FRDM-MCXW23 Hands-On: Hello World

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Hands On

In this lab we will first import the MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code SDK for the MCX W23 Freedom board into the MCUXpresso extension for Visual Studio Code and then we will build, flash and debug the hello world project to make sure the environment is set for the following Labs.

Hardware Requirements

• Personal Computer
• FRDM-MCXW23 Board
• Type C USB Cable

Software Requirements

• IDE: Visual Studio Code 1.91.1
• Extension: MCUXpresso for VS Code v25.06.97 or newer
• SDK: SDK next gen v25.06.00 or newer
• Windows OS (Windows 11 was used for this hands-on)
• Serial Terminal program, like PuTTY or Tera Term

Note:

In order to make downloads in NXP website, it is necessary to have an account. Please, register and log-in for moving forward.

MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code

MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) provides an optimized embedded developer experience for code editing and development. The extension enables NXP developers to use one of the most popular embedded editor tools and provides an easy and fast way to create, build and debug applications based on MCUXpresso SDK or Zephyr projects.  

            Install it following the next steps:

1. Download Visual Studio Code from Microsoft Store or visual studio code web page Download Visual Studio Code - Mac, Linux, Windows
2. Access to vscode for MCUX wiki and download MCUXpresso Installer  Dependency Installation · nxp-mcuxpresso/vscode-for-mcux Wiki · GitHub
3. Run MCUXpresso Installer and for this Hands On install at least
   • MCUXpresso SDK Developer
   • Arm GNU Toolchain
   • PEmicro

Installing the FRDM-MCXW23 SDK v 25.06.00.

Each MCU has its own SDK that includes driver, examples, middleware, docs and other components. To get and build the demo, let’s install the SDK into VS Code:       

1. Once MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code is installed open VS Code.
2. Go to MCUXpresso for VS Code extension that is on the tools column at the left.
3. Look for INSTALLED REPOSITORIES option and press ‘+’. Detail steps are described in                                                                                                         
   • Use the steps for import a remote Git repository
   • wiki page. Working with MCUXpresso SDK · nxp-mcuxpresso/vscode-for-mcux Wiki · GitHub
4. Search for Revision v25.06.00 or newer and complete installation.

Lab Section . Run Hello World Demo

1. Open VSCode

2. Go to MCUXpresso for VS Code extension that is on the tools column at the left.  
3. Go to PROJECTS section and select “Import Example Application from and Installed Repository”                                                                                                                                                                     
4. Select “frdmmcxw23_hello_world” project as freestanding as shown in the next image and create the project                                                                                                                                                  
5. Now you should have the “frdmmcxw23_hello_world” in your workspace.
6. Before moving to the building and testing phase of the project, we want to do a small modification, go to line 39 of the hello_world.c file and change the line

PRINTF("hello world.\r\n");

to

PRINTF("hello world, this is MCXW23 from NXP Semiconductors.\r\n");

7.Build the projects clicking “Build Selected” icon to make sure the build process succeeds with zero errors and warnings or you can right click on the project’s name and press “Build Project button”.

8. The build project process starts, follow its progress in the Console tab located in the bottom center of the window. If the build process will successfully end you will see something like “build finished successfully” in the Terminal window:

9. To start the debug session, connect the FRDM-MCXW23 board debugger port to your host PC, using the USB A to USB C cable provided with the FRDM board as per the picture below on MCU-Link USB port and then the other end to a free USB port on the host PC.                                                                                
10. Open a Serial terminal on PC for the serial device with these settings on the two boards:

- 115200 baud rate

- No parity

- One stop bit

- No flow control

To identify the appropriate COM, open the Device Manager and look for MCU-Link VCom Port

11. To start debugging, simply click on Debug icon or you can right click on projects name and press “Debug” Button.

12. All is set to start debugging the project, click on “Continue” button or press “F5” key on your keyboard to continue running the downloaded program on device.

13. The execution of the example starts and “hello world, this is MCXW23 from NXP Semiconductors.” is printed in the Terminal window as per the below picture:

14. Enter any character + <enter> to see the examples echoes every character that is entered through the terminal.
15. Click on the Stop button (red square) to end the debug session.

Congratulations you have successfully completed the hello world lab.