Bean Licensing

[PatrickW]

I use the CodeWarrior free edition (6.1) for programming a MC9S08QD4.  I've been trying to write to Flash from RAM, and was getting nowhere with coding this myself using the free Freescale drivers, so I forked over $125 for the Processor Expert "IntFlash" bean.  But now that I've paid for it, I can't figure out how to get the license installed.

First I thought I actually had to download the bean code, which there was no link for.  Turns out CW already has the bean installed, it just isn't licensed in the free version of CW.  There are handy instructions for installing the license in the "My CodeWarrior" section of the Freescale website, now that I've paid for the license.  The process involves downloading a "license.dat" file and pasting it into the root CW directory.  But the trouble is, that root directory already contains an identically-named file (license.dat), which is  the license for CodeWarrior itself!  So when I put this new license file there in its place, CodeWarrior won't even start - it gives a license-not-found message.  I tried pasting the contents of the PE Bean license into the existing license.dat file - no luck there either: CW starts fine, but the bean remains unlicensed.

Exploring more, I found that in CW's Help menu there is a "License authorization..." option, which lets one manually input the License Authorization Code that is referenced to either an Ethernet MAC address or a Hard-drive serial number.  I have tried this too (set up the license registration using both disk and MAC methods on the FS website) but it doesn't work, presumably because the license.dat file is missing, and I doubt this applet is polling an internet license database - it probably just reads from the local license.dat file.

What am I doing wrong here?  Probably something silly... 

An aside: 

This was supposed to be a quick way to get moving - instead just a $$ drain.  I bought $4000 worth of chips last week, and will do so again next... why can't FS just provide a fully licensed IDE as a marketing tool?  I am an entrepreneur and do not have a budget for thousands of dollars worth of IDEs/PE Beans with questionable usefulness.   Freescale:  I feel bad for ya, you are driving countless customers towards alternatives with free IDEs and cheapo Asian MCU manufacturers with lesser support.  How much revenue can you possibly be generating with these silly fees for PE beans and such?  Why don't you just charge half a cent more for your chips (say in the West only), and give away the full programming environment including all of the 3rd-party dev tools you can find?

Message Edited by PatrickW on 2009-05-28 09:19 AM

Message Edited by PatrickW on 2009-05-28 09:28 AM

[J2MEJediMaster · Accepted solution]

I apologize for the problems you are having with the CodeWarrior licensing. The licensing should not get in the way of your work, but it happens. One of my duties is to help sort out the occasional licensing problem.

To answer one of your questions, you can download a fully-featured Evaluation version of CodeWarrior that lasts for thirty days. I do not recall if it features any beans, though.

Now, on to your problem. I would suggest that you submit a service request for this. Click here to do that. On the Service request page, for the Category pick Technical Request and for the Topic pick Licensing Issues. Be sure to provide version information on CodeWarrior and the bean you purchased. Also explain that you tried the License authorization link and it did not help. That will save some time. HTH.

---Tom

[PatrickW]

Freescale support solved this within 24 hours - as expected, it was just me being silly.

Now, if you would just give me all of the beans for free, I could build better products more quickly and buy more of your chips.  I noticed you have plenty of U.S.-based support people (nice to hear a Boston accent on the phone) so you obviously aren't averse to spending money on support.  How much would it cost to buy out PE's licencing rights to the beans, if only for sub-32k apps?  I'm thinking less than one of your support people costs for the length of a product cycle.  

Patrick