need to buy ARM board

[sawaak]

stm32 uclinux

Hi,

I need to buy a good ARM board. Need to have 10/12 bit ADC, ethernet, CAN, GLCD etc. Also can be used to run linux (uclinux etc). Must be of Cortex-M3 architecture. Better if also support USB development
I need to buy one for learning, preferably for industrial control and acquisition purposes.
Kindly suggest which board to buy? Kindly reply ASAP.

thanks
sawaak

 

[Riveywood]

mmnet1001

uCLinux can be run on pretty much every Cortex-M3 port, although the actual level of support obviously varies.

I reviewed a cortex-m3 few boards on our website at:

**broken link removed**

NXP's LPC175x and LPC176x family seem like a good suggestion. They typically have 12bit ADC, ethernet, USB, CAN (or 2) plus on-chip SRAM, flash etc.

Alternatively, google for STM32F103RBT6 or other boards based on the STM32 parts, similar specification to the NXP parts.

 

[bobsanjose]

buy arm7

You can find some information on LPC1768 here:
http://www.lpc2000.com/m3
afaik there is no M3 on the market today with the features you are asking for, the closest match is the LPC2478, it has 10bit ADC, Ethernet, CAN, LCD controller and an external memory interface, needed for any kind of Linux.
Information also on the http://www.lpc2000.com/ site
Most M3 based devices do not support external memory, ergo, no Linux.
board recommendation for LPC24xx @ http://www.lpc2000.com/tools
@rivewood, the ST part you proposed has 128k Flash and 20K SRAM, no Ethernet, no LCD and no external bus. I have no idea how this could fit even 50% of the requirements.

Bob

 

[Slammer]

arm9 boards

Good Value
**broken link removed**

You will need the cpu module and the evaluation board.
Is not Cortex but has everything you need.

 

[nooknikz]

arm7 buy

Cheap STM32 STM32F103 Board **broken link removed**

 

[sawaak]

jlink segger rdi license

Hi,

thanks to all of you for your valuable suggestions.

what i understand is that:

For LPC2478-STK development board (or IAR KS2478 Kickstart Kit for LPC2400 (w/ LPC2478))
-------------------------------------------
i think that the board has almost everything EXCEPT it is not a Cortex-M3 architecture, the processor is based on ARM7TDMI-S core. Now i am confused regarding this, I know little about ARM but this seems quite old architecture, do you think it is good to learn ARM with this old architecture or it doesn't matter? kindly give your suggestions.
Also it seems i need to buy a separate programming/debugging interface. How much they cost? Which one will be good. i heard many names, ULINK2, wiggler etc but dont know which one is good and how much it cost. kindly give your suggestions.

For STM32F103RBT6 based boards:
---------------------------------------
As bob mentioned, no ethernet, no LCD, no external bus.



For MMnet1001 and evaluation board:
------------------------------------------
Hmm, seems good but no LCD and no CAN.



Luminary Micro's LM3S8962 Ethernet+CAN Evaluation Kits:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
no USB, no external bus


LPC1768 seems interesting but still no development or evaluation kits .


Kindly give your suggestions.

thanks
sawaak

 

[bobsanjose]

jlink ncu

Hi,

ARM7 is basically the architecture that Cortex came to life from. ARM7 has two operating modes, the ARM mode and the Thumb mode. Cortex-M3 has only one operating mode the Thumb2 mode. Thumb2 is a mix of 16/32 bit instructions, ARM mode on the ARM7 is a pure 32-bit mode and offers pretty much the same performance as the CortexM3 but it uses more memory space to accomplish this. Thumb mode on the ARM7 offers the same code efficiency as Thumb2 on Cortex but has up to 30% less performance running the same frequency.
In a nutshell, you can use an ARM7 for pretty much the same things you use a Cortex-M3. Starting with the LPC247x is probably the best option given your requirements.
Depending on your compiler suite I would recommend to use J-Link from Segger as your USB-JTAG interface. It works with IAR, GNU and even with Keil.

Hope that helps, Bob

 

[sawaak]

arm7 boards

Hi Bob,

thanks for the suggestions.

I am confused about j-Link, there are many versions and add-ons available, the price of single J-Link-ARM without any add-on is 248 EUR
To be able to download, debug, setting break point in flash and working with other IDE e.g. keil, it seems i need to buy J-Link-ARM for basic, and add J-Flash-ARM for flash programming, and add J-Link RDI and J-Link RDI FlashBP combination for Flash breakpoints and add J-Link RDI FlashDL for other IDE like keil to download flash and debug . this is very very costly.
there is an option for non-comercial J-Link package for 98 EUR,J-Link NCU, which includes J-Link ARM, A license for J-Link GDB Server, A license for Flash download (FlashDL), A license for Flash breakpoints (FlashBP). my concern here is the limitation is just for non-commercial use or there are any hidden limitations? e.g. limited code, breakpoints etc which prevents professional project development. Also it is mentioned on segger website that "Flash breakpoints software for J-Link ARM (requires RDI software license) ", so without RDI license, will the FlashBP works??

there is also a J-link available from IAR, is this the same as segger? and deos the single J-link from IAR supports all the functionality of segger J-link e.g. flash breakpoints and debug etc, (offcourse no keil support )


thanks
sawaak

 

[bobsanjose]

arm7 price

I am confused about j-Link, there are many versions and add-ons available, the price of single J-Link-ARM without any add-on is 248 EUR Sad
To be able to download, debug, setting break point in flash and working with other IDE e.g. keil, it seems i need to buy J-Link-ARM for basic, and add J-Flash-ARM for flash programming, and add J-Link RDI and J-Link RDI FlashBP combination for Flash breakpoints and add J-Link RDI FlashDL for other IDE like keil to download flash and debug Sad. this is very very costly.

To make things worse, it depends which hardware device you are using.
Let's assume you are using the LPC2xxx, in this case Flash Breakpoints are free. That is a deal between Segger and NXP. If you are using an Atmel SAMxxx, then GDB server is free coming with the SAM-ICE. So let me tell you what is possible. It is possible to use IAR and a standard basic J-Link to set breakpoints (max 2) or download into Flash (Slow). If you are using FlashDL and configure J-Link for that, it will be A LOT faster. If you are using FlashBP, you have unlimited Flash Breakpoints, as mentioned, a standard at no extra cost to you for the NXP LPC2000 devices.
Assuming you use Keil, it needs to be a fairly new version of uVision, releases withing the last 9 months and it will work with a black J-Link just the way it does with IAR. Download is a little faster in Keil but still a lot slower than FlashDL. And again, same story with the FlashBP.
If you are using GNU, you might want to check out the www.yagarto.de site, there is a "how to" for J-Link.

there is an option for non-comercial J-Link package for 98 EUR,J-Link NCU, which includes J-Link ARM, A license for J-Link GDB Server, A license for Flash download (FlashDL), A license for Flash breakpoints (FlashBP). my concern here is the limitation is just for non-commercial use or there are any hidden limitations? e.g. limited code, breakpoints etc which prevents professional project development. Also it is mentioned on segger website that "Flash breakpoints software for J-Link ARM (requires RDI software license) ", so without RDI license, will the FlashBP works??

The non-commercial J-Link is not limited in code size, it is just that NON-commercial. So if you are using it for hobby, go for it, if it is for a company, do not. Check with Segger, as shipping cost sometimes adds a chunk of change to the total amount.

there is also a J-link available from IAR, is this the same as segger? and deos the single J-link from IAR supports all the functionality of segger J-link e.g. flash breakpoints and debug etc, (offcourse no keil support Smile)

Basically yes, it is the same, opened one once and inside looks definitely the same. There is always an option to change firmware though. You mentioned Keil support, I would not use a yellow J-Link and work with Keil tools, may be there are some incompatibilities, may be not. In any case, support would be hard to get.


Cheers, Bob

 

[sawaak]

stm32f103 yagarto

Hi Bob,
Thank you very much for the detailed reply

I am very happy by some of the facts you mentioned, like Segger and NXp deal regarding LPC2xxx, keil support without RDI, etc.

I still have some questions
As i might be choosing the LPC2478 based kit, i need one more clarification, in the beginning you mentioned about LPC2xxx but later you mentioned LPC2000 specifically, is there any difference b/w LPC2000 series or LPC2400 series (i know this sounds stupid but.... )

I will be using J-Link NCU for my hobby. it is a great news that i will not be limited to try big hobby projects

thanks
sawaak

 

[bobsanjose]

lpc2478

Hi Sawaak,

There is no "LPC2000 device", if I used LPC2000, that indicates that the deal been done for all of the LPC2xxx devices but NOT for the LH75xxx devices that NXP sells (originally from Sharp). Simple reason, the deal was in place before NXp took over these devices.
If I talked about LPC23xx or LPC24xx that can be in response to your specific question about e.g. an LPC2478. In other words, each member of the LPC23xxd or LPC24xx is also an LPC2000 family member but not each LPC2000 member is LPC23xx or LPC24xx.
The LPC2000 series has evolved and the LPC23xx/24xx has quite some new features not available in the LPC21xx or LPC22xx. Hope this clarifies things for you.

Bob

 

[Slammer]

arm board buy

For MMnet1001 and evaluation board:
------------------------------------------
Hmm, seems good but no LCD and no CAN.

Evaluation board has LCD/GLCD Interface and CAN.
It has everything that you want:
**broken link removed**

In addition you can attach any CPU module that you want.
There are modules with SAM7, LPC2000, Cortex and ARM9 (MMnet1001 can run Linux).
I have the board with 2-3 CPU modules and I am very pleased. You buy only one board and you can use it with many CPU's (you save $$$ with this!)

 

[sawaak]

stm32f103rbt6 uclinux

Hi,

@ bob,
thanks, sure it clarifies a lot.

@ slammer
thanks for the clarification, you are right.


@ all
thanks to all of guys for precious replies.

unfortunately i did not got the permission from HIGH authority what i want to buy

i ended up buying a Altera Cyclone III starter kit and LuminaryMicro Ethernet +CAN evaluation kit(LM3S8962). lets see what i can do with them.


thanks again for your inputs.


thanks
sawaak

 

[millwood]

buy arm based board

you can also try the Luminary LM3S811 evaluation kit. it comes with the chip, a glcd, and can function like a jtag adapter for other boards.

 

[bobsanjose]

arm board price

This is a STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 development board on ebay .

Before I would go near a board that is advertised with Chinese characters on the LCD display I would willingly pay double the price to avoid Chinese documentation (no offense, just been burned a couple times and wasted lots of time).

If for the STM32 my recommendation would definitely be the Primer2, it is fun, it is low cost and it provides lots of free software in the user community.
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**
Bob