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LPCXpresso LPC1114 hands on review

Former Member

I have received for review an LPCXpresso LPC1114FBD48/301,1LPC1114FBD48/301,1 from Farnell.

 

Inside the Farnell package there is an envelope from NXP, there we have the LPCXpress board itself and a strip of paper.

 

The paper has the NXP, code_red and Embedded Artists logos on it, a note: "To get started, go to www.nxp.com/lpcxpresso", a board diagram and a coupon code.

 

NXP is the developer of the LPC IC, code_red of the software and Embedded Artists of the demo board.

 

Here we have an image of the board and the diagram:

 

http://ics.nxp.com/lpcxpresso/images/board.gif

 

The board has two parts, the LPC-LINK to program and debug and the LPCXpresso LPC1114FBD48/301,1LPC1114FBD48/301,1 target. They can be put apart but it does not look like an easy task. If so, the LPC-LINK can be used to program other boards with JTAG connector.

 

That's all you receive. No software CDs, no USB cable, nothing more. Uh! First impression is not good, you have very little for your money. Hey! Wait a minute! You has only been charged 20€ for a working 32 bit processor board ready to use with a JTAG programmer-debugger! It is very good price! It would cost a few more euros to include an USB cable and a software CD, and all of us have a bunch of cables around and the software can be downloaded in a few minutes. So it is not that bad at all. It is very good, indeed.

We will be visiting the LPCXPresso web page as suggested but there is one more thing pending: what's this coupon code? No clue on paper. Let's put Google working... The coupon code is from Embedded Artist, we will have some discounts in developing hardware with it in their web. Not bad, but a little more information in the little strip of paper wouldn't be lethal.

To be continued…

  • Let's visit www.nxp.com/lpcxpresso.

    There we have a video introduction of the LPCXpresso system, a video tutorial, LPC series datasheets, getting started documents and links to Code Red Technologies and to Embedded Artists.

    In the Embedded Artists site we can purchase a expansion board and other stuff (we have a coupon code, remember?).


    After the introductory video, we are pointed to the Code Red site, where we will download the required LPCXpresso development IDE. We will have to register to access the site contents, it is a must. I don't like it, why is it necessary?


    The IDE is a 140MB download, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, X86 and x64 compatible. No Linux versions yet, sorry.


    After an easy installation (next, next, next,...) we need to register the software, again an easy task, and we are ready.


    The LPCXpresso IDE is based on Eclipse, it can build an executable of any size with full code optimization and it supports a download limit of 128KB after registration. The LPCXpresso LPC1114FBD48/301,1LPC1114FBD48/301,1 has 32Kb so it is fully supported.


    A video tutorial helps us starting with the IDE. Nice and very complete, it lasts 24 minutes. After watching, we will be able to load some of the examples attached, specially the typical embedded "Hello world": the blinking led.


    So:

    - Little piece of hardware.
    - Very cheap.
    - Very easy to start with.
    - Only the board and a web link are included.
    - Plenty of info in the web.
    - Full featured IDE.