Off the shelf 9S12NE64

[Frousouna]

Wow,

How to get the bootloader into a 9S12NE64 initially?  There must always be a BDM connector on the target PC board?  The mechanics of all this has got my head spinning.

I have the 9S12NE64 demo board with the monitor program, can I load a BDM program into this, and if so where does one locate, does Freescale provide this?  I assume once the BDM is up and running I could then load the application, or the montor which I could then use in the same manner as the demo with  CodeWarrior......

Thanks,

George

[mjbcswitzerland]

Hi George

The pre-programmed serial monitor is adequate for probably all development and debugging work, so a BDM is not absolutely necessary when working with the DEMO9S12NE64.

If you later want to make your own board you will find that the new chips have no pre-loaded code and so it will be necessary to load either the serial monitor or your application which can boot from FLASH. This will need a BDM to do it....

Take a look at the uTasker because it is not just an operating system with TCP/IP stack and simulator but also a ready-to-run project with a supporting community. There is also a project which will allow you to turn a standard DEMO9S12NE64 into a BDM to allow programming of other devices (it requires only 2 wires to connect to it).

Check out an on-line BDM based on the DEM09S12NE64 at the following loaction - you can halt and step another DEMO9S12NE64, look at its memory etc.
http://212.254.22.36:8083/0

See the following forum post for some more info:
http://forums.freescale.com/freescale/board/message?board.id=16BITCOMM&message.id=897

.. or the Coldfire forum posting (it supports also the M5223x - the NE64's big brother..)
http://forums.freescale.com/freescale/board/message?board.id=CFCOMM&message.id=274

There is ready to run code for the NE64 at the following address:
http://www.mjbc.ch/software/uTasker/NE64/ETHERNET.s19
http://www.mjbc.ch/software/uTasker/NE64/WebPagesNE64.zip
The second are web pages which can be loaded via ftp (IP address defaults to 192.168.0.2).

We have a growing user community and the simulator allows complete projects to be developed and tested before moving onto the hardware. It is completely free for non-commercial uses and includes free personal email support.

If you would like more details simply contact me. You will see from the tutorial (in one of the forum links) that you can have a working web server with FTP, TELNET, SMTP etc. within 20 Minutes since all code and all tools and descriptions are provided. Check out the on-line demo (also in a link somewhere) to see the uTasker demo project operating - control ports and get it to send you a welcome email. It not only gets you started quickly but is also a perfect way to learn the NE64 and IP protocols.

Enough said. If you want to save time and have some real fun with the NE64 it's all there...

Regards

Mark Butcher
www.mjbc.ch

[Frousouna]

Hi Mark,

I have some old habits learned from the Motorola M68EVB912B32 evalution board.  Along with a debugger (run mode) it also provided a monitor/load and BDM switch, which supported commands issued through a terminal program from the PC, and with a BDM cable connected from the eval board to a un-programmed device,  to communicated and download code.   The question is:  Does freescale provide a comporable solftware tool to be used with the DEMO9S12NE64 demo, or do I need to purchase a BDM module?

I will look at the links you suggested,  and will assume what I'm looking for is there.  This has been quite a different beast than I was expecting. 

Thanks to all,

George

[mjbcswitzerland]

George

Many EVBs include a dBug program which allows memory debugging and loading small programs. This is not the case with the NE64 - the serial monitor is only abbout 2k in size and teh dBug program would probably use up most of its availabel momory. Since it only has 8k SRAM (with LAN you will need almost half for the the LAN buffers..) it would alos be fairly useless to load code to run from the remaining RAM. Therefore the way to go is load always to FLASH and debug either with a DBM or with the serial monitor.

The serial monitor provides all support necessary to read and write registers and memory, to single step etc. It has a cryptic protocol (saves code space) and the intelligence is in the debugger. Use the CodeWarrior set for monitor mode. I have also written a debugger which is included in the the uTasker package - it has one big advantage over the CodeWarrior for projects using FLASH for parameters and web pages etc. since it can load and delete just program sections - the CodeWarrior trashes the parameters and web pages each time a new program is loaded :smileysad:

The uTasker is also delivered with ready to run GNU project if you prefer free compilers (but the code is not very efficient, although it works great if it fits in...). Also an IAR Embedded Workbench project is provided (best code density I have found yet - see comparisons in the NE64 tutorial).

Is I mentioned before, for uTasker users moving from the M9S12NE64 to their own board there is a project which converts the DEMO9S12NE64 in to a BDM to allow programming of fresh devices. A list of other project supports are (file system in EEPROM via SPI, LCD (incl. simulator), Keypad driver, POP3, TIME SERVER, I2C RTC). We have an active community and welcome new members. So once you have checked out the details tell me if you think you could benefit - if nothing else it will save you a few weeks or even months of work getting up to speed with the NE64 and you can benefit from personal email support - free of charge with no catches. If your project turns commerical a royalty free project license costs $485 (see licensing terms) and will have paid for itself on the first day.

We also support other compiler ports and EVB ports free of charge... just ask!

Cheers

Mark
www.mjbc.ch

[peg]

Hi George,

You don't need to load anything into the MCU to get the BDM to work. It works "of the shelf". What you do need is a BDM adapter between the MCU's BDM connections and your computer. Something like P&E's USB Multilink.

Regards David