Hands-on with NXP’s MCX FRDM Boards - Workbench Wednesdays 84

cstanton — Wed, 01 May 2024 13:49:45 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by cstanton on 5/1/2024 1:49:45 PM

NXP's MCX Microcontrollers are their latest generation. They combine the best aspects of the previous LPC and Kinetis series products with a look to future applications. There are four processors in the family. In January 2024, they began shipping (in quantity) two of the microcontrollers along with development boards in the Freedom Platform, also known as FRDM.

Watch the Video:

www.youtube.com/watch

The MCX A is a general-purpose, entry-level microcontroller. It is single-core and runs up to 96 Megahertz. As an entry-level microcontroller, it has a full complement of typical peripherals like timers, counters, SPI, UART, and full-speed USB.

On the other end of the spectrum is the MCX N. It is a dual-core microcontroller (150 MHz) with an optional neural processing unit (NPU). It has advanced security features and faster IO. For example, it has ethernet, FlexIO (LCD), and Smart SMA (Camera) capabilities.

Both microcontrollers support I3C. This newer serial protocol supersedes and is backward compatible with I2C. It offers several feature benefits and a higher data rate option.

NXP also offers new development boards to complement their latest processors. The FRDM form factor is an inexpensive dev board with an on-board debugger, various connectors, and the top-of-the-line MCX A or MCX N.

Both boards have FRDM, Arduino-style Shield, microBUS, and Pmod headers. (The Pmod header is not populated on either board.) The FRDM MCX N adds headers for FlexIO and Smart SMA to add cameras and displays. The MCX N board also has an unpopulated footprint for a MicroSD card socket and a capacitive touch sensor.

You can program the boards using NXP's Eclipse-based MCU Xpresso IDE, VSCode (via extensions), or other third-party development tools. In this video, James used VSCode. However, he ran into a few setup issues related to path statements. For example, the installer that handles dependencies would report versions of applications in the path statement, not the ones it installed.

There are three ways to address this minor issue. The first is to install the version it wants, change the priority of statements in your environmental path, or remove the tool from your path. In the case of cmake.exe, James decided to remove CMAKE from the path. Another issue came up with nmake.exe. For some reason, VSCode was not able to locate it. Find nmake.exe on your system and add it to the Environment's PATH statement to fix this.

The MCUXpresso SDK has various examples for the FRDM MCX A and FRDM MCX N. James tried out "Hello World" and "Blink" on both boards. On the MCX A, he also loaded an example of an I3C temperature sensor. On the MCX N, James looked at the touch sensor example since that board has a capacitive touch sensor available.

Overall, the boards have good build quality, an onboard debugger, and the flexibility to support several ecosystems of add-ons. Also, prices in the $15 to $25 range make these an affordable addition to any electronics kit.

Downloads & Links:

Boards: Expansion Boards
Code: Application Code
FRDM-MCXA - Getting Started Guide: Getting started with FRDM MCX A Development platform
VSCode Getting Started Guide (NXP Login Required): Getting Started with MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code
Webinar: Flexible and Rapid Development with MCUXpresso

community.element14.com/.../MCX_2D00_MCU_2D00_Developer_2D00_Journey_2D00_Map.pdf

Bill of Material:

Product Name	Manufacturer	Quantity	Buy Kit
FRDM-MCXA153	NXP	1	Buy Now
FRDM-MCXN947	NXP	1	Buy Now

Tags: Express MCU Espresso SDK, Voice code extension, MCX, Eclipse-based IDE, I3C protocol, vision applications, Embedded programming, Hardware evaluation, nxp microcontrollers, machine learning, microcontroller, Capacitive touchpad, electronics Workbench, real-time clock, NXP MCX FRDM Board, Onboard debugger, nxp, Sensor readings, MCX-A, MCX-N