Firmware for KL25Z: interfacing with eight

pc025c boards.

Sagar Vidya Addepalli

7th July 2017

 Thanks to Dr. Paolo Baesso for the help and pre-written guidelines. Most of the content in
this document has been picked up from another documentation written by him for interfacing
with the board pc052a which was a 28 channel board.

Firmware for KL25Z: interfacing with board pc025a.

Paolo Baesso - 2016
paolo.baesso@bristol.ac.uk

Firmware for KL25Z: interfacing with eight pc025c boards.

Sagar Vidya Addepalli - 2017
sagar.addepalli@iitb.ac.in
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1 Overview of the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 KL25Z SPI setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Firmware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.1 SPI command structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.2 Firmware 1 commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.3 Firmware 2 commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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Chapter 1

Introduction

This document describes how to use the interface to communicate with the board KL25Z via

serial interface (Universal Serial Bus (USB)) and to configure the boards pc052c.

The firmware should be considered ”work in progress” and therefore subject to changes; it

is recommended to take this into account when using this manual: despite all the efforts to

maintain it up to date, there might be last minute changes in the code that are not described in

the documentation.

1.1 Overview of the system

The board pc052c hosts a serial interfaced I/O expander MAX7301A. The expander has 16 ports

that can be configured independently as either digital inputs or outputs. The configuration is

performed using a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus. Note that there are 4 more ports which

have been attached to LEDs(and not the header) for testing purposes.

For the purpose of the serial communication, the MAX7301A (and hence the pc052c) is seen

as a slave so it must receive Serial Clock Line (SCL) and be selected via the slave select line.

The serial data is loaded in the MAX7310A via the Master Out Slave In (MOSI). The chip can

also output and echo of the loaded data or respond to queries by sending data on the Master In

Slave Out (MISO) line. The expander ports are directly connected to the 20-way header J2; the

remaining four pins on the header (1, 6, 11 and 16) are connected to ground.

The board also host a bi-directional level translator MAX3378EEUD that translates the sig-

nals from 3.3 V digital to 5 V digital. From the point of view of the SPI bus, this component is

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completely transparent and can be ignored. The signals required for the SPI bus are fed to the

pc052c using the 5-way connector J1.

The board requires two different voltage rails: P3V3 and P5V, supplied via the 3-way con-

nector J4 (pin1= 5 V, pin2= gnd, pin3= 3.3 V).

Any SPI-capable device can be used as a master to configure the MAX7310A; in the cur-

rent setup the role of master is performed by a KL25Z development platform. The firmware

loaded on the KL25Z interpret the commands received over the USB interface and configures

the MAX7301A accordingly. The setup is shown in figure 1.1.

1.2 KL25Z SPI setup

FRDM-KL25Z is a powerful microprocessor board. However, there are a lot of subtleties involved

in its setup. The driver and firmware for the board can be found at -

http://www.pemicro.com/opensda/

It is highly recommend to not install the driver/firmware from the mbed website. Also, it

should be made sure that the firmware as well as the driver are of the same type - either PEMicro

or mbed. Do not try to mix and match. It won’t work.

Most of the resources available on SPI on the internet are for interactions with one slave only

and for this very reason it is not advised to follow everything that you might find on online forums.

For SPI interfacing, KL25Z offers two ”channels”, SPI0 and SPI1. Unfortunately, all the

eight boards cannot be interfaced via the same SPI channel just because there are not enough

pins for any one of the two channels. Boards 1 to 5 are interfaced via SPI0 and 6 to 8 via SPI1 as

a result. The triplet (MOSI, MISO, CLK) for any board should belong to the same SPI channel.

You cannot have, for example, a MOSI pin from SPI0 and a MISO pin from SPI1for the same

board. You will break the system if you do so. So, if at any time it is required to change pins as

from what set at the moment, this should be kept in mind. This sheet with pinout descriptions

shall be helpful for such a case -

https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~ece222/Freescale/FRDM-KL25Z-Pinouts-Rev1.pdf
5

Figure 1.1: Schematic overview of the setup used to configure pc052c via SPI bus.

1.3 Connections

The connection between any pc052c and KL25Z requires four lines (clock, data in, data out,

slave select) and a ground reference. With the current version of the firmware, the pins are

connected as shown in table 1.1.

Ideally, it should have been possible for boards 1 to 5 to have the same (MOSI, MISO, CLK)

lines and 6 to 8 to have the same lines (recall SPI0 and SPI1 due to which we cannot have same

lines for all boards). However, after testing it was found that having the same MISO lines for

more than 1 board led to erratic behaviour where the MISO voltage level would be around 1V

where ideally it should have been 3.3V. For this very reason, MISO lines for all the boards were

made different. MOSI is PTD2 for boards 1 to 5 and PTE3 for 6 to 8. Similarly, CLK is PTD1

for 1 to 5 and PTE2 for 6 to 8.

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KL25Z pc052c
SIGNAL NAME PIN NAME SIGNAL NAME BOARD(S)
gnd GND GND All
mosi PTD2 SDI Board 1
miso PTD3 SDO Board 1
sclk PTD1 SCLK Board 1
slave select PTD5 CSN Board 1
mosi PTD2 SDI Board 2
miso PTC6 SDO Board 2
sclk PTD1 SCLK Board 2
slave select PTD0 CSN Board 2
mosi PTD2 SDI Board 3
miso PTC7 SDO Board 3
sclk PTD1 SCLK Board 3
slave select PTE4 CSN Board 3
mosi PTD2 SDI Board 4
miso PTA16 SDO Board 4
sclk PTD1 SCLK Board 4
slave select PTC5 CSN Board 4
mosi PTD2 SDI Board 5
miso PTA17 SDO Board 5
sclk PTD1 SCLK Board 5
slave select PTB10 CSN Board 5
mosi PTE3 SDI Board 6
miso PTD7 SDO Board 6
sclk PTE2 SCLK Board 6
slave select PTB11 CSN Board 6
mosi PTE3 SDI Board 7
miso PTE1 SDO Board 7
sclk PTE2 SCLK Board 7
slave select PTD4 CSN Board 7
mosi PTE3 SDI Board 8
miso PTD6 SDO Board 8
sclk PTE2 SCLK Board 8
slave select PTC4 CSN Board 8

Table 1.1: Connections between KL25Z and pc052c boards

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Figure 1.2: Pin distribution on the KL25Z.

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Chapter 2

Firmware Installation

The latest versions of the firmware are available on the repositories:

Firmware 1(using terminal): https://developer.mbed.org/users/sagara17/code/pc052c configurator/

Firmware 2(using LabVIEW): https://developer.mbed.org/users/sagara17/code/pc052c labVIEW/

An account on the mbed web-site is required to access the software. Once the software is in the

mbed developer page, it is possible to compile it and download the resulting .bin file directly

onto the board. This operation will re-write the firmware so that at the next reset the board

will have the latest version. The board will retain the firmware until you add another one to it.

Two versions of the firmware have been prepared. First is user friendly to be run using a

terminal shell. It is very fault tolerant and interactive. One can send various manual commands

and read from the boards as well.

The other version is minimalistic, only meant to be used with LabVIEW. This one is not

at all fault tolerant and can be a bit painful at times. Extreme caution to be taken while

sending commands to the board. It is always possible to reset the KL25Z board but never

recommended as then all the amplifiers will go through a power cycle of switching off and then

on. Unfortunately, it is not possible to use the firmwares interchangeably as both of them work

on different algorithms.

2.1 SPI command structure

In the SPI protocol data are output on the MOSI line which is connected to all the slaves. In

order to select which slave is the recipient of the data, a slave select line, which is individual

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for each slave, is driven low before the transmission begins, indicating to the device that the

incoming stream of data should be loaded onto its internal registers. A clock line, also shared

across the slaves, provides the timing reference. There are several sources of documentation

relative to the bus1 .

The core function used to send data over the SPI bus in this project is mySPISend, defined in the

spi functions.cpp file. Note that the KL25Z board uses an 8-bit bus, while the MAX7301A

expects 16-bit words to be loaded in its registers. For this reason, each write operation is actually

performed in two steps, first writing the first 8 MSB and then writing the remaining 8. During

the two operations, the slave select line (which is driven using the sync variable in the code)

remains low.

2.2 Firmware 1 commands

Once the firmware has been installed on the KL25Z and the board has been rebooted, the board

should send the following message over the serial interface:

Starting interface.

Enter commands and press TAB to send.

Type ’help’+TAB for a list of commands.

From this moment it is possible to send commands to the board.

The interface is still very ”clunky”. It works but it definitely need some polishing. For instance

at the moment the commands should be submitted using TAB instead of the more intuitive

ENTER key.

A list of the currently available commands and their syntax is provided below.

• help: displays a list of available commands

• exit: stops the execution of the software on the board, preventing it from listening to

further commands2 . The software can be restarted by pressing the reset button on the

boards3 .

• powermode X Y: allows to put the MAX7301A for the board X in shutdown mode (Y=0) or

in active mode (Y=1). According to the manual, when the chip is in shutdown mode:
1 See for instance

https://web.archive.org/web/20150413003534/http://www.ee.nmt.edu/˜teare/ee308l/datasheets/S12SPIV3.pdf
2 Also, leaves the EU.
3 This will not make the board re-join the EU though.
11

all ports are forced to inputs (which can be read), and the pullup current sources

are turned off. Data in the port and control registers remain unaltered so port

configuration and output levels are restored when the MAX7301 is taken out of

shutdown. The display driver can still be programmed while in shutdown mode.

Any value of X other than between 1 and 8 and Y other than 0 or 1 will be discarded.

• configure: this command performs a series of write operations in the MAX7301A registers

to configure its ports as outputs and exit the shutdown mode. The commands are listed

below.

//CONFIGURE ALL PORTS AS OUTPUTS

0 x0955 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P7 , P6 , P5 , P4 a s o u t p u t s

0x0A55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P11 , P10 , P9 , P8 a s o u t p u t s

0x0B55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P15 , P14 , P13 , P12 a s o u t p u t s

0x0C55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P19 , P18 , P18 , P16 a s o u t p u t s

0x0D55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P23 , P22 , P21 , P20 a s o u t p u t s

0x0E55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P27 , P26 , P25 , P24 a s o u t p u t s

0 x0F55 ; // C o n f i g u r e p o r t s P31 , P30 , P29 , P28 a s o u t p u t s

//SET ALL OUTPUTS TO low

0 x4400 ; // S e t P4 − P11 a s low

0x4C00 ; // S e t P12 − P19 a s low

0 x5400 ; // S e t P20 − P27 a s low

0x5C00 ; // S e t P28 − P31 a s low

//EXIT SHUTDOWN MODE

0 x0401 ;

There seems to be a bug in the SPI interface: sometimes, when the configuration script

is run, only half of the ports are correctly configured while the others remain in high-

impedance mode. This seems to happen alternatively, so that if ports P7 - P4 are con-

figured, ports P11 - P8 are not, then P15 - P12 are correctly configured, P19 - P16 are not.

As a workaround, it is possible to manually configure the ports using the send or setport

command.
 12

• setport B N X: allows to set port N for board B to be either logic high (X=1) or low (X=0).

N is an integer number in the range [12, 31] where 12-15 are just LEDs and 16-31 are actual

amplifiers.B is an integer number in the range [1,8]. The user should take care to ensure

that the port is already configured as an output before using this command.

• pullallup: Pulls all the ports in all the boards up(5 V). This is a useful command as

after configuration of ports as outputs, all the amplifiers are on and that draws a lot of

unnecessary current as well as heat.

• pullalldown: Pulls all the ports in all the boards down(0 V). Pulling down the ports

causes the amplifiers to switch on.

• pullup X: Pulls all the ports up in board X. X has to be an integer in the range [1,8].

• pulldown X: Pulls all the ports down in board X. X has to be an integer in the range [1,8].

• send B XXXX: writes a (16-bit) word to the SPI slave B. The word must be typed in hexa-

decimal format, without base specifier (i.e. use XXXX= F31C and not 0xF31C). No check is

performed on the word so the user should pay attention to avoid sending illegal commands

to the MAX7301A. B is an integer number in the range [1,8].

• read B XXXX: reads a 16-bit word from the board B. This is a useful tool for deep level

debugging as if and when working with many boards, it would be tough to tell if and which

boards is not working. B is an integer number in the range [1,8].

2.3 Firmware 2 commands

Once the firmware has been installed on the KL25Z and the board has been rebooted, the board

should send the following message over the serial interface:

Starting interface.

From this moment it is possible to send commands to the board. However, it is highly probable

that LabVIEW will not show you this output. Do not worry, we have another layer of feedback.

Any command sent via the LabVIEW interface should be of the form xxxx\n or xxxx\tyy\n

or xxxx\tyy\tzz\n where xxxx is the command and yy and zz are integer parameters depending

upon what the command is. The essence is that different strings(if more than 1) should be

separated by \t and should always end with \n. Please do not break this rule or all hell will

break loose. If you do not end your commands with a \n it will take in the first 20 characters
13

as a command and execute it. The further characters will be followed on as the next command.

If the number of characters entered is less than 20 and there is no \n as well, the characters will

just stay stored in the buffer unless you complete 20 characters. The first layer of response from

the board after you send any command to it is just an echo echo: xxxx yy zz for a command

xxxx\tyy\tzz\n. Note how it does not actually display the tabs and end of line codes. This is

an acknowledgement of your response.

Because this firmware is not supposed to be used as a direct form of communication but via

labVIEW, the board does not talk a lot back with you and the output is just 2 layered. The first

layer is the receipt of the command and the second is the response to your command. Another

catch is that the boards have already been set to active mode and all the ports have been con-

figured as outputs with the amplifiers switched OFF. This makes reseting the board a very bad

idea as the whole cycle will then be repeated. For this very reason, you have to be very cautious

while entering the commands. Your best bet is to send a random statement ending with \n so

that the buffer is completely cleared of any previous clutter.

A list of the currently available commands and their syntax is provided below.

• help\n: displays a list of available commands

• powermode\tX\tY\n: Same action as in firmware 1. Note that all the boards would have

already been set to powermode 0 followed by their configuration when the KL25Z starts.

• configure\n: Same action as in firmware 1. Note that this command would automatically

have been executed when the KL25Z starts.

• pullallup\n: Same action as in firmware 1.

• pullup\tX\n: Same action as in firmware 1.

• pullalldown\n: Same action as in firmware 1.

• pulldown\tX\n: Same action as in firmware 1.

• setport\tX\tY\n: Action of setport is very different from firmware 1. The variation

arises due to reduction of number of arguments from 3 to 2 due to various reasons. Instead

of choosing the board, the port numbers have been mapped as ((X-1) modulo 16) + 1.

Which means ports 1 to 16 have been mapped to board 1, 17 to 31 to board 2 and so on.
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Consequently, the LEDs in the boards cannot be controlled this way and in total there are

128 ports only. X has to be an integer lying in [1,128] and Y has to be an either 0 or 1.