FreeMASTER 3.2.7 Update - Release Announcement

[#1]

Version 3.2.7 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 3.2.7 is a minor update of the 3.2.x mainline release. It overwrites the 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 the operating system and will also be used by older versions.

This version is 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 third-party applications. It includes two Chromium-based HTML rendering engines—CEF and Microsoft Edge WebView2—with full support for JSON-RPC, HTML5, and JavaScript to create custom dashboards and other user interfaces running inside FreeMASTER. The older Internet Explorer rendering engine, with the ActiveX interface and protocol defined for version 2.x, is also still supported.

FreeMASTER Lite, which is part of the FreeMASTER installation package, provides the communication core for Windows and Linux systems. It is accessible similarly to 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 its use with the FreeMASTER tool. More information related to Node-RED can be found 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 3.2.7 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 3.2.7 introduces the following new features:

P&E Micro debugging probes support updated

This version includes the latest update of P&E Micro drivers, enabling JTAG communication with the newest NXP microcontrollers.

Chromium browser component updated

The Chromium browser has been updated to the most recent version, addressing several incompatibility issues and re-enabling the JScript debugger and other DevTools within FreeMASTER.

ELF/DWARF parser extended 

ELF file parser has been extended to locate static variables inside C++ anonymous namespaces.

Bugfixes and other extensions:

FreeMASTER

• Fixed "Show-As" style of floating point variables generated automatically from ELF symbols.
• Fixed CAN communication plug-in issue in its Configuration dialog.
• Fixed PD-BDM communication plug-in timing during initial connection to target.
• Fixed ELF file selection after forcing its file path by external script SetProjectOptions().
• Fixed CEF and Edge web browser components to enable cross-origin content loading from file: resources.
• Fixed project corruption when deleting variable assigned to X-Axis in an XY graph.

Related Content

NXP MCUXpresso SDK

For consumer, industrial or IoT edge applications, the FreeMASTER communication driver is distributed as a "middleware" component of MCUXpresso SDK. The driver sources are publicly available on GitHub along with documentation.

The most convenient way to get a full SDK package including FreeMASTER and other middleware components is via the MCUXpresso SDK Builder. The full SDK is also available on GitHub.

S32 Design Studio for S32 Platform

For automotive parts, the FreeMASTER communication driver is distributed as an eclipse update site for S32 Design Studio. Latest versions can be installed directly from within the IDE by accessing "S32DS Extension and Updates" from "Help" menu. Additionally, it can be downloaded both as eclipse update site and a stand-alone zip archive via the Flexera Links available on FreeMASTER's home page.

The distribution already includes ready to use examples. More advanced applications and demos are available on NXP's Application Code Hub (ACH).

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.

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.