RoadTest: Texas Instruments DK-LM3S9D96 Development Kit
Author: manlong
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Evaluation Boards
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?:
What were the biggest problems encountered?:
Detailed Review:
I received the kit wich is composed in two boxes. One box contain the demo kit and the other contain all the accessories and sofware. The second box contain ethernet cable, mini usb to usb A, otg usb to usb A, sd card, power module, flash disk usb, cable to connect this board to an another board wich have a ti microcontroller, expansion board connector. An expansion board memory is already install in the DK. All the software that you need are included in the box with some example. I like this because some DK are deliver without software and documentation. A link to all the website is provided. And you have to navigate and search all what you want. This lost you a lot of time. And you have to test a lot of configuration before finding what you want. Here as you have all the documentations and the softwares you can choose the software you want, install directly the tools you want. I really appreciate it.
When you plug the power supply to the DK, you will see a program which is already install in the memory. This program show some possibilty of the microcontroller. You can see that the microcontroller watch the ethernet port, the sd card connector, the usb otg connector and a graph with numerical value wich indicate the value of the Vref ADC.. An other part show the possibility of the graphical librairies, an other wich permit to play a sound where a sound file is include in the sd card and the last possibilities show several pictures. All this is selected with the tactile screen.
This program include in the board is provided with the example. This is a good program wich use several peripherical of the microcntroller. This project use sound an other graphical librairie, they use a lot of them.
I install CCS because this is the one of the soft wich is free. The other are an evaluation licence. It's interresting if you hesitate to choose your developpement tools.
The procedure to install and use this soft is detailed. So this is easy to install the librairies and to test the example.
In the hardware, there are three possibilities to power the board. With the jack connector, usb icd debugger and otg connector. An audio in and out are present. A can connector,otg, ethernet, serial flash sd card, qvga lcd, vref to ADC which you can set the value or set to 3Vand debufg interface. All of this are connect with a jumper. The board and the lcd are put over a support. I find that the lcd is too close to the board. And because of it, it's difficult to insert and to retire the sd card.
I regret the lack of switch button and led. Only one switch and one led is present in the board. I know that you can interact with the tactile screen and to watch the lcd but led and switch permit a fast debug without input a lot of code and memories. In the lcd and tactile screen even if you can write only the fonction, you increase the code so decrease the memories. And to lit a led or wait a push button is smaller and faster to implement. So in conclusion I wish add 2 led and 2 button to interract efficiently. But as we have the lcd screen this criteria is not disqualify.
There have 3 tests points. One to gnd, the other to 3.3V and the last to 5V I think 3.3V and 5V is not necessaries. A simple indication where we can find it will be sufficient. Only the gnd is a good approach to put the gnd of the probe scope.
I expect have all the jumper to connect all the pin but it's seems miss some of it.
The jumper missing are the 0V to the backlight, card, the second led to the ethernet connector, RX and Tx to the can. I think that the jumper should be there to test there configuration.
The documentation are detailed. They have a documentation for all you want, graphical librairie,Iqmath, bootloader,...
If you include the graphical, the usb and the drivers librairies, the compilation is long. They have a lot of file to be compiled.
The advantage to include all these librairies is you can use all the function you want. The disavantage is you lose the memory space. So it's not optimise for any application. But if you want to include only the necessary. You have to select yourself what you want.
All the source are provided so it's too easy to program you own application without lost time in peripherical.
In conclusion I think this board is not perfect but is very sastifached. To develop you application, this board is very good. The extension board permit us to use the I/O of the microcontroller, the debug interface permit us to debug an other board with the same familly of microcontroller and all the connectivity can be test. Morover, a large example of bootloader is provided.
I modify the software score because the compilation is not too good. Indeed i realise a small code to print the temperature and the µC go to a false adress so the program is lost and don't do what i want.
I modifiy the optimisation code and with some configuration the program print the temperature and the most time the program is blocked.
When I add a control of led the program is blocked.
So the compilation is not efficient.
Top Comments
I received the kit wich is composed in two boxes. One box contain the demo kit and the other contain all the accessories and sofware. The second box contain ethernet cable, mini usb to usb A, otg usb…