Getting Started with the MIMXRT1060-EVK

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

Build an example application

The following steps guide you through opening the hello_world example application. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

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 MIMXRT105x CMSIS pack.

1. Download the iMXRT pack
2. After downloading the DFP, double click to install it.

Build an example application

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.

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

    <install_dir >/boards/<board_name >/<example_type >/ <application_name>/mdk</application_name> </example_type> </board_name> </install_dir> 

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

    <install_dir> /boards/evkmimxrt1060/demo_apps/hello_world/mdk/hello_world.uvmpw </install_dir> 

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

   

3. The build completes without errors.

Run an Example Application

To download and run the application, perform these steps:

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

2. Open the terminal application on the PC, such as PuTTY or TeraTerm, and connect to the debug serial port number. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate, (reference BOARD_DEBUG_UART_BAUDRATE variable in board.h file)
   • 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. 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 true, check your terminal settings and connections.

   

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 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.

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 MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows Files.

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:

    <mingw_install_dir>\bin</mingw_install_dir> 

   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\4.9 2015q3

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 Get CMake

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.

Build an Example Application

To build an example 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 <version>” and select “GCC Command Prompt”. </version>

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

    <install_dir >/boards/<board_name >/<example_type >/ <application_name>/armgcc</application_name> </example_type> </board_name> </install_dir> 

   For this guide, the exact path is:

    <install_dir> /boards/evkmimxrt1060/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc </install_dir> 

   

3. Type “build_flexspi_nor_debug.bat” on the command line or double click on the "build_flexspi_nor_debug.bat" file in Windows operating system Explorer to perform the build. The output is shown in this figure:

   

Run an Example Application

This section describes steps to run a demo application using J-Link GDB Server application. To perform this exercise, two things must be done:

• Make sure that either:

• The OpenSDA interface on your board is programmed with the J-Link OpenSDA firmware. If your board does not support OpenSDA, then a standalone J-Link pod is required.

• You have a standalone J-Link pod that is connected to the debug interface of your board. Note that some hardware platforms require hardware modification in order to function correctly with an external debug interface.

After the J-Link interface is configured and connected, follow these steps to download and run the demo applications:

1. This board supports the J-Link debug probe. Before using it, install SEGGER software, which can be downloaded from SEGGER

2. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the OpenSDA USB connector and the PC USB connector. If using a standalone J-Link debug pod, also connect it to the SWD/JTAG connector of the board.

3. Open the terminal application on the PC, such as PuTTY or TeraTerm, and connect to the debug serial port number. Configure the terminal with these settings:

• 115200 baud rate, (reference BOARD_DEBUG_UART_BAUDRATE variable in board.h file)

• No parity

• 8 data bits

• 1 stop bit

• Open the J-Link GDB Server application. Go to the SEGGER install folder, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\JLink_V616f. Open the command windows here, for Debug and Release targets, and use the command "JLinkGDBServer.exe".

  Note: for the sdram_debug and sdram_release targets, use the command:

  JLinkGDBServer.exescriptfile<install_dir> /boards/evkmimxrt1060/demo_apps/hello_world/evkmimxrt1060_sdram_init.jlinkscript </install_dir>

• The target device selection chosen for this example is the Cortex-M7.

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

  

• If not already running, open a GCC ARM Embedded tool chain 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”.</version>

  

• Change to the directory that contains the example 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</application_name> </example_type> </board_name> </install_dir> 

   <install_dir >/boards/<board_name >/<example_type >/ <application_name>/armgcc/release</application_name> </example_type> </board_name> </install_dir> 

  For this example, the path is:

   <install_dir> /boards/evkmimxrt1060/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc/debug </install_dir> 

• Run the command “arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe <application_name> .elf”. For this example, it is “arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe hello_world.elf”. </application_name>

  

• Run these commands:

  "target remote localhost:2331"

  "monitor reset"

  "monitor halt"

  "load"

• 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 on the terminal. If this is not true, check your terminal settings and connections.