FreeMASTER 3.2.4 Update - Release Announcement

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Version 3.2.4 of the NXP FreeMASTER tool has just been published online.

This version is backward compatible and fully replaces older 3.2.x releases (see previous announcements). It brings new features and bugfixes described below. The updated installer is available along with documentation and other resources at http://www.nxp.com/freemaster.

Release description

FreeMASTER is a powerful data visualization tool developed and provided by NXP to help users monitor and control embedded applications running on NXP’s targets. It works with almost all NXP Arm ® Cortex®-M and other microcontrollers from both Edge Processing and Automotive business lines as well as with DSC and legacy Power Architecture, ColdFire and HCS12/Z platforms. Note that the license terms and conditions does not allow using FreeMASTER with non-authorized systems from other vendors.

Version 3.2.4 is a minor update of the 3.2.x mainline release line. It overwrites previous 3.2 version installed on the host computer. Older 2.x, 3.0 and 3.1 versions are not removed.

This version backward compatible with all previous versions. It supports variable monitoring, oscilloscope real time graphs, fast transient recorder graphs, array-to-graph views and connectivity to 3rd party applications. There are CEF and Microsoft Edge WebView2 as two Chromium-based HTML rendering engines with full support of JSON-RPC, HTML5 and JavaScript to create custom dashboards and other user interfaces that run inside FreeMASTER. Older Internet Explorer rendering engine with ActiveX interface and protocol defined for versions 2.x is also still supported.

FreeMASTER Lite service which is part of the FreeMASTER installation package provides the communication core for Windows and Linux systems. It is accessible similarly as the FreeMASTER desktop application over the JSON-RPC interface. FreeMASTER Lite also embeds the popular Node-RED framework for graphical programming and provides many examples of use with the FreeMASTER tool. Find more information related to Node-RED in the dedicated training video.

FreeMASTER Node.js Installable Modules enable convenient use of the FreeMASTER JSON-RPC components in a Node.js applications managed by the ‘npm’ package manager.

Version 3.2.4 contains FreeMASTER Lite and Node.JS modules internally referred as version 1.3. Installing FreeMASTER Lite will require you to enter an activation code generated for this version. Get your free code on the License Keys tab at the license information page.

New Features

Version 3.2.4 introduces the following new features extending data visualization and communication options:

NXP GUI Guider integration

LVGL display simulator views created with NXP GUI Guider tool version 1.8.1 or later can now be hosted directly inside the FreeMASTER main window. This new feature nicely complements a significant extension of the NXP GUI Guider 1.8.1 integration, which now enables binding of gauges and other graphical widgets to FreeMASTER variables. A display simulator built with NXP GUI Guider links to FreeMASTER to achieve full hardware-in-loop simulation of the UI behavior to test user experience way before the real display solution is deployed.

Bugfixes and other extensions:

FreeMASTER

Script methods for defining Recorder, Oscilloscope, ArrayViewer or Pipe items extended to enable Data Capture settings to be set or updated.
Reworked mechanism of disabling invalid variables in graph views. Once a variable becomes invalid (due to missing ELF or TSA information), the variables can be disabled in graphs and re-enabled after they become valid again.
Changed threading model of all communication plug-ins from "Neutral" to "Free" in order to fix issues occurring when Edge browser mode was used along with ActiveX object access.
Fixed bug in oscilloscope when using "Ignore identical consecutive samples". Wrong samples were ignored.
Fixed unresponsive Error Message box when not existing MAP/ELF file specified in project file.
Fixed doubled paste event in edit boxes displayed in Edge WebView2 view.
Fixed hang when Windows context menu key was pressed in Edge WebView2 within a dockable pane.
Fixed Virtual variables value refreshing in Variable Watch when communication is closed.
Fixed connection string generated by TCP to Serial plugin and used by FreeMASTER Lite.
Fixed Variable Watch scrollbar sometimes not able to scroll to bottom of the variable list.
Fixed duplicates in symbols list in Variable properties dialog when using ELF and TSA.
Fixed support of ZLG CAN devices using a new interface library, tested with USBCAN-4E-U. Removed support of ZLG USBCAN-II device due to driver stability issues.
Removed unnecessary COM port detection when closed Options dialog without change of communication settings.

FreeMASTER Lite

Added functionality to mock JSON-RPC API
Added example FreeMASTER Lite projects showcasing File IO, SSL, Mock API functionalities
Updated Jupyter Notebook examples
Fixed ELF Parser crashes caused by unnamed bit fields
Synchronized ZLG CAN plugin with FreeMASTER's implementation
Synchronized Serial over TCP plugin with FreeMASTER's implementation
Updated Linux installer to add `license` folder to dynamic libraries path. This removes the need to add `license` folder to LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Release target audience

Both FreeMASTER and FreeMASTER Lite are primarily targeted to our customers, engineers and developers of NXP embedded applications from Industrial, IoT and Automotive areas who want to monitor and control their applications at runtime. FreeMASTER is also a strong framework which can be used to create interactive demos and user interfaces helping to use the embedded applications by yet wider target audience.

Prerequisites

FreeMASTER tools run on the host computer and communicates with the target microcontroller application using Serial, CAN, Ethernet/WiFi network, JTAG, BDM or other physical interface. The microcontroller communication drivers are available as part of MCUXpresso SDK, S32 Design Studio or as a standalone installation package. Get familiar with the communication protocol and the microcontroller driver API before using the FreeMASTER tool.

License terms and conditions permit use of FreeMASTER solely with systems based on NXP microprocessor or microcontroller systems.

Packages

A single self-extracting installation package which contains both FreeMASTER desktop application and the new FreeMASTER Lite service is available for Windows platforms.

	JTAG/ BDM	Serial	CAN	TCP/IP	Segger RTT
FreeMASTER Desktop app. x86 for Windows	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Separate packages are available for FreeMASTER Lite containing x64 binaries for Windows & Linux platforms with the following supported communication interfaces.

	JTAG/ BDM	Serial	CAN	TCP/IP	Segger RTT
FreeMASTER Lite x64 for Windows	✓*	✓	✓	✓	✓
FreeMASTER Lite x64 for Linux	✗	✓	✗	✓	✗

*Requires 64 bit version of the 3^rd party library. Tested with Segger (JLink_x64.dll).

Access the installation and documentation at the FreeMASTER home page at https://www.nxp.com/freemaster.