FRDM-KV31F boards shipped with MBED debug firmware

[#1]

OH NO!

It has come to my attention that a batch of FRDM-KV31F MCU boards, were shipped to people, programmed with MBED OpenSDA firmware.

The Kinetis Motor Suite GUI scripts load the reference project image into the KV31F MCU flash using the MSD programming built into the P&E Micro firmware. It specifically looks for the FRDM-KV31F MSD drive.  NXP moved away from the MBED firmware to eliminate the mass erase possibilities that could occur.

The FRDM-KV31F does not appear on these MBED boards. In fact, unless you have run the mbedWinSerial.exe installer found here, or get the latest driver here the mbed serial port will not enumerate. Plug in your FRDM-KV31F board and run the installer.  But let's not stop there. We want to make sure you don't mass erase your MCU and blow away the  KMS execute only library stored in the MCU's flash.

Let me give you a work around for now. Any MBED enabled FRDM board will still work with KMS, but you should use the Segger JLINK debug interface. It will not mass erase your KMS firmware like the MBED debug interface can.

WORKAROUND:

The workaround uses the Segger Jlink OPENSDA 2.1 firmware.

The MBED OPENSDA driver can be replaced with the SEGGER jlink version of the debug tool. https://www.segger.com/opensda.html. It does not have a drag and drop feature which is used by KMS, but that is not a bad thing.  The segger debug has a good serial interface and is supported by KDS and IAR. 

Steps for the workaround

1. Put the MBED debug into bootloader mode
2. Drag and drop the .bin of the Segger debug tool
3. Power cycle board.
4. Open KMS – create a new project
5. When the image does not match and KMS wants to communicate or download a new image, decline.  We will do this manually with the IDE.
6. If IAR – open the new project – compile the release versions of startup and platform.
7. Open options for the FRDM target application and change debugger from PEMICRO to JLINK
8. if KDS - do the same basic switch that we did with IAR – select the JLINK as the download and debug interface.
9. Compile and download to the MCU.
10. Run the program and exit from debug.
11. If you are using KDS you will have to now have to hit the reset button on the FRDM-KV31F board.
12. Go back to the KMS window and connect with the  icon  and then verify this icon shows you connected
13. Execute KMS normally.
14. If you use the Motion Sequence Build, note that hitting the TARGET will compile but the download script will fail. You will want to compile and download the project back in the IDE.

I hope this is a help.

I’ll be working on a way to get the PEMICRO OPENSDA binary onto the board for MSD drag and drop functionality.

Happy Motoring

Philip Drake

Systems Engineer

NXP

[vickusboshoff]

Hi Philip.

I was lucky enough to buy 5 of these boards.

In fact I previously bought the FRDM-KV31F + FRDM-MC-LVPMSM & motor kit and was very happy.

Consequently we built custom hardware and decided to use FRDM-KV31F as the CPU until we design our own CPU hardware.

We now have five prototypes assembled for customer evaluation but cannot get the FRDM-KV31F boards running.

I've tried many steps before stumbling across this post.

Applying the steps you outlined simply generate a FAIL.TXT -> "The interface firmware ABORTED programming. Image is trying to set security bits".

I am on a Win 10 PC, could this be the problem? Unfortunately we don't have any more post Win 8.1 PCs..

Is it possible to track serial numbers of the affected boards? I'll simply replace them if I wont get the same problem.

[philip_drake]

It is possible to use the boards you have if you follow the guidelines in the Workaround.  So I take it all 5 of the new boards show up with MBED mass storage device when you plug them into your computer.  If they don't then yes, your windows 10 driver is the culprit. 

The testing I did on my own windows 10 machine but that was months ago.  I just spoke with another of our apps engineers and he indicated that there was a version of the MBED debugger that did not play well with Windows 10.  See this community post.

Once you have the Segger jlink 2.1 on the freedom board then you can use the IDE to program and debug the reference design on the KV31 MCU.

[chuntiancaiv]

Hi，

How to apply this Demo board from Sales office or FAE？

Thanks！

[philip_drake]

The boards are available from most distributors.

https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=FRDM-KV31F or

http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/technologies/Product.aspx?ProductID=FRDMKV31F5CW8076137&gclid=Cj...

https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=FRDM-MC-LVPMSM or

http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Search.aspx?dsNav=Ntk:PartNumberSearch%7cFRDM%2f-MC%2f-LVPMSM%7c...

Happy Motoring.

Philip Drake