TBLCF open source debugging cable

[DanielM]

Hello everybody,

for the benefit of the ColdFire users community I am releasing an open-source debugging cable. The cable works with CodeWarrior version 6.3. You can download evaluation version of CodeWarrior 6.3 here:

https://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/updates/CWCF/CW_ColdFire_6.3_Update.exe

Cost of components for the cable is under $10.

Feedback on functionality and/or any problems is most welcome.

I will be updating this post with new releases in case of bug fixes or other improvements.

I have added a zip file with the PCB design in EPS and BMP formats.

Daniel

Message Edited by DanielM on 2006-10-13 11:03 AM

tblcf_v10.zip

eps_and_bmp_v2B.zip

Message Edited by t.dowe on 2009-09-02 04:58 PM

[IKURA3]

Dear DanielM,
Hi, all.

Hello, all. I'm one of M68K/Coldfire architecture user in JAPAN.
A famous technical magazine publish company produce coldfire article with MCF52233 evaluation board, in 25th, July.
  http://kumikomi.typepad.jp/interface_coldfire/coldfire/index.html

After read this magazine, my friend and I tried to make an owned TBLCF and it cound work correctlly on the CodeWarrior7.0.

Thus, I wrote article for introduce TBLCF product to this publisher and every JAPANESE can read it after 25/Oct.
We already send all information to publisher as follows:
 - TBLCF introduce and user manual ( By Japanese )
 - Setup/Operation manual for CodeWarrior 7.0. ( By Japanese )
 - Schematic
 - Artwork design
 - BOM : Parts-list

Mr.DanielM, I would like to say very very very thank you.
I am very happy to inform your crucial product.

Best regards,

                            Masami




Message Edited by IKURA3 on 2008-10-18 06:19 PM

Message Edited by IKURA3 on 2008-10-18 06:28 PM

[beanhauler]

Just for anyones info I have built a bdm interface  using the device from Farnell and not the one listed in Daniels work.As they were out of stock as a sample i thought about a replacement,however by the time I had built a board etc the freescale device became available.

The Farnell chip has more pins!

It appears to program OK and sits quite happily on the driver from windows.

I will be testing it soon but if anyone beats me to it let me know.

If anyone is interested i will upload the details.

[hwn]

Hello Daniel and all other members,

some people reported a problem with Codewarrior and TBLCF.

If you program the flash and then make a change in the program and reprogram the FLASH again, communication is lost!

This problem was now also reported from Freescale at the M52259DEMOMCU-Board

and from me at my own MCF5213-Board!

With the new Codewarrior "Patch 7.1.1.a" the problem is solved! I have tested it with my own MCF5213-Board.

Also i have developed a TBLCF-board (my own layout) based on Daniels design.

Anyone can buy it! Please contact iseotto@aol.com (a german factory) for details.

Best regards Werner

[JoviJuan]

Hi all,
I'm new with Coldfire. I've built Daniel's TBLCF and I am playing around with a demo board of a 5213.
First: where can you get the 7.1.1.a version of Codewarrior?
Second: I'm trying to debug a program from RAM memory, but I am having problems with variables, some of them cannot be viewed in the Expressions window. It says "Unknown error 01004280". Anybody has had the same problem? might it be a problem with TBLCF or with project configuration?
Thanks in advance

[safir123]

Thanks a lot to avoid the confusion. I have got the things straight and have also got the samples by now.

Safir

[JimDon]

The code will not work on 51JM, unless it is migrated.
I wish they would do that.

[Archaiwy]

Hi,

It is said that the cable's CPU JB98 has a usb bootloader inside. So it has a system software called USBICP.SYS/EXE  for firmware downloading.  Does Freescale provides these software? Where can I got a copy.

Thank you.

[Archaiwy]

 Dear sir,

I am using your TBL to work on MCF52223.

I noticed that there is a TA(pin26) on the BDM port which the MCU does not have. Where should I connect it to?

Thank you

[beanhauler]

Hi

Not sure who you are addressing this message to but...

TA is as i understand is Transfer acknowledge that is returned when using slow memory access.

Generally speaking it is not needed so you can ignore.

Interestingly it is not used on the M52235EVB Board at all.Think it is historical.

Ignore it.

Anyone else fancy a chip in?....pardon the pun

[Archaiwy]

Thank you beanhauler,

I'm new to the Coldfire. I have to ignore the TA if I do not know where to connect it. The chip's datasheet from freescale told me that the standard BDM has TA and some other data pins. In the debugging cable, the data pins are not in use, while the TA signal is actually connected and driven. So, I am worring...

Thank you. you gave me confidence to draw the PCB

[bluehacker]

hi what is the matter with bdm sourceforge website?
I can't open the page.
by the way, one question: the http://bdm.sourceforge.net solution is equal to tblcf open source BDM? or is it a completely another open source bdm?
thanks

[ChrisJohns]

Hi,

I can get to the web site on Sourceforge. Maybe it was down for some reason.

The TBLCF support in the BDM is based on the same code in the TBLCF package. I have taken the TBLCF host code and included it in the BDM project. I have not dealt with the firmware or the Windows DLL that interfaces to commercial debuggers and tools. Sorry I cannot remember the name.

I have made changes to the TBLCF code I imported to allow it to compile on Unix and Windows. This is a requirement of the BDM software. I am not sure if I made other changes.

I would like to see a place on the net for the TBLCF that all can access. I am willing to help support this with the BDM project if that is acceptable. I have not contacted Daniel about this.

Regards
Chris

[JackyReric]

Thanks DanielM, i have just build one TBLCF debugger. It works fine but it operate not perfectly. I wonder if this is an error. First i program firmware to Flash then debug it not works and i close codewarrior, debug again it work. The problem is when debug we can debug again, if we want to program firmware we have to close codewarrior and open again or when we program firmware we can program firmware again if we want to debug we have close CodeWarrior and open again. It make us uncomfortalbe.

[beanhauler]

Hi Daniel

Not sure if you can help me but I have a small problem with the above and just need some pointers to where to start looking.
I have built your board tbclf  and downloaded the firmware to it that works a treat.The led on board lights up etc.
I have uninstalled the firmware and installed again and true to form it does exactly as it says on the tin.
The problem is with the target MCF5223 Processor.

I have built a prototype board with the proc on it and can not get the coldfire app v6.3 to talk to it.
It just keeps coming back unable to connect to target.If i unplug the usb to your board i get a diff message which means that part is working!!

I have pulled the jtag pin 12 to ground and it emits a clock freq ...looks like 25meg from the TCLK Pin 1 of the MCU.This is confusing because i though it was an input??

I have set the parameters for the gdi dll EXACTLY as u said.
But in codewarrior still the error message.

Probing the pins on the TBCLF board from the 20 pin micro reveals no real activity when you try to connect.
I pin goes low but not much else happens.

Tried resets etc but still no go.

What pins are crucial to this exchange.
How do i check the dll in windows is ok and communicating to the board ok ...although this does look ok.

Is it trying to connect to the target board?Maybe target broken?
Does jtag need to be low
Does the tclk need routing to the tbclf board although if i do this and jtag is low the clock output from pin 1 gets loaded

Not suer if you can help at all.

If you or anyone else for that matter can answer any questions or experienced similar problems please let me know.

I would be most grateful.

[ChrisJohns]

Hi,

I cannot help with the DLL as I do not use it or the hardware of the pod how-ever I can provide a link to the BDM package on sourceforge as a Windows installer. The Windows installer is new. If you are interested please down load and try otherwise please ignore.

 http://www.rtems.org/ftp/pub/rtems/people/chrisj/bdm/m68k-bdm-1.4-pre3.exe

Down load and run. It will install the BDM tools.

The package supports the TBLCF pod and if you use the tools provided with verbose output you may be able to get an insight into why you have some problems. The tools provide detail down to the low level USB messages.

To use you need to instal the libusb package. The set up is documented in here:

http://bdm.sourceforge.net/doc.html

Search for "TBLCF USB Support" then the Windows section.

If you need any further help please ask.

Regards
Chris

[beanhauler]

Hi Chris

Thanks for that

I found the problem!!!!

D2 DSO solder problem.Always a danger when working late at night/early morning.

A good nights sleep and some rationale works a treat.

However i am getting used to using code warrior as a debugger and having been so used to

the pic debuger this is slightly different.

You have to always download the new breakpoints and reprogram the chip using the separate flash

program and so you need to exit out of the current debug routine and connect using the flash programmer?

 fine but everytime i

break on the code and then try to reprogram the chip reprogramming fails.

If i reset the TBLCF board then i can reprogram it but its a pain.I have to keep unplugging the usb...its going to knacker it the way things are going.

Do i need to add some connections to stop this behaviour?I notice that RSTO could be connected to two ports on the TBLCF board ...should i do this and perform a reset on the main mcu board.

Does TBLCF need a reset in using RSTO from the MCU?

Maybe i am using codewarrior wrong?

Anyone have any ideas.

Thanks for the swift reply

Chris P

[ChrisJohns]

hi Chris,

Well done on finding the solder problem.

I do not use Codewarrior so do not understand its work flows so I am sorry I may not be much help.

I have users debugging with the flash only Coldfires using the BDM package and GDB. I added an option that forces GDB breakpoints to use the Coldfire's hardware break points. If the Coldfire has a version B+ debug module this gives you 3 or 4 break points and that is nice. You flash the code then start the debugger and can step etc over the flashed code as if it was in RAM.

Maybe Freescale and you users should to chat to the Codewarrior people about such a feature. For me it was only a few line of code and about 10 minutes work.

Regards
Chris

[beanhauler]

Forgot to ask though

The package you use is a commercial blaster and debugger for mcf5 series?.....GDB?

The cable is a replacement for TBCLF and the dev board is freescales?

It may be that i give up and buy a commercial solution to debug this device.

Building Daniels interface is ok but has limitations by the looks of it.

I would love to sit and reverse all of Daniels work to try and understand it better but really detracts from the job in hand which is a webserver app.

[ChrisJohns]

Hi Chris,

I use am currently using a Amiom TBLCF pod. I use the BDM package from sourceforge with GDB. This is an open source package that integrates with GDB and the GNU tool set. This package also support the older parallel port pods.

The TBLCF pod is able to implement almost all the features supported by the BDM package. The only limitation is a forced command present in debug version C modules. This does not effect you.

I am currently working with a user to get Coldfire flash supported. I hope to get a patch into the project in the comming days. I integrated libelf into the package a week or so ago to provide a standard file support with a complex environment to build flash support.

The TBLCF pod does not have any limitation in relation to what you are doing. I am using the pod with the Amiom 5235 board plus the 52223 board plus others. I know of people using the TBLCF pod with code in flash.

I do not know about the Codewarrior solution and cannot help. I hope others can help.

All the best of luck with your debugging.

Regards
Chris

[beanhauler]

Thanks Chris

Well this is where i am.

Got the debug and flash routine working OK after some more diligent work with the scope.

Appears you can not use debug without flashing first which is fine but i still have the problem with breakpoints.

Maybe its me!

Anyway to test I put in a breakpoint at the first { in main  and flashed the device.

Then used project > debug and off it appears to go but......

no break occurs and when i manually break it seems to break on the same bit of code in the init of the device.

I need to check this more throughly with a clean bit of code rather that Eric's web server program

Its just the day job gets in the way and late night/early morning concentration eats at the brain cells.

Pics are so much easier!!

Thanks for all your help

Rgds

Chris

[JimDon]

I use a P&E, but I found that if you exit cfflasher, then it seems to connect again.

I also try to debug stuff in ram if possible. I usually pretest peices in ram just because it is some much quicker.