Building Energy Micro EFM32 binaries from OS X

nemik — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:09:40 +0000

I’m currently evaluating the EFM32 Gecko MCU from Energy Micro for a project. I’m using the Developer’s Kit with the EFM32G290F128 MCU.

I mainly work in OS X and Linux and don’t much like having to boot up the Windows Virtual Machine to develop and debug firmwares. The tools mostly suck (I <3 the CLI) or are very expensive (often both). So I wanted a way to use open source tools like gcc, gdb and openocd.

First step was getting a binary to compile.

1. visit https://github.com/jsnyder/arm-eabi-toolchain and install as directed, make sure you run the make install-bin-extras after all the make-ing and make install-ing.

2. try a sample EFM32G firmware like the one included in the DVK_BSP_1.6.1.zip copy the ‘blink’ one to some directory of your choosing for this project.

3. Download the EFM CMSIS Library and copy it to the parent directory of the project directory you chose in step 2. Do the same with the ‘bsp’ and ‘efm32lib’ directories from the DVK_BSP.

4. Edit the Makefile from the ‘codesourcery’ part of the example. Mine looks like this:
#################################################################### # Makefile # ####################################################################


.SUFFIXES:				# ignore builtin rules

.PHONY: all debug release clean
####################################################################

# Definitions                                                      #

####################################################################
DEVICE = EFM32G290F128

PROJECTNAME = blinkG290
OBJ_DIR = build

EXE_DIR = exe

LST_DIR = lst
####################################################################

# Definitions of toolchain.                                        #

# You might need to do changes to match your system setup          #

####################################################################
# Change path to CodeSourcery tools according to your system configuration

WINDOWSCS = CodeSourcery/Sourcery G++ Lite

LINUXCS   = /Users/nemik/code/arm-cs-tools

GCCVERSION = $(shell $(CC) -dumpversion)
ifeq ($(ComSpec),)

  ifeq ($(COMSPEC),)

    # Assume we are making on a linux platform

    TOOLDIR = $(LINUXCS)

    RM = rm -rf

  else

    TOOLDIR = $(PROGRAMFILES)/$(WINDOWSCS)

    RM = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/cs-rm" -rf

  endif

else

  TOOLDIR = $(ProgramFiles)/$(WINDOWSCS)

  RM = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/cs-rm" -rf

endif
CC      = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc"

LD      = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/arm-none-eabi-ld"

AR      = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/arm-none-eabi-ar"

OBJCOPY = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/arm-none-eabi-objcopy"

DUMP    = "$(TOOLDIR)/bin/arm-none-eabi-objdump" --disassemble
####################################################################

# Flags                                                            #

####################################################################
# -MMD : Don't generate dependencies on system header files.

# -MP  : Add phony targets, useful when a h-file is removed from a project.

# -MF  : Specify a file to write the dependencies to.

DEPFLAGS = -MMD -MP -MF $(@:.o=.d)

# Add -Wa,-ahlms=$(LST_DIR)/$(@F:.o=.lst) to CFLAGS to produce assembly list files

CFLAGS += -D$(DEVICE) -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -Wall  $(DEPFLAGS)

ASMFLAGS += -Ttext 0x0

LDFLAGS += -Xlinker -Map=$(LST_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).map -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -T../CMSIS/CM3/DeviceSupport/EnergyMicro/EFM32/startup/cs3/efm32g.ld -L"$(TOOLDIR)/arm-none-eabi/lib/thumb2" \

-L"$(TOOLDIR)/lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/$(GCCVERSION)/thumb2"

LIBS += -lc -lcs3 -lcs3unhosted
INCLUDEPATHS += \

-I.. \

-I../CMSIS/CM3/CoreSupport \

-I../CMSIS/CM3/DeviceSupport/EnergyMicro/EFM32 \

-I../efm32lib/inc \

-I../bsp \

-I../drivers
####################################################################

# Files                                                            #

####################################################################
C_SRC +=  \

../CMSIS/CM3/CoreSupport/core_cm3.c \

../CMSIS/CM3/DeviceSupport/EnergyMicro/EFM32/system_efm32.c \

../bsp/dvk.c \

../bsp/dvk_boardcontrol.c \

../bsp/dvk_ebi.c \

../bsp/dvk_spi.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_assert.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_cmu.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_gpio.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_emu.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_ebi.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_system.c \

../efm32lib/src/efm32_usart.c \

blink.c
S_SRC +=  \

../CMSIS/CM3/DeviceSupport/EnergyMicro/EFM32/startup/cs3/startup_efm32.s
####################################################################

# Rules                                                            #

####################################################################
C_FILES = $(notdir $(C_SRC) )

S_FILES = $(notdir $(S_SRC) )

#make list of source paths, sort also removes duplicates

C_PATHS = $(sort $(dir $(C_SRC) ) )

S_PATHS = $(sort $(dir $(S_SRC) ) )
C_OBJS = $(addprefix $(OBJ_DIR)/, $(C_FILES:.c=.o))

S_OBJS = $(addprefix $(OBJ_DIR)/, $(S_FILES:.s=.o))

C_DEPS = $(addprefix $(OBJ_DIR)/, $(C_FILES:.c=.d))
vpath %.c $(C_PATHS)

vpath %.s $(S_PATHS)
# Default build is debug build

all:      debug
debug:    CFLAGS += -DDEBUG -g3 -O0

debug:    $(OBJ_DIR) $(LST_DIR) $(EXE_DIR) $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).bin
release:  CFLAGS += -DNDEBUG -O3

release:  $(OBJ_DIR) $(LST_DIR) $(EXE_DIR) $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).bin
# Create directories

$(OBJ_DIR):

	mkdir $(OBJ_DIR)

	@echo "Created build directory."
$(EXE_DIR):

	mkdir $(EXE_DIR)

	@echo "Created executable directory."
$(LST_DIR):

	mkdir $(LST_DIR)

	@echo "Created list directory."
# Create objects from C SRC files

$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: %.c

	@echo "Building file: $<"

	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(INCLUDEPATHS) -c -o $@ $<
# Assemble .s files

$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: %.s

	@echo "Assembling $<"

	$(CC) $(ASMFLAGS) $(INCLUDEPATHS) -c -o $@ $<
# Link

$(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).out: $(C_OBJS) $(S_OBJS)

	@echo "Linking target: $@"

	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) $(C_OBJS) $(S_OBJS) $(LIBS) -o $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).out
# Create binary file

$(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).bin: $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).out

	@echo "Creating binary file"

	$(OBJCOPY) -O binary $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).out $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).bin

# Uncomment next line to produce assembly listing of entire program

#	$(DUMP) $(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).out>$(EXE_DIR)/$(PROJECTNAME).lst
clean:

	$(RM) $(OBJ_DIR) $(LST_DIR) $(EXE_DIR)

# include auto-generated dependency files (explicit rules) ifneq (clean,$(findstring clean, $(MAKECMDGOALS))) -include $(C_DEPS) endif

5. Run the `make` command

6. You should have a ‘blinkG290.bin’ in the ‘exe’ directory. Seems a bit nuts that my bin is 14kb though…seems quite high for a blinking program; could that be CodeSourcery’s libcs3 adding so much?

7. Now you can use the energyAware Commander Windows program to load the firmware onto the board :/. I was not able to get openOCD working with the on-board JLink module and SWD. I’m now in the process of trying to get my BusPirate board to act as a JTAG interface for using the 20-pin adapter of the EFM32 Development Kit and hoping it does JTAG…
If not, one could also write a Python script with some XMODEM-CRC library to try to upload code to the built-in bootloader on the EFM32 chips using some FTDI USB-serial cable with something like the DST pin being used to pulse RESET and some other un-used serial pin to hold down DBG_SWCLK. But even then some way to debug is needed…really hoping JTAG can somehow work.

Has anyone tried to do something similar on Linux or OS X without the official Segger JLink software? They don’t produce OS X binaries and it’s closed source. Or has anyone gotten an EFM32 DK with its built-in JLink debugger to work with openOCD? Any suggestions would be awesome.

OpenMoko and Wifi Ad-Hoc mode

nemik — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:47:32 +0000

So i decided to give making-openmoko-a-wifi-AP thing another go.

The USB wifi card I bought (ChiefMax RaLink RT73) needs some special cross-compiled drivers to put the wifi in master mode in order to act as an AP. So i gave up that route and tried making it an ad-hoc peer-to-peer access point.

This (kinda) worked! but only connecting with another Linux computer and even then, NetworkManager’s DHCP screwed up the subnet mask and that needed to be set manually.

Trying the same in Mac OS X and Windows XP was a colossal failure. Mac OS X refuses to even accept a DHCP offer from the openmoko (openmoko is using busybox’s udhcpd) and basically same for Windows: it gives itself some crazy nonsense IP.

So best option is still to get some magic USB wifi card that can be set to master mode from the openmoko using the drivers already in the kernel. I’m not really sure at this point which chipset would do that.

Either way, I think windows and mac have (very) flawed wifi ad-hoc implimentations. Linux’s is a little better but not by much. I guess it’s the ‘forgotten mode’ of 802.11b/g.

Send MMS’s to VBulletin Threads

nemik — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 02:36:21 +0000

I just recently put together a little script that will check an email address for incoming MMS (picture messages) and post them to a vBulletin thread. It is based off the work of a great script by Adrian Heydecker (http://wavestyle.ch) that h
e made for the WordPress blog.

I hacked it up for vBulletin. It is VERY primitive since I did not have enough time to make the MMS posts go through VB’s proper posting/replying procedure. So it does just a plain old mysql_query() that does and “INSERT” into the vb table that contains posts! Hah!

So please if someone knows the internal workings of VB (I don’t have time to look through the code) then please update this script to make it proper.
As a result, post-count and all that good stuff will not increase from MMS-posting; sorry!

Well I hope you enjoy anyway! The source can be found here: http://blog.nemik.net/wp-filez/mms-mail.phps

It is licensed under the GPL and I’m not responsible if it breaks your forum/site!

Enjoy!

none of this matters » Programming

Building Energy Micro EFM32 binaries from OS X

OpenMoko and Wifi Ad-Hoc mode

Send MMS’s to VBulletin Threads