IMXRT1050-EVKB Debugging Speed

[stefanDZG]

Hello all,
I hope you are doing well!

We are using an MIMXRT1051 for some of our products currently. But for simplicity we can use the IMXRT1050-EVKB development board for this topic. Debugging works via SWD via J-Link with a seemingly outdated QSPI driver, via VisualGDB and finally via Visual Studio in C++.

All of this somewhat works, but the debugging is terribly slow and even sometimes just dies (especially compared to our STM development). It's 25 seconds to several minutes from starting debug until hitting the first breakpoint in main.

This is why I wanted to ask here if someone has better ways of debugging these controllers out of MCUXpresso?
VisualGDB would support

• OpenOCD
• pyOCD
• (somewhat) MCUXpresso RedLink
• Custom GDB Stub

I hope you can make my colleague's and my life easier
Thanks! Best,
Stefan

[stefanDZG]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I'm afraid the issue is the debugging our program on the hardware part in software engineering - and not flashing for production. Or am I missing something here?
I was more thinking towards something like using a different debugger, like DAPLink. Though, according to what I found so far it'd be even slower in this scenario. What's the debugger NXP would recommend here? Or would J-Link already be as fast as it gets?

Besides, J-Flash only works on J-Link+ - and not on the regular J-Link probes. Our hardware (department) is using QSPI instead of hyperflash because of pricing iirc. We already have several prototypes using this setup by now, too.

There also is an official QSPI driver from Segger, but it stopped shipping above V6.32: https://wiki.segger.com/i.MXRT1050

Best,
Stefan

[kerryzhou]

Hi @stefanDZG ，

  As different debugger using the different program algro file, until now, I think JLINK is faster.

   About your mentioned JLINK plus, as I know, normally  regular JLINK upto v11 also can support RT.

  You are right, the new jlink driver just contains the hyperflash, but old QSPI firmware still can be used.

   So, if you don't want to use the  IDE, two method:

  1. use JLINK related software to download directly.

  2. enter serial downlod mode, then use the MCUbootUtility, Secure provisional tool, or MFG tool to download.

https://github.com/JayHeng/NXP-MCUBootUtility/archive/refs/tags/v3.4.0.zip
the related user manual is:
https://github.com/JayHeng/NXP-MCUBootUtility

Wish it helps you!

Best Regards,

Kerry

[stefanDZG]

Hello again kerry,

Thank you for your reply. It's good to know the hardware decision wasn't off at least

We have one J-Link+ and with this one, it's possible to directly flash via J-Flash. With the 'regular' ones it's sadly not working. I'll also attach some debugging commands with timing.

As this is about Debugging/GDB-Sessions and both behave identically there, this is not a big issue, however.
I'll look into this software for flashing purposes, nonetheless. Thanks!

Is https://github.com/JayHeng/ (kinda) officially developing code for NXP? I also found a QSPI driver from them but was unsure if I should give it to my colleagues: https://github.com/JayHeng/RT-UFL

Best,
Stefan

[kerryzhou]

Hi @stefanDZG 

   Thanks for your updated information, and sorry for my later reply becuase of Chinese New Year!

    To the RT1050, the Segger new driver, just add the hyperflash.elf in 

C:\Program Files\SEGGER\JLink\Devices\NXP\iMXRT105x

That's why you can't make it work with your QSPI flash, but don't worry, just as you said, you can use the RT-UFL, it can support the RT1050 QSPI.

Do you know, how to use it?

If you are not know it, you can refer to my post:

https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-RT-Knowledge-Base/RT600-MCUXpresso-JLINK-debug-QSPI-flash/ta-p/134...

chapter 2.

Then the JLINK device select MIMXRT1050_UFL_L0, it is the QSPI flash firmware.

Wish it helps you!

If you still have questions about it, please kindly let me know.

Best Regards,

Kerry

https://github.com/JayHeng/RT-UFL

[kerryzhou]

Hi @stefanDZG ,

  If you are using the Segger JLINK, you totally can use the JLINK command or the JFLASH tool to download it directly, you just need to provide the app firmware. This method you don't need the IDE or other tools, Segger tools and debugger can support it directly.

  

The used firmware, to MIMXRT1050-EVKB, the default is hyperflash, you can find it from the Segger driver install path:

C:\Program Files\SEGGER\JLink\Devices\NXP\iMXRT105x

Wish it helps you!

Best Regards,

Kerry