FRDM-KL25Z comes up as Bootloader when reset _not_ pressed

[DustyStew]

Hello all

I am in the mood for a good gripe right now as I am old school and I expect embedded stuff to work. I got used to Windows stuff not working a long time ago, and so bailed on Windows application programming around '99, not being able to tolerate any more buggy MS crap platform.

It's unfortunate that OpenSDA does not work with my Mac. Given that this Macbook Pro is the most reliable computer I have owned. Very sad indeed to be forced to buy a Windows 8 computer in order to do embedded work. Windows 7 seemed fine to me, MS has been extremely rude in crippling Windows 8 with the ridiculous Metro interface.

Anyway -- thanks for listening. Back to the issue.

I don't know if this bug is Windows 8, or OpenSDA. For all I know it will disappear next time I plug the Freedom board in. The Freedom board was behaving as advertised, press reset and it's BOOTLOADER, and don't press it and it is not. Then I updated the OpenSDA firmware to the latest version (got it just now at the P&E Micro site). Then when I plugged the Freedom board USB cable in, whether or not reset was pressed, it came up as bootloader. LED flashing as expected when in bootloader mode.

Is it PE Micro's new version? Or Windows 8 doing something clever?

Thanks

Tom

[injunear]

Any chance of Freescale reconsidering its decision to drop Linux support of Codewarrior?

[DustyStew]

The answer to my question is: don't make the mistake of dragging the MSDxxx.SDA file to the bootloader drive. That is what I did, and now it's always coming up bootloader, whether or not reset is pressed.

[DustyStew]

I've been reading comments about OpenSDA and preliminary conclusion is, Not Quite Ready For Prime Time

They're still patching it, doesn't work across OSes well, no source, no spec

I think I will put my Freedom boards on the shelf for another 6 months

Thoughts?

[BlackNight]

Hi Thomas,

does it come up with the name BOOTLOADER (and the green LED blinks) or as FRDM-KL25Z?

As FRDM-KL25Z it is in MSD bootloader mode, while in BOOTLOADER mode it waits for an *.SDA application.

It comes up as BOOTLOADER device *without* the reset button pressed if there is no *.SDA application loaded. That happened to me when I was accidentially programming a wrong *.SDA file with it.

It is important to choose the correct *.SDA file, e.g. if you are using the FRDM-KL25Z, then use the MSD-FRDM-KL25Z_Pemicro_v109.SDA or the DEBUG-APP_Pemicrov106.SDA, and *NOT* any of the other SDA files, as they are for different boards.

About Mac and Linux support: to my knowledge there are problems (for the MSD bootloader mode!) because of the way how the OS is accessing the files on the virtual mass storage device. For example Mac is writing hidden/additional files automatically to the device, which confuses it and makes it fail. I have seen and reported this for Windows Explorer extensions too, when additional tools write to the device.

But I know that P&E and Freescale are working on this.

I hope this helps,

Erich

[PaulClaessen]

I'm having the exact same problem. I'm on Windows 8.1. Using a FRDM-KL25Z board.

I get it in bootloader mode, see a 'BOOTLOADER' driver, copy the right .SDA file over. Power cycle the thing .. and it comes back up with that BOOTLOADER driver.

The file I copied there is no longer there: is that supposed to be the case?

I tried with both the debugger and MSD .SDA apps. And tried different versions (latest DEBUG-APP is 108, latest MSD app is 112, both from the Pemicro site. I also tried the older versions that came with the quick start package).

I'm stuck here, since CW doesn't see the debugger.

Any other suggestions?

[PaulClaessen]

Thomas's hunch that it may be Windows 8(.1) that's the problem here, is probably correct:

As described above, I had the exact same problem .. tried for hours to get it right. The board would always come up with that BOOTLOADER drive, no matter what I had copied out there.
This morning I took the board to work, plugged it into my Windows 7 :smileyalert: machine .. copied the MSD*.SDA file over, power cycled it, and low and behold .. it worked: I now have that MSD drive! (EXACT same files and procedure I used at home on my Windows 8 machine!)

So, yes, if you have this problem ... try Windows 7. Looks like it's Windows 8 .. although, it could still be something else running on my Windows 8 machine, that does something creepy (Norton?).

[BlackNight]

The Freedom board bootloader (OpenSDA) has a problem with Windows 8.1, see

FRDM Board Bootloader fails with Windows 8.1 Preview | MCU on Eclipse

Windows 8 (8.0) was working fine, but obviously Microsoft changed something so the bootloader gets confused (and does not work). You need a Windows 8.0 or Windows 7 machine to change the application with the bootloader.

[davimurcaviotto]

Windows 7and 8 are working fine and the staff are working hard to solve compatibility with USB FRDM-KL25Z and windows 8.1.

[BlackNight]

That Windows 8.1 compatibility issue has been resolved with the new v114 firmware from P&E: New P&E OpenSDA Firmware v114 | MCU on Eclipse

[DustyStew]

Hi Erich

Thank you for your reply. I think this is the answer:

"It comes up as BOOTLOADER device *without* the reset button pressed if there is no *.SDA application loaded."

Simple. That makes sense.

I will look into those other SDAs. Thanks.

I am not completely confident about the programming process, simple as it may be. There is some missing information, I think.

1. I don't see a positive indication as to when the programming is complete. There should be a message or a LED flash or something that says "done". Real basic user interface concept.

2. The example applications aren't documented as I would expect. For instance, there is an application called "platinum". Sounds like an OS...like Chrome perhaps. I looked at the code, it apparently is a serial character echo. So why not call it "serial_echo"? Why not start the PDF that comes with the examples by saying what the applications do? Is this too rudimentary? Or is this just a bog standard documentation principle that has not been applied?

3. What I think would be most appropriate for examples is two programs (in .SDA format) "yellow_blue" and "red_green". You drop yellow_blue in there, the LED flashes yellow/blue. You get the picture. Burning in those two programs alternately is a very simple way to verify the programming process works, in seconds. Oh sure it should work, it works most of the time, but does it work with my particular configuration? Something really basic like this should be provided.