FreeMASTER 3.2.5 Update - Release Announcement

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Version 3.2.5 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 3.2.5 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 3.2.5 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 3.2.5 introduces the following new features extending data visualization and communication options:

Telnet console access to FreeMASTER pipes

FreeMASTER pipe feature can be used as a console I/O between PC and target application transported over FreeMASTER protocol. This might be specifically useful to access shell and similar command line interface (CLI) provided by the embedded applications.

On the other hand, FreeMASTER pipe view is a text-stream only, without editing and formatting capabilities. This makes it hardly usable for advanced CLI which supports editing, command history, backspace handling, colored output and similar VT100 features. A localhost telnet session may now be open for any FreeMASTER pipe. All pipe input and output is mirrored to telnet client connection, so the terminal features can be used in the telnet window while keeping the FreeMASTER pipe as a physical transport. 

A nice example might be a Zephyr shell and logging backend provided for FreeMASTER pipes. See FreeMASTER Zephyr support at GitHub - to be released soon.

ActiveX/JSON-RPC Performance Improvements

Both servers has been optimized for performance and multi threaded operation. The performance increase for JSON-RPC is by factor over 4x.

Latest Chromium version

Upgrading Chromium/CEF view fixes several issues with HTML rendering and JScript write access to local files (using showSaveFilePicker API).

Bugfixes and other extensions:

FreeMASTER

• Updated P&E Micro DLLs and firmware redistributables (04/2025).
• Fixed application crash when using clipboard operations to duplicate variables in Watch view.

• Fixed Oscilloscope graph restart/corruption when target board is reset while Oscilloscope is active.

• Fixed initial firing of OnVariableChanged event for subscribed variables (was not fired when value was 0).

• Fixed LocalFileOpen script function to allow read-mode for all file extensions except executables. Extended list of file extensions allowed for write-mode (added json, yml, s19, srec and many others).

• Fixed application hang when multiple processes accessing ActiveX server sharing a single JLink connection.

• Fixed performance issue in ELF/DWARF parser when loading large (>100M) files.

• Fixed loading of Enumeration types from file. This could result in excessive number of unused Enums in project.

• Fixed Project/Enumerations dialog to enable to mass-erase multiple Enum objects at once.

• Fixed variable stimulator icon when communication port is closed.
• Fixed status bar layout to give more space for connection string display.
• Fixed filtering feature in variable selection drop-down list in Recorder/Oscilloscope dialog.
• Fixed watch property dialog; adding variables to a watch could accidentally fail.
• Fixed automatic load of TSA during "File->New Project" when port is already open.
• Added unique numbers when naming newly created items (oscilloscope, pipe, recorder ...) in project tree.

FreeMASTER Lite

• Removed license activation mechanism (activation code no longer required)
• Renamed main executable from 'node' to 'fmlite'
• Added "array_length" property to variable definition API to allow array data manipulations directly via ReadVariable and WriteVariable functions
• Fixed Node-RED's PCM node failure when "internal" option is enabled
• Fixed ELF parser returning wrong symbol address for variables with same name

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.