Good luck getting a Bus Blaster, it doesn’t appear to be available.
(this is the only thing I have against it however. I have a bus pirate, cool device).
The NGX appears to be available and has several docs and software support. This appears to be good. If you order one, get one for me too :^)
I have the Olimex, because 5 years ago it was the only thing going aside from roll your own, or proprietary ones.
I took a look at the bus pirate too. Seems really interesting but as far as I know some extra work is needed to get it working as a JTAG adapter! As a poor student I tend not to take such risks so I wouldn’t purchase it unless I can find some detailed instructions to get it working.
I registered at the NGX store several days ago in anticipation of my order for the Blueboard LPC1768-H. I haven’t actually placed the order (still looking for JTAG stuff), and today they sent me an email asking if I needed any assistance choosing a product. Excellent service! First time I received such an email and it totally makes sense. People who register at the website are likely to be interested in a product, and if they don’t order something immediately, it might be because they need a little help.
Anyway they sent me some links about their JTAG adapter and OpenOCD. Shall take a look at it in a bit. I still remember Frank’s comparison between the Bus Blaster V2 and NGX’s JTAG though. Makes this a tough one.
Hello again!
Here’s a summary of what I’ve decided on:
Blueboard LPC1768-H
Eclipse IDE
OpenOCD
Here’s what’s left to decide:
Yagarto toolchain or CodeSourcery G++ Lite
Bus Blaster V2 or Olimex ARM-USB-TINY-H
I think I’ve found sufficient information on how to get up and running with either Yagarto or CodeSourcery (with Eclipse and OpenOCD). Seeing as I should decide on either and stick to it in the future, does anybody have any information that might help me decide (i.e. update frequency, support for new cores, user base and support, ease of use, potential problems etc)? I currently use a 64-bit version of Windows 7.
This is all while I’m waiting for Bus Blaster V2 to go on sale. My next choice is Olimex’s ARM-USB-TINY-H which seems to be quite popular. I did sufficient background check on the USB TINY to find some problems users had with drivers on Windows but it seems that has been solved. Sadly, it will cost me substantially more to order the USB TINY. Bus Blaster V2 being on the verge of release is the only thing stopping me from ordering the Olimex. It’s quite unfortunate there’s no definite ETA though.
I would suggest holding off on the JTAG then. You should be able to program the board with a serial or usb (the STM32 can do this). You can always add the JTAG to your toolkit later.
It will take several days, weeks to get up to speed with the tools, processor, docs, compiler, all that stuff before you get to the debug level anyway.
Interesting… I haven’t seen anything online about programming the Blueboard LPC1768-H without a JTAG adapter. I’ll looking around for more information first. Thanks for the suggestion!
Any insights about Yagarto and CodeSourcery? I noticed many users of either but it seems nobody made a direct comparison.
Look at Chapter 32 of the User Manual.
UM10360 - CH32:
In-System Programming: In-System programming (ISP) is programming orreprogramming the on-chip flash memory, using the boot loader software and UART0
serial port. This can be done when the part resides in the end-user board.
The flash boot loader code is executed every time the part is powered on or reset. The
loader can execute the ISP command handler or the user application code. A LOW level
after reset at pin P2.10 is considered an external hardware request to start the ISP
command handler. Assuming that power supply pins are on their nominal levels when the
rising edge on RESET pin is generated, it may take up to 3 ms before P2.10 is sampled
and the decision on whether to continue with user code or ISP handler is made.
Both are GCC based, so they are gonna be more similar than different.
Yagarto(4.5.2 and 4.6.0) is currently ‘ahead’ of CodeSourcery Lite(4.5.1).
STM23 (from ST) has a windows app that will load a bin/hex to the chip using the previously mentioned reset → uart0 upload process. It may be opened now, I don’t recall, if there is a linux version or tool (I think there is).
For STM32 we use their firmware code for drivers and such, plus their usb code.
Thanks for replying!
Sorry if the user manual answers my question. It’s quite lengthy and I still don’t know my way around it well! I’ll read through the chapter now.
Hello!
So the Bus Blaster V2 is now on sale. Unfortunately, this is what it states on SeeedStudio:
Although the Bus Blaster V2 has gone through some testing, this makes me a little worried. Does anyone know why SeeedStudio decided to do this?This open source hardware and software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
standard disclaimer.
why are you surprised?
Is that standard? Doesn’t this mean the product can be dead on arrival and no replacement will be offered?
Not usually. What they are saying is they have not tested it in all scenarios and situations, you may apply the JTAG to some device they haven’t tested and just because it doesn’t work then it isn’t their problem really (at least until they update the firmware!).
I’d be reasonably certain that if you got one it would work, and DOA would be fixed (whatever their standard policy is in terms of DOA devices.).
fast, cheap, good - choose 2.
Hmmm. Thanks for replying! I guess I’d still order one. But I’m now totally confused with how it’ll work with OpenOCD and Eclipse + Yagarto to do programming (debugging comes later) for the LPC1768. There doesn’t seem to be a fool proof way to accomplish this!
I’ve found several pages with steps I can follow. I’ll just try them first!
OpenOCD is shall we say , tricksey. Even in the best of times, when OOCD is stable, and following specific instructions it may or may not work.
AND what I have noticed is that the latest 0.4.0 has been largely revamped. So all the instructs about all the settings you might make, have now been rolled into sets of premade scripts under openocd/ folders (instead of in your project). The good part is you don’t have to search all over for some command, and most devices appear to be preset. The bad part is most old web pages are now useless.
So don’t feel overwhelmed about OOCD, because even old hacks like myself can barely keep up with it. Theres a lot of learning to do… I might get one of those devices from seeedstudio, you can never have too many tools right?
Crappinni:
Hmmm. Thanks for replying! I guess I’d still order one. But I’m now totally confused with how it’ll work with OpenOCD and Eclipse + Yagarto to do programming (debugging comes later) for the LPC1768. There doesn’t seem to be a fool proof way to accomplish this!I’ve found several pages with steps I can follow. I’ll just try them first!
What is your budget for this? If it extends to $210, I highly recommend the non-profit editions of Rowley CrossWorks ($150) and the Segger J-Link EDU ($60). This combination is plug and play and Rowley offers tech support, if you need it.
Thanks for the suggestion! I haven’t purchased the JTAG adapter yet so I can still consider that! I’ll see how things go with the Bus Blaster V2 too. Meanwhile I’ll try to use the bootloader.
Best advice ever - you can be off and running in just a few hours. In fact you can get started for almost nothing using the free 30-day trial of Crossworks. Throw in another <$12 (for the ST VLDiscovery) and you've got a debugger/programmer (fullly supported by CrossWorks) and a development board with a Cortex-M3, 128k FLASH, 16k RAM, 12-bit DAC, RTC with 32KHz crystal, 64-pin TQFP with every pin broken out to 0.1in. headers, etc.SodaAnt:
…If it extends to $210, I highly recommend the non-profit editions of Rowley CrossWorks ($150) and the Segger J-Link EDU ($60). This combination is plug and play and Rowley offers tech support, if you need it.
Or IAR’s free forever limited-size compiler/IDE.
There’s also Atollic’s TruStudio unlimited-size, free forever toolchain that comes with the $12 ST VL Discovery board.
Thanks for the suggestions!
The lite version of TrueStudio doesn’t seem to support the LPC series though.
I’ve heard good things about commercial compilers/IDEs (support, streamlined development etc) but I should definitely try free software before spending $150 on CrossWorks!