TRK-KEA128 Vs FRDM-KEAZ128 boards

[riccardoventrel]

Hello,

I've a bit of experience about CAN/CANOpen in the past, and I'd like to play a bit

with the Kinetis EA mcus, targeting some CAN experiments.

Being new to this environment, I'd like to understand from your experts point of view,

which would the best board to start with between:

TRK-KEA128

FRDM_KEA128

As far as I can see, the former is more CAN oriented, so could fit my needs but the second one

seems to be a bit more general purpose and cheaper, exposing many other pins other than the CAN one.

I've also other constrain to this: I need an IDE/toolchain which can be installed on a MacBook.

Since the S32 DS seems to be targeted on Windows system only, I can focus my choice to:

Kinetis Dev Studio

CodeWarrior

I see the second one is shipped in bundle with the TRK-KEA128, while the first one seems to 

work on Mac only using the Segger J-link.

About this last point I'm a bit confused: both boards support the OpenSDA, so I guess

I could use the USB to upload the firmware on both of them, even if my machine is a Mac,

am I correct?

So, please, if any of you has some experience between these 2 boards, please let me know

which could be the one which could fit my needs.

Regards

Ricky

[kerryzhou]

Hi Riccardo Ventrella,

1. TRK-KEA128 and  FRDM_KEA128 CAN question.

  Both FRDM and TRK board support the CAN module, and have the according interface, both board are using the PTC6 as CAN RX, PTC7 as the CAN TX.

  You can find it from the according schematic:

This is TRK KEA128

This is the FRDM-KEA128

2.  Opensda and the macOS problem.

You can find more details from the P&E micro opensda website:

Issue: Bootloader versions 1.10 and earlier are not allowing firmware update and MSD FLASH programming on ...

Solution: Support for Windows 8/8.1, MacOS and Linux operating systems was added to Bootloader version 1.11 and MSD firmware version 1.14. Please make sure that your board is programmed with Bootloader version 1.11 or higher prior to attempting to update your OpenSDA board with a new firmware application.

Important: If you are currently running Bootloader version 1.10 or earlier, you will need to find a Windows XP or Windows 7 PC to perform this update.

Please follow these steps to find out what version of Bootloader your board is programmed with:

1. Start your board in Bootloader mode by holding down the RESET button prior to plugging it into USB port.
2. Open the SDA_INFO.HTM file, which will contain version numbers of Bootloader as well name and version of current OpenSDA firmware you are using. If your board is not running Bootloader version 1.11 or higher, please download the latest OpenSDA Firmware Apps from P&E website and follow instructions in corresponding documentation to update the Bootloader using the BOOTUPDATEAPP_Pemicro_v111.SDA application. Once the Bootloader is updated via BOOTUPDATEAPP, the OpenSDA board can then be upgraded to the latest combined MSD/DEBUG OpenSDA firmware 1.14 or greater.

So  if you use the MAC OS, please update your opensda bootloader version at first.

3, Board choose

  Both TRK and FRDM you can use.

Wish it helps you!

Have a great day,
Kerry

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[vigneshbalaji]

Hi,

    what are all the differences between TRK-KEA128 and  FRDM_KEA128 boards?

[kerryzhou]

Hi VIGNESH BALAJI,

As you know, both board are the smallest system, FRDM board is newer than TRK.

The difference is FRDM-KEA128 use one chip MCZ33903CD5EK which can support both LIN and CAN, but the TRK use the separated chip to support the CAN and LINK, PC33901 for CAN, MC33662LEF for LIN, other not used pin all Fan-out.

Another difference, FRDM board size is a little smaller than the TRK board.

Because the KEA chip on FRDM and TRK is the same, and the board external circuit is also nearly the same, from the customer function side, TRK and FRDM is the same to use.

Wish it helps you!

Have a great day,
Kerry

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[riccardoventrel]

Hi Kerry,

thanks for your precious answers to this thread. So:

1) as far as I can see, the two board are almost equivalent. My oginal doubt was about

    their costs as well: the FRDM-KEA128 is costing (at least in Italy) roughly the half of the

    TRK-KEA128, doing almost the same things.

    From this point of view, I could buy two boards making them talk each other by CAN with the

    price of one of them.

2) my real doubt is not (only) about which board to choose but, working on a Mac, I'd like to understand

     which IDE and toolchain is better to use. I know the TRK-KEA128 actually come with the CodeWarrior

     installation on the DVD, and you have also some examples (correct me if I'm wrong) well cooked for that

     board made as CodeWarrior projects.

     The other solution could be to use Kinetis Design Studio, which, given its name, seems to be a bit more targeted

     to these boards. My doubt is where I could find some example for the FRDM-KEA128 for the Kinetis DS.

     From this POV, that's why I'd prefere something more ready to use as the TRK-KEA128  deployment.

3) thanks for the hint about the bootloader 1.1. I have a Win7 installed as a side by side solution with Bootcamp,

     so I could try to use it. So, after having upgraded my bootloader, I will be able to use OpenSDA from my Mac, correct?

Thanks and regards

Ricky

[kerryzhou]

Hi Ricky,

1. If the FRDM-KEA128 is low cost on your side, you can use that board.

2.  From the NXP website, we can get that, just KDS can support the MacOS,

Kinetis Design Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE)|NXP 

Mac OS X (10.10 and 10.11) with SEGGER J-Link support, JLINK firmware can be download from this link:

https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/OpenSDA_V1.bin

KDS can support the KEA128 chip, but there don't have the according official KDS sample code for the KEA128, you need to create it by yourself.

The official sample code is mainly for CW and S32DS, but these IDE didn't support the MacOS.

CW code, lab and test software:

Kinetis KEA128 StarterTRAK CAN Applications|NXP 

S32DS code:

http://www.nxp.com/assets/downloads/data/en/device-drivers/SDK-DRIVER-FRDM-KEA-S32DS.zip 

So, if you want to use the official sample code, you may use the S32DS with the windows OS.

3. After you updated the bootloader, you also can use the Segger JLINK firmware:

https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/OpenSDA_V1.bin

In MacOS, The KDS need to use the JLINK firmware.

Wish it helps you!

Have a great day,
Kerry

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[riccardoventrel]

Hi Kerry,

thanks for support as always.

1) I found several old links telling about CodeWarrior was supported on MacOsX.

    So probably, currently is no longer supported. This is a sin, an honestly I cannot understand

     why they remove the support for it. I don't use windows by many years (in my home business, but I work

    developing on it in my core bussiness) so I'd prefere avoid resurrecting it just for CodeWarrior.

2) the only remaining option is KDS, eventually, together with the cheaper FRDM-KEA128 (or a couple of them).

    So my point is: where can I find some example for FRDM-KEA128 to manage some basic CAN communication?

    I did in the past some work on CANOpen, and I'd like to port it here, partially.

EDIT: actually I found this SDK:

http://www.nxp.com/products/software-and-tools/hardware-development-tools/freedom-development-boards...

EDIT2: I found a well cooked drivers for the FRDM-KEA128 from the Quick Start package zip here:

http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/arm-processors/kinetis-cortex-m-mcus/ea-...

but unfortunately it contains only examples for LIN field drivers, not for CAN.

I start guessing, since the micro is the same, I could find them within the examples deployed with the TRK-KEA128.

I know these should be for code warrior, but I could gather just the .c and .h from them, eventually.

3) I got the point for the J-link firmware and thanks for the OpenSDA bin file.

thanks, have a nice day as well

Ricky

[kerryzhou · Accepted solution]

Hi Ricky,

   Now the KEA128 CAN code mainly based on the CW.

  If you want to use the KDS, please refer to this post:

https://community.nxp.com/message/583263?commentID=583263#comment-583263 

I have shared one KDS KEA CAN project.

Wish it helps you!

Have a great day,
Kerry

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[riccardoventrel]

Hi Kerry,

this is fantastic, thanks for sharing!!!Since the micro is the same, I guess this should out of the box

on FRDM-KEAZ128 as well, isn't it? I will eventually buy the TRK-KEA128, as decided initially, eventually.

In the past I did a similar for LPC2XXX family and the ow level CAN driver looked really the same as yours.

To simplify and abstract a bit its client side use, I've put a circular queue ontop of it

(or even a simpler FIFO is engough), in order to help the user to avoid bothering with

the underneath level.

More than this, I also implemented a raw CANOpen stack, we some SDO and PDO basic management.

I'm going to port it here, under KDS, and share with you putting on GITHUB.

Thanks and regards

Ricky