topic Re: SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU in Kinetis Microcontrollers

SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU

sryan — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 14:11:10 GMT

We have a project for the K60 developed in CodeWarrior using Processor Expert for the TWR-K60D100M dev board. At this point I think it would be valuable to add a bootloader that can load firmware from an SD card to make it easier for us to do updates in the field. Is there an existing implementation of a bootloader like this?

I would be especially interested in any guides/tutorials to using a bootloader with a Processor Expert project. One problem is that it looks like Processor Expert generates the linker file on compilation so even if I had the code for a bootloader, at this point I'm not sure how I would tell the linker where to put the application code and where to put the bootloader code in flash.

Re: SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU

BlackNight — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 14:14:47 GMT

Such an SD card bootloader is on my wish and work list for a while :-)

But what I have is a serial bootloader with Processor Expert: http://mcuoneclipse.com/2013/04/28/serial-bootloader-for-the-freedom-board-with-processor-expert/

Maybe this helps as a starter.

Re: SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU

mjbcswitzerland — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 15:56:15 GMT

Sam

You can try an SD card loader for your board at µTasker Test Software and Demos (its readme also gives tips on using with MQX or other projects)

Complete code is available at http://www.utasker.com/forum/index.php?topic=1721.0

and allows chosing between SD card loader (with or without encryption), serial, Ethernet, USB-MSD, KBOOT compatible UART or USB-HID and can be built with most IDEs (CW, KDS, IAR, Keil, Rowley Atollic, Coo Cox) for any KL and K processor (SD card loader for KE devices will be included in the next release). Either one of more of the loaders can be used at the same time (in parallel), whereas the Ethernet web server loader is the fastest.

Documentation at http://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerSerialLoader.PDF

The SD card loader and the TWR-K60D100M can be simulated using VisualStudio so configuration and operation can be simply tested and verified before final testing on the HW and in case of difficulties it is supported (here or direct email).

Regards

Mark

http://www.utasker.com/kinetis.html

Re: SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU

sryan — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 20:19:23 GMT

Thanks Mark, I haven't dug into this yet but based on the documentation it looks like it would do what we need. Am I correct in thinking that we would need to purchase a uTasker license to use the bootloader in a commercial application?

Re: SD Card Bootloader for K60 MCU

mjbcswitzerland — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:45:05 GMT

Hi Sam

I do ask for licensing for commercial use and in return there is personal support for 6 or 12 months (depending on project or full licensing option). When only the serial loader is used there is a 50% discount. As well as a variety of industrial proven loaders that can be used on a all K and KL (and soon KE) devices, with ready-to-build projects for most popular IDEs, there is also a unique Kinetis simulator which can generally help save a lot of real project time. If you like the loader you may also like the main project which contains fully integrated USB, TCP/IP stacks and file system on top of many optimised and easy to use specific peripheral drivers, and again the capability of developing and testing complete applications in the simulation environment. The overall savings in development time and increased efficiency should mean that the license fee pays for itself many times over (and also helps fund further professional development of the project and new capabilities, which then become available for licensees to further benefit from).

Regards

Mark