Debugger recommendation wanted

As long as you qualify for the EDU model it's a fine value. A frequently used (and inexpensive) home/hobby debugger is the Olimex ARM-USB-OCD or ARM-USB-OCD-H, both of which are widely supported.

Another option is a TI/Luminary development board. It has an USB-JTAG interface, which can be used also as the JTAG dongle for an external system, ARM standard 20 pin ribbon cable connector.

The thing works fine with OpenOCD and the GNU toolset (e.g. Yagarto). I'm using a LM3S6965 dev board, but others should work as well.

A plus with the dev board is that you can test the Cortex-M3 toolset and much of the code with a known-good board before starting with a fresh design.

AFAIK the ST Cortex boards also fit that model, but with JLINK.

I don't know if the JLINK EDU is different from regular old JLINK, but the latter certainly works well for me.

JLINK and the Olimex debuggers both work well with OpenOCD and Eclipse. They're what I've been using for years.

I use the Tin Can Tools Flyswatter board. No fancy case or anything. $50 and provides a second serial port. Works great with OpenOCD. I use eclipse, openocd, the flyswatter and a built from source gcc tool chain.

You can also get one of the LPCXpresso boards. Mouser has the LPC1769 for $30. You can use the LPC-LINK adapter for other boards. I think this still works with the Code Red tool chain.

They are OK, but beware of Atmel boards, the J-Link is bastardized, it uses USB VID/PID outside of the standard J-Link range, and it also uses different connection points to the standard ones, so it does not work with OpenOCD.

All the low cost (~$10) STM32 discovery boards come with a built-in SWD adapter, so you can use it to debug your own projects. Works very well with openocd.

That was part of the "model" that I was referring to.

I tend to use ST processors almost exclusively these days (they happen to do what I want, they haven't let me down, and I'm familiar with ST's peripherals). I generally get one of those eval boards any time I'm setting out to use a new-to-me processor.

ST seems to really understand users needs in terms of what to bundle inside their ARM chips as well as understanding what package types users prefer. They don't gouge on evaluation boards, they are either free or very low cost. And their Cortex ARM products are very aggressively priced and they have a good distribution network. They show up at major embedded shows like the Embedded Systems Conference and ARM TechCon with a big presence while some companies like NXP aren't there at all.

They're still kind of strange in some ways. Their field support is quite wonderful with the technical seminars and development board handouts. Head office is a bit different. Once upon a time their corporate website was Flash only, couldn't be Googled, etc. Most of that has been shaken out, but when I tried to get their touch-sensing library, there it was -- Flash again. I'll try without the library and see how good their documentation is. It's a shame to hide information like that, though.

Mel.

JLINK EDU has the same functionality as JLINK BASIC but with restrictions on usage.

For what it's worth I did use the ST touch sensing library on a project and I wouldn't do so again - it may take you a bit longer to get started bashing the silicon directly but you won't hit the documentation and software structure brick walls in their code !

Michael Kellett

are you sure ST uses J-Link? They call it ST-Link and the driver software doesn't look like Segger's. But I didn't yet check whether it is J-Link compatible.

I think Segger is currently the best "low cost" hardware choice since they have the best support of new derivatives and are widely supported by debugging software, even iSYSTEM winIDEA (my choice) supports J-Link although they also sell own hardware.

Oliver

I'm glad to hear that -- I've taken brief forays into their libraries and have been dismayed at what I found there. But I wasn't sure if it was just a bad case of "not invented here". Now at least I can feel like I have company.

I'm not a hard-core embedded guy, but I've used both the ST and NXP offerings, and the ST libraries and sample code are _horrible_. I dumped the ST boards and went back to the LPCxpresso with a sigh of relief. The Code Red tools (now NXP proprietary, unfortunately) are also pretty good.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

looked at this?

-Lasse

AAAAAGH! Massive brain fart. Yes, it's ST-Link.

According to "The Definitive Guide to the ARM Cortex-M0" by Joseph Yiu, from Newnes:

"Supports JTAG connection and serial wire debug connections. The serial wire debug protocol can handle the same debug features as the JTAG, but it only requires two wires and is already supported by a number of debug solutions from various tools vendors."

I wonder how much the J-Link and ST-Link debuggers are just ARM 2-wire debuggers, rather than anything company-specific.

ST-Link. Not JLink. Sorry, I suffered a massive brain fart. I'm smart when I'm allowed to move slowly and deliberately -- really -- but I often screw up on the snap decisions and have to go make up for mistakes later.

No problem, works with OpenOCD.