Hi David,
I appreciate your comments. First a little background... I really like the ARM architecture and was introduced to it via the TI Stellaris line a few years ago. I started using it only to have TI yank the rug out by discontinuing it in favor of a "new and improved" replacement. Naturally those projects went dormant. (One is still slightly alive, but since TI wants a licensing fee for their IDE, it's doubtful that it will come back to what it could have been. I have trouble trying to justify a $500 fee to support three boards in the field!)
When I heard about the FRDM-K22F seminar, I jumped on it. For the volume that I do as an independent consultant (http://PitchforkSolutions.com), I can afford the cost of the KSD IDE! I also liked the integration of the PE and the KSDK. TI's level was OK for me, but what Freescale was offering was much better and I was anxious to discover more. So, I was a little frustrated at the beginning with everything leading up to: "Wait for the release in Q4." I almost dropped it then as the product was not as mature as was presented at the seminar. (Your sales pitch can only do so much in 6 hours.)
When the release came out in mid-Decmeber, I downloaded it and went through all of the non-RTOS examples that I could on my FRDM-K22F. Now I was ready to try the PE and KSDK. I explored some of the examples in the KSDK (UART and USB host), but it seemed to me that PE had not been used. This was disappointing to me as the PE would allow me to rapidly migrate (evolve) my designs from one project to another. That's what lead me to the current effort - try to get the whole shebang to work together with true integration.
For many of my projects, the file system is important, so my original intent was to use the full MQX. Since I could not find clear documentation that covered the full combination is KDS, PE and KSDK, I had to stumble. I found stale documentation that took me down blind alleys and that's how I ended up with the mess that I uploaded. Now, I know a little more. I can respond to your first recommendation in that my intent is to stay with MQX_Standard. The fact that the debug port is always 115200 baud is no big deal right now as it's only for me. (Note I tried other baud rates like 2400 and it always runs at 115200. So that may be a bug buried somewhere in PE.)
I looked at the filesystem examples you suggested and the only one for the FRDM-K22F is the RAMdisk example. When I pulled that up, I noted that the PE was not used for that. I think you can see where I'm headed here. As a designer, involved with both hardware and software, my niche in life is being able to respond quickly to a customer's request for a fast and solid solution. I need to be able to pick a board, specify it's configuration and add software functionality as though they were hardware components. Need a filesystem for logging? Click, OK, got that. Need an RTC (real time clock) for time stamping the data? Click, OK, got that. Need I2C to a peripheral? Click, OK, got that. Etc.
In the past, the only designs I've built with a filesystem have been with the stack offered by Microchip. It filled the requirement most of the time, but was too slow for others. I am continuing to work with the FRDM-K22F as that last project was based on an I2S audio interface and I saw that it's on the FRDM-K22F board. I've populated the board with the required components and will continue working on it. Whether or not I stay with the Kinetis line will depend on the level of frustration I encounter along the way. I personally believe that Freescale is taking the right path and I sincerely hope they succeed in the biggest way. No, it's not an Arduino. If that's what I wanted, I wouldn't be here to begin with. At the same time it's not bare bones (name any processor here), because I've been there since the beginning with the 8080. (Been there, done that, and the T-Shirt's worn out!)
Please share with anybody interested in what's happening out in the "user world". I would welcome the opportunity to become more than just an end user who complains when something doesn't work.
Thanks for your help and for listening.
Dave
