DEM09S12NE64 Serial Monitor

[Frousouna]

Have connected the serial MCU port to COM2 on the PC using HyperTerminal to communicate.    When I enter any key the MCU responds with  two non-ascii charaters, which  seem to be an 0xE1 and 0x00, followed by the promt '>'.  I would expect the command does not get processed by the MCU until the 'Enter' is pressed, but the returned 0xE1 error code indicates 'Command Not Recongnized', and it never waits for an enter.  I have downloaded the info describing the Serial Monitor program 'HCS12SerialMon2r1.zip' which seems to be very descriptive, but no clue as to what this problem is.

Frousouna

Message Edited by Frousouna on 05-06-200606:50 PM

[Frousouna]

Thanks to all,

    As I indicated, I have been using the MC68HC912 and had been doing all coding with  the assembler.  I would link in a home brew debugger to be able to see locs and registers.  Decided to look at this new device, but am still overwhelmed by the many tools.  I would like to use C, but am always sensitive to memory resources.

George

[englere]

CodeWarrior or other commercial tools are definitely better for corporate use where time is money. The learning curve for those tools can be steep at first, but the benefits are worth the effort if you need to get work done quickly, and you need to support a wide range of devices.

My open source tools are best for hobbiests and students. I can't offer any kind of professional support, and my tools have fewer features and support fewer devices.

Having said this, however, my Pluto debugger is going to offer a lot for the target audience. I'm planning to support other debug interfaces later (d-bug12 and BDM), and I'll definitely support the C language eventually (I also have an IDE for gcc, but it currently has no debugger). But I don't want to promise too much at first ...

Eric

[imajeff]

Eric, I looked at your EmbeddedGNU page and saw that it mentioned the serial debugger which I assume is Pluto, but did not give any link or information about it. I later found the info on your AsmIDE page.

I also wondered why you say on the EmbeddedGNU page that GCC does not support C++ when people are indeed programming in C++ with it. There are just a few limitations which are only important for larger systems.

[englere]

Read it again. It doesn't say anything about what gcc supports. "EmbeddedGNU supports the C language (not C++)".

[mjbcswitzerland]

Hi Frousouna

If you have the DEMO9S12NE64 then you can use the CodeWarrior with the serial debugger (you can also configure it to show the messages which you have been reading about in the serial monitor description).

If you want to communicate using a terminal emulator then HyperTerminal is not the best choice. Search for a good free ware program called TeraTerm - then you can predefine the command you need. You will need to be able to send 8 bit commands otherwise nothing will be understood - simply typing an enter is invalid and this will probably result in error messages being received - don't forget that the debugger interface is very cryptic and not intended to communicate with a human operator.

It is not very difficult to write a program to communicate, download and debug using the serial monitor but it will take a week or two of work so it is questionable as to whether it is worth doing it, apart from learning about it.

The uTasker (operating system and TCP/IP stack) includes also a free serial downloader which can selectively upload parts of the FLASH (which the CodeWarrior can't). If you are doing educational or hobby work the uTasker is free, including free email support. It also includes a very powerful NE64 simulator - check out the tutorial at http://www.mjbc.ch/documents/uTasker/uTaskerV1.2-Tutorial.PDF to get an idea of what it can do.

Regards

Mark Butcher
www.mjbc.ch

[Frousouna]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the info.  I've gotten used to the M68HC912B32 and assuming that I could talk to much the same way to the debugger in the HC912.  I do have CodeWarrior, but I can't seem to locate the serial debugger.  I am having quite a time figureing what pieces I need and which I don't.  I'm still somewhat confused by all the development tools.

Thanks,

George

[englere]

Are you using assembly language or C? My new open source debugger for the AN2548 serial monitor, called Pluto, will be done soon, but it's only for assembly language at first. You can watch my site for the public release or send me a private email if you want to be a beta tester (my email link is on my site). I also have a screen image of Pluto on my site now.

Eric
http://www.ericengler.com/AsmIDE.aspx

[mjbcswitzerland]

Hi George

Yes, CodeWarrior is a bit overcomplicated sometimes. You will need to set up the project to use the serial debugger (the setting is under the debug tab) then going to debug mode will automatically establish a link with the target over the serial port, delete the flash and download the code (which must also be set up to go to the right place).

If you want to save some time, check out the educational licensing agreement for the uTasker at

http://www.mjbc.ch/documents/uTasker/License.txt

If you are doing non-commercial work it is free, simply fill out the form and sent it back. It comes with a CodeWarrior project set up and ready to work for the NE64, an operating system, TCP/IP stack and simulator. You will have a web and ftp server operating within a few minutes (takes up about 24k space on the NE64).

If you are doing educational stuff and are worried that a complete solution will be too abstract for learning, don't worry because it was developed for such use, comes with tutorials and allows code and protocol analysis in on or off line simulator mode. Don't be shy, the uTasker community is growing rapidly and it greatly increases the SW development fun-factor - development times are also cut dramatically compared to conventional methods....

Regards

Mark Butcher
www.mjbc.ch

[imajeff]

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mjbcswitzerland wrote:

If you are doing educational stuff and are worried that a complete solution will be too abstract for learning, don't worry because it was developed for such use, comes with tutorials and allows code and protocol analysis in on or off line simulator mode.

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Me thinks they missed the point of what students need to study. Sure some disagree, but I think making things hugely complex in order to try to 'do it for me' is not what I call educational value.