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Example FreeRTOS-Plus-UDP Project
For NXP LPC1830 Cortex-M3 Microcontroller


On this page:

The LPC1830 Xplorer Board from NGX Technologies



Source Code and Project Files

This demo application is available in the following directory of the offical FreeRTOS zip file download:
FreeRTOS-Plus/Demo/FreeRTOS_Plus_UDP_and_CLI_LPC1830_GCC


Target Hardware

The project is pre-configured to target the very low cost LPC1830 Xplorer board from NGX Technologies.

In the USA the target hardware can be purchased from (amongst other places) Newark and Digikey. In Europe the hardware can be purchased from (amongst other places) Farnell. In Asia the hardware can be purchased directly from NGX Technologies. Other distributors are listed on the NGX website.


Compiler / Tool Chain

The project is pre-configured to build with the free LPCXpresso IDE, which comes packages with the GCC ARM compiler.


Functionality

The demo includes the following standard demo files:
  1. The two echo client tasks
  2. A command console with IP stack specific commands

The project can optionally be built to include FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace recording capabilities, along with FreeRTOS-Plus-CLI commands that start and stop a trace recording.


Command Console Input and Output

A third party USB CDC driver allows the command console to be accessed via a standard dumb terminal, such as HyperTerminal or Tera Term. The target hardware must be powered through the USB0 connector (on the opposite side to the Ethernet jack) for the virtual COM port to be available.

Note: The third part USB driver is adequate for command console input and output, but is not robust under heavy load.


Build Instructions

  1. Execute the CreateProjectDirectoryStructure.bat batch file to create the demo project directory structure. The batch file is located in the following directory of the main FreeRTOS download: FreeRTOS-Plus/Demo/FreeRTOS_Plus_UDP_and_CLI_LPC1830_GCC/

  2. Start the LPCXpresso IDE. Create a new workspace, or select an existing workspace when prompted.

  3. Select "Import" from the IDE "File" menu, then select "Existing Projects Into Workspace", as shown below, before clicking "Next".

    Selecting Existing Project Into Workspace in the LPCXpresso IDE
    Selecting "Existing Projects Into Workspace" in the Import dialogue box


  4. Click the "Select Root Directory" radio button, then navigate to and select the FreeRTOS-Plus/Demo/FreeRTOS_Plus_UDP_and_CLI_LPC1830_GCC directory on the FreeRTOS download.

    The dialogue box will show a single project, ensure the project is selected, then click finish. The imported project will appear in the LPCXpresso IDE's project explorer window.

    Selecting the LPC1830 Embedded Ethernet project
    The import dialogue with a single project shown


  5. Follow the instructions provided on the Echo Client example documentation page to set up an echo server and set the address of the echo server in FreeRTOSConfig.h.

  6. Set the constants configMAC_ADDR0 to configMAC_ADDR5 to ensure the MAC address used is unique on the network. The constants are located at the bottom of FreeRTOSConfig.h.

  7. If IP address assignment is managed by a DHCP server then no further configuration is required.

    If IP address assignment is not managed by a DHCP server then set ipconfigUSE_DHCP to 0 in FreeRTOSIPConfig.h, then edit the constants at the bottom of FreeRTOSConfig.h that set the default values for a static IP address, DNS server address, gateway address and netmask to ensure they are valid for the Ethernet network. The IP address will be valid if the first three octets of the IP address match the first three octets of other IP addresses on the same network - each IP address must be unique on the network.

  8. To build, select "FreeRTOS_UDP_Demo" in the project explorer, then select "Build Project" from the IDE's "Project" menu.

    Build the embedded Ethernet project by selecting it in the Eclipse project explorer and clicking build.
    Selecting "Build Project" with FreeRTOS_UDP_Demo selecting in the project explorer



Debug Instructions

The target hardware must be connected to the debugging host computer (the computer running the LPCXpresso IDE) using separate debugging hardware. It is recommended that a Red Probe with a 10-pin adaptor is used for this purpose, but an LPCLink provides a lower cost (but much lower performance) alternative. If you have an LPCXpresso hardware board then you can make a standalone LPCLink by cutting the tracks that link the debugging interface side of the LPCXpresso hardware from the target side.

The LPCLink hardware debugger
The LPCLink side of the LPCXpresso board

With the LPC1830 Xplorer board connected to the debugger, click the Debug option in the LPCXpresso Quick Start panel.

Starting a debugging session in the LPCXpresso embedded IDE
The Debug option in the quick start panel


Usage Instructions

  • The UDP/IP Related CLI Commands page contains a video that demonstrates:
    1. Connecting to the FreeRTOS command line interface.
    2. Viewing the IP address assigned to the target hardware by the DHCP server.
    3. Using the DNS resolver to ping a host name.
    4. Viewing the network traffic between the echo client (the FreeRTOS-Plus-UDP application) and the echo server.

  • NOTE 1: FreeRTOS-Plus-CLI is accessed through a virtual COM port (USB CDC). The COM port enumerates when the application starts to execute, but will disappear each time a debugging session is re-started. For that reason ensure the terminal used as the FreeRTOS-Plus-CLI interface is disconnected from the COM port before a debugging session is halted. If the terminal is still connected to the COM port when the application stops running, or when a debugging session is restarted, then it is likely that the COM port will no longer be accessible until the terminal program has itself been shut down and restarted.

  • NOTE 2: Increasing the value of echoLOOP_DELAY in TwoEchoClients.c will decrease the amount of network traffic that is generated.

  • LED D3 will toggle every 500ms to show the application is running.

  • You may be prompted to install the virtual COM port driver the first time the target hardware is plugged into the host computer. The necessary .inf necessary to complete the installation is included in the ThirdParty/USB_CDC/inf directory of the demo's zip file.


Using FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace

The example demonstrates some FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace features:
  • Some of the queues and semaphores are named for viewing in FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace, and
  • The zero copy echo client inserts a user event into the trace immediately before sending out an echo request, and another immediately before waiting for the echo reply.

To include the trace recorder in the build:

  1. Set configINCLUDE_TRACE_RELATED_CLI_COMMANDS to 1 in FreeRTOSConfig.h before building then running application.

  2. Start a trace recording by entering "trace start" in the command console. End the trace recording by entering "trace stop" in the command console.

  3. Obtain the size of the trace recorder buffer by inspecting "sizeof( RecorderDataType )" in the expressions window (see the center image below).

  4. Pause the debugger and open the Memory Browser window by selecting the "Show View->Other->Debug->Memory Browser" option from the IDE's Window menu.

    opending the embedded RAM browswer window in LPCXpresso
    Opening the Memory Browser window

  5. Find the start of the recorded data by viewing the memory at "&RecorderData" in the Memory Browser window.

  6. Use the Export Memory speed button (LPCXpresso version V5.0.14 or higher is required) in the Memory Browser window to export as a raw binary the entire RecorderData variable. Then length of the memory exported must be at least sizeof( RecorderDataType ), but can be greater than sizeof( RecorderData ).

    Exporting the RTOS trace file
    Exporting the RTOS trace recording. Click to see a larger image.


  7. The exported file can be opened in the FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace tool

    Viewing the RTOS trace
    Viewing the RTOS trace file in FreeRTOS-Plus-Trace


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