FreeMASTER 3.2.6 Update - Release Announcement

Yes

Version 3.2.6 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 3.2.6 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, however the communication plug-ins installed with the latest version are globally registered in operating system and will be used by older versions too.

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 3.2.6 contains FreeMASTER Lite and Node.JS modules internally referred as version 1.4. 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 3.2.6 introduces the following new features:

CAN-FD support for Kvaser, IXXAT and ZLG devices

The CAN communication plug-in has been extended to support CAN-FD mode enabling dynamic bitrate switching and achieving higher throughput. Refer to the latest version of MCUXpresso SDK and other NXP SDKs for updated MCU driver with CAN-FD support.

FreeMASTER in Zephyr

The FreeMASTER driver module used in MCUXpresso SDK can now also be used in Zephyr as a standard Zephyr module. The driver adds support for Zephyr drivers and hardware abstraction layer which makes it highly portable to new NXP devices. All FreeMASTER features are now configurable using Zephyr Kconfig tool.

FreeMASTER module can be used with the following Zephyr communication drivers: UART, USB CDC (both legacy and "next" device stacks), CAN with optional CAN-FD mode, Segger J-Link RTT. Zephyr TCP/IP stack using TCP or UDP protocols.

The FreeMASTER Pipes can be used as a transport backend for Zephyr logging and shell. This enables to access the Zephyr console over the FreeMASTER protocol.

FreeMASTER Zephyr sample applications

FreeMASTER sample applications for Zephyr demonstrate Zephyr logging and shell running over FreeMASTER pipe as well as runtime visualization of Zephyr thread information, CPU utilization and stack usage. Thread performance data can be displayed in common graphs with application-specific data making it great runtime tuning tool.

Bugfixes and other extensions:

FreeMASTER

Fixed GuiGuider simulator DLL path resolution. The path can now be specified in a relative form.
Fixed Oscilloscope data capture when oscilloscope operates in sequential mode (e.g over J-Link RTT).
Fixed message prompt to specify MAP/ELF file after port open when no TSA symbol info is located.
Fixed floating Pipe view layout store and restore.
Fixed loading TSA memory-mapped files larger than 64kB.
Fixed Clear button in Pipe View now also removes the pipe history buffer.
Fixed window layout restoring after application starts.
Fixed too long time before opening Variable properties dialog under heavy communication.

FreeMASTER Lite

Added CAN-FD support to CAN plugin for IXXAT, Kvaser and ZLG adapters
Fixed BDM plugin issues when connecting to S32K148 EVB using jLink debug probe
Fixed address evaluation of a variable addressed using a multidimensional array with multiple indexes

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.