Using LPC Link2 on any modern OS?

[chakie]

So I have an LPC-Link2 that used to work fine in a Windows 7 virtual machine on my Mac. I didn't need it for a couple years as I flashed our LPC1768 devices via our own software. Now I have a few new boards where I need to use LPC-Link2 to get the initial software loaded.

However, it doesn't seem possible to get any modern OS to use the LPCLink2. My Mac (Apple Silicon, Ventura) sees the device in the USB device tree, but there's no software that can perform the actual flashing.

On Windows Flash Magic used to work perfectly on Windows 7 but that version no longer works. So I'm trying a Windows 11 in a Parallels VM which also seems to see the device, but there's no driver available for it. The product page for LPC Link2 has a driver from 2014 as the only option and obviously that doesn't work. So Flash Magic can't use the LPC Link2.

I could try Linux too, but there's absolutely no mention of that working anywhere on this site, so I'm not wasting my time there yet.

So, is the LPC Link2 non functional on modern OS:es? What can I use instead, preferably something that works on Mac or Linux.

[chakie · Accepted solution]

Used to work perfectly fine on a Windows 7 VM and the device is visible to Windows 11 when checked in the "device manager" or whatever it's called. It's just listed as "NXP" but has no installed driver and no driver can be found elsewhere. The ancient driver from the middle ages obviously doesn't work (I tried it before noticing how old it was).

But there's a solution to this small dilemma! I tested the Mac version of MCUExpresso to see if it could be used for just flashing an image that's compiled elsewhere and it detects the LPC-Link2 connected to my Mac. The flashing tool also allowed me to select a custom image and successfully flash it. It even gave the command line that can be used to script the flashing so I don't even have to run MCUExpresso at all, I just need to have it available. Now I can plug in the flashing step to our current workflow. As a bonus it's *much* faster this way that using Flash Magic and I don't have to touch Windows at all. Win-win!

[ErichStyger]

I believe your issue is your usage of virtual machines. I have the LPC-Link2 working fine under Windows 10 (64bit) and Linux too (see MCUXpresso IDE installation guide for Linux).

Using a VM can interfere with USB devices, so you would have to check your VM settings there.

[scottm]

The LPC Link2 works fine on Windows 10 for me. It shows up as "MCU-Link CMSIS-DAP Port", provider NXP, date 11/11/2021, version 2.1.0.0 by NXP Semiconductors N.V.