topic Bad or fake Board? FRDM-KL25Z in Kinetis Microcontrollers

Bad or fake Board? FRDM-KL25Z

sdandrus — Fri, 02 May 2025 02:33:54 GMT

I purchased from Amazon a FRDM-KL25Z to use the accelerometer on my virtual pinball machine. I was unsuccessful at loading firmware on the board using the common methods and that's when I noticed a few things.

1. The "getting started" onboard test of the accelerometer (where you are supposed to be able to tilt the board to get an LED to change colors) never worked.

2. The board has 2 LEDs. The one furthest from the USB/SDA ports always flashes green unless the USB port is plugged in.

3. The board itself looks physically different from the pictures i have seen on the internet.

4. The accelerometer chip seem to be missing.

If something is up with this board that would explain my inability to load firmware on it, and if it is indeed missing that chip it wont work for me anyway.

Re: Bad or fake Board? FRDM-KL25Z

Pablo_Ramos — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:48:14 GMT

Hi @sdandrus,

A new FRDM-KL25Z revision is available, in this revision the USB has been upgraded to USB-C and MMA8451Q accelerometer come not soldered.

You can find a note on the FRDM-KL25Z page regarding these changes.

FRDM-KL25Z|FRDM Development Platform|Kinetis® MCU | NXP Semiconductors

Also, could you share with me the steps you normally follow in order to load the firmware?

Re: Bad or fake Board? FRDM-KL25Z

PBW1Z — Mon, 19 May 2025 12:32:32 GMT

I think you need to make this significantly clearer to your distributors. I just bought one from Digikey - their datasheet focuses on the Accelerometer that is now not included.

The instructions in the box even state that the device comes preloaded with a 'bubble level' demo to demonstrate the accelerometer.

Unfortunately, I discovered this after soldering header pins to the board, so returning the item(s) may no longer be possible for me.

Re: Bad or fake Board? FRDM-KL25Z

bobpaddock — Wed, 21 May 2025 13:41:33 GMT

NXP can always do better in their documentation of just about everything.

NXP considers the MMA845x family obsolete and has pawned them off on to Rochester Electronics, you can get them from there. However I'm not sure if they have any minimum order quantity.

You would think that if they are redesigning the board for USB-C they could have designed in one of their more modern accelerometers.