MPC5744P Custom Design HW Programming with MBD Toolbox

[JQiggle]

Hi there,

I want to use the MPC5744P MCU on a custom-designed board and program it with the Model-Based Design Toolbox (MATLAB). I want the chip programming to be as easy as with the devkit - I just want to build the code and deploy it directly to the hardware. I need to find a suitable hardware programmer.

My question is - what for options do I have? I discovered the devkit uses the whole OpenSDA module governed by a dedicated MCU. This is perhaps too complicated for me. Is there any easier way? I look for an uncomplicated hardware device which is well-supported by the MBD MATLAB Toolbox and enables easy handling.

Thank you very much for any advice.

Regards

JQiggle

[mariuslucianand]

Hello @JQiggle,

If you only want to program your custom design board directly from Simulink using MBDT, you can use any USB2Serial converter. MBDT uses RAppID Bootloader to automatically deploy the code on the target from Simulink via UART. All you have to do is to route the USB2Serial to the PB2, PB3 (UART PINS). Also, you have to be able to restart the board just before running the RAppIdD Bootloader. On the EVB, the OpenSDA is used only as USB2Serial for this process.

However, you still need to have a JTAG header for flashing the rbf bootloader on the MPC5744P or for debugging the generated code. For these actions, you can use the devices recommended by @petervlna 

I've only wanted to recommend this alternative because just for flashing the board from Simulink (not debugging) USB2Serial is the less complex one, and you don't need to reproduce all the OpenSDA's schematic on your custom design.

Hope this helps,

Marius

[petervlna]

Hello,

This always depends on the project. If you want to do some serious development I can recommend you Lauterbach debugger. But they are expensive.

There are also some cheaper version of good debuggers like PLS, GHS probe, iSystem.

And then there is PEMicro which is widely used by smaller customers or students.

OpenSDA can also be used, which is the low cost solution.

Best regards,

Peter

[JQiggle]

Dear Peter/Dear Team,

thank you for such a quick response. I would have two additional questions.

1) I recon all the mentioned devices enable debugging. Only for the sake of my curiosity - when you do not need debugging, which option works best with the MBD Toolbox for mere downloading of the code to the MCU? Is it JTAG or anything like that?

2) From the devices you listed, I opt for the OpenSDA. My project is a part of a student project so I appreciate the low cost My question is - if we added the OpenSDA HW to our custom board, what is the best way to program the K20 MCU in the OpenSDA system? Is there any option that doesn't require additional HW - for example programming the K20 MCU over its own USB? (the one that will be later used for programming the main MCU with the MBD Toolbox) Are there any dedicated application notes or documentation about using the OpenSDA interface, found on the MPC5744 dev. board, on custom designs? (for example design guides or similar)

Thank you very much.

All the best
JQiggle

P. S.: Pěkné pozdravy z Čech ;D