What are the best tools for Kinetis Microcontrollers?

[peterfurey]

Hi, Our team has decided to use a Kinetis Cortex-M4 low-power MCU for our project.

We chose the part number MK12DN512VLK5, with the recommended TWR-K21D50M tower system module using CodeWarrior 10.6. 

I spent a lot of time doing the tutorials for CodeWarrior, MQX, and the TWR-K21D50M system. In the process of trying to resolve the problem of not getting any OSJTAG virtual serial output (still unresolved), I discovered that no one on Tower Geeks appears to be using this tower system. It also makes me uneasy that CodeWarrior won't be supporting future Kinetis MCUs and therefor maybe I shouldn't be using this IDE for a new project. This is the first time I'm developing an embedded application from scratch and want to rethink my choices before I continue. What's the consensus on a good IDE for a Kinetis Cortex-M4 MCU? Also, what is a popular hardware development platform to use? Does it make more sense to pick the IDE first and then see which tower systems it supports, or vise versa?

Thank you for any input.

[mjbcswitzerland]

Peter

See the following:

http://www.utasker.com/kinetis/TWR-K20D50M.html

Choice of IDEs are often based on personal choice but they all should be usable (unless you need a special plug-in for tracing or a certain OS). They shouldn't however pin down your development in any way.

The linked project can be built using any of the following:

• Freescale's Kinetis Design Studio (KDS)
• Freescale's CodeWarrior 10.x
• Rowley Associate's Crossworks
• CooCox CoIDE
• IAR Embedded Workbench
• Keil µVision
• Green Hills
• Atollic TrueSTUDIO for ARM
• Standalone GCC from Makefile
• VisualStudio for Kinetis simulation

and can also be built for most Kinetis devices and Freescale boards without porting effort - list here: µTasker Kinetis support

This keeps your options open both during project development or for future designs since there is no risk when moving around.

Regards

Mark

P.S. If you load the binary at the link you can check the OSJTAG virtual COM connection at 115200 Baud. I have never had a problem with it on that board.

Kinetis: µTasker Kinetis support

K20: µTasker Kinetis TWR-K20D72M support / µTasker Kinetis FRDM-K20D50M support / µTasker Kinetis TWR-K20D50M support / µTasker Teensy3.1 support

For the complete "out-of-the-box" Kinetis experience and faster time to market

[peterfurey]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the response, it was helpful.

I currently have the TWR-K21D50M board not the TWR-K20D50M. However, I've read some of your other posts and was thinking of moving to the FRDM-K64 development platform and maybe using part number MK24FN1M0VLL12 instead along with the KDS IDE.

Seems like more people are using this and therefor might be more support down the road.

Thanks,

Peter

[mjbcswitzerland]

Hi Peter

Ooops - misread the board name, but the details are otherwiese identical: http://www.utasker.com/kinetis/TWR-K21D50M.html

Also with this board there were no OSJTAG issues.

The FRDM-K64F is certainly a board to have in one's arsenal, whatever the final chip that is used!

Regards

Mark

Kinetis: µTasker Kinetis support

K21: µTasker Kinetis TWR-K21D50M support / µTasker Kinetis TWR-K21F120M support

For the complete "out-of-the-box" Kinetis experience and faster time to market