FreeMASTER 3.2.1 Update - Release Announcement

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FreeMASTER 3.2.1 Update - Release Announcement

FreeMASTER 3.2.1 Update - Release Announcement

Version 3.2.1 of the NXP FreeMASTER tool has just been published online. 

This version is backward compatible and fully replaces older 3.2.x releases (see previous announcements). It brings new features and bugfixes described below. The updated installer is available along with documentation and other resources at http://www.nxp.com/freemaster.  

 

Release description


FreeMASTER is a powerful data visualization tool developed and provided by NXP to help users monitor and control embedded applications running on NXP’s targets. It works with almost all NXP Arm ® Cortex®-M microcontrollers from both Edge Processing and Automotive business lines as well as with DSC and legacy Power Architecture, ColdFire and HCS12/Z platforms. Note that the license terms and conditions does not allow using FreeMASTER with non-authorized systems from other vendors.

Version 3.2.1 is a minor update of the 3.2.x mainline release line. It overwrites previous 3.2 version installed on the host computer. Older 2.x, 3.0 and 3.1 versions are not removed. 

This version backward compatible with all previous versions. It supports variable monitoring, oscilloscope real time graphs, fast transient recorder graphs and connectivity to 3rd party applications. There are CEF and Microsoft Edge WebView2 as two Chromium-based HTML rendering engines with full support of JSON-RPC, HTML5 and JavaScript to create custom dashboards and other user interfaces that run inside FreeMASTER. Older Internet Explorer rendering engine with ActiveX interface and protocol defined for versions 2.x is also still supported.

FreeMASTER Lite service which is part of the FreeMASTER installation package provides the communication core for Windows and Linux systems. It is accessible similarly as the FreeMASTER desktop application over the JSON-RPC interface. FreeMASTER Lite also embeds the popular Node-RED framework for graphical programming and provides many examples of use with the FreeMASTER tool. Find more information related to Node-RED in the dedicated training video

FreeMASTER Node.js Installable Modules enable convenient use of the FreeMASTER JSON-RPC components in a Node.js applications managed by the ‘npm’ package manager.

Version 3.2.1 brings an updated FreeMASTER Lite and Node.JS modules internally referred as version 1.2. Installing FreeMASTER Lite will require you to enter an activation code newly generated for this version. Get your free code on the License Keys tab at the license information page.

New Features


Version 3.2.1 introduces the following new features extending data visualization and communication options:

Multiple "Variable Watch" views


Multiple Variable Watch views may now be displayed statically in the main view as floating or  dockable panes. Simply click any block item in the project tree hierarchy and select "New Watch Window" menu. New Watch window will open and will statically display values of variables assigned to the selected block. Note that a behavior of the standard Watch view has not changed, it still updates its content depending on a currently selected item in the project tree.

TCP-to-Serial communication plug-in


New TCP-to-Serial communication plug-in has been added. This plug-in implements the native RS232 protocol (version 4) over a raw TCP connection. It might be useful when bridging the serial communication over a network. Note that this is a different type of communication than used by the native TCP/UDP/RTT plug-in which uses a network protocol to connect to the target board directly.

ActiveX/JSON-RPC interface extended


New API methods were added to enable creation of the following objects in the FreeMASTER project:

  • Text Enumeration types (enum types) - DefineEnum/GetEnumDefinition methods.
  • Variable Stimulators - DefineStimulator/GetStimulatorDefinition methods.
  • Recorder control methods like GetCurrentRecorderData were extended to be able to work also with Array Viewer data.

Bugfixes and other extensions:


FreeMASTER

  • Fixed ELF file change detection and automatic reload.
  • Fixed ELF array element address calculation logic for arrays nested in C++ namespaces.
    Fixed ArrayViewer data download for sizes over 64kB.
  • Fixed error message for TCP/UDP/RTT connection in case of connection timeout.
  • Fixed JScript JSON-RPC notification (events) exception handling and error reporting in reemaster-client.js.
  • Fixed UTF-8 handling of JSON-RPC communication, e.g. when reading UTF-8 files using LocalFileReadString.
  • Fixed expression evaluator crash when ELF symbol name length exceeds 256 characters.
  • Fixed loss of communication over CMSIS-DAP virtual serial line (automatic port reconfiguration in case a CMSIS-DAP device is reset).
  • Fixed serialization and restoration of window/view layout from a .pmpx file.
  • Fixed performance issues
    • Large number of ELF symbols was causing slowdown of Generate Variables dialog.
    • Removal of temporary files of MS Edge component is now deferred to application exit to speed up project New/Open operation.
    • ELF C++ data type parsing logic optimized by using internal lookup caches.

FreeMASTER Lite

  • Serial port identification using a keyword from a device description (Windows only).
  • Serial connection via “COM_ALL” keyword to try all serial ports available (Windows & Linux)
  • Internal NodeJS version upgraded to 16.16.0
  • Internal Node-RED version upgraded to 3.0.2
  • Node-RED updates (node-red-contrib-freemaster)
    • Input data now appended to the output payload on all FreeMASTER nodes
    • Fixed: Read array node address does not update after GUI change
    • Fixed: Read array node does not push payload to all outputs

 

Release target audience


Both FreeMASTER and FreeMASTER Lite are primarily targeted to our customers, engineers and developers of NXP embedded applications from Industrial, IoT and Automotive areas who want to monitor and control their applications at runtime. FreeMASTER is also a strong framework which can be used to create interactive demos and user interfaces helping to use the embedded applications by yet wider target audience.

Prerequisites


FreeMASTER tools run on the host computer and communicates with the target microcontroller application using Serial, CAN, Ethernet/WiFi network, JTAG, BDM or other physical interface. The microcontroller communication drivers are available as part of MCUXpresso SDK, S32 Design Studio or as a standalone installation package. Get familiar with the communication protocol and the microcontroller driver API before using the FreeMASTER tool.

License terms and conditions permit use of FreeMASTER solely with systems based on NXP microprocessor or microcontroller systems.

Packages


A single self-extracting installation package which contains both FreeMASTER desktop application and the new FreeMASTER Lite service is available for Windows platforms. A package with the FreeMASTER Lite service is also available for Linux.

Access the installation and documentation at the FreeMASTER home page at https://www.nxp.com/freemaster.

 

Attachments
Comments

A bug was reported in the latest release of FreeMASTER Lite causing the communication to timeout on some platforms.

Please find attached `lib.zip` archive containing the fixed communication library.

The content of the archive should be extracted into the FreeMASTER Lite 1.2 installation directory and replace existing library.

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Version history
Last update:
‎12-15-2022 09:17 AM
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