Change the directory of the command window to the platform library directory in the KSDK:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4

3. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug — Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug.
   • Release — Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment.

   There are batch files provided to build both configurations. For this example, the "Debug" target is built and "build_debug.bat" is typed on the command line. If the "Release" target is desired, type the "build_release.bat" instead. Alternatively, if using the command line is not desired, you can double click on the batch files from Windows Explorer.

   

4. When the build finishes, the output looks like the image below(with KL46Z4 in place of K64F12).

   

5. The library (libksdk_platform.a) is generated in one of these directories, according to the build target:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4/debug

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4/release

3. Build a Demo Application

KSDK demo applications require that the platform library for the same build target (Debug or Release) is present. Please ensure that you follow the steps in section 7.2 prior to attempting to build a demo application.

To build a demo application, follow these steps.

1. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

2. Change the directory to the demo application project directory, which has a path like this:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//armgcc

   For this example, the exact path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc

3. 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:

   

4. Run a Demo Application

The GCC tools require a J-Link debug interface. To update the OpenSDA firmware on your board to the latest J-Link app, visit www.nxp.com/opensda. After installing the J-Link OpenSDA application, download the J-Link driver and software package from www.segger.com/downloads.html.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector.

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

3. 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 J-Link GDB Server".

4. Modify the settings as shown below. The target device selection chosen for this example is the "MKL46Z128xxx4".

   

5. After it is connected, the screen should resemble this figure:

   

6. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

7. 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:

   /examples//demo_apps//armgcc/debug

   /examples//demo_apps//armgcc/release

   For this example, the path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc/debug

8. Run the command "arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe .elf". For this example, it is "arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe hello_world.elf". The example image below displays the building of the frdmkl46z hello_world application as an example.

   

9. Run these commands:

   • "target remote localhost:2331"
   • "monitor reset"
   • "monitor halt"
   • "load"
   • "monitor reset"

10. The application is now downloaded and halted at the reset vector. Execute the "monitor go" command to start the demo application.

    The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed in the terminal window.