RoadTest: NXP LPC4330-Xplorer Board
Author: arun48
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Independent Products
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?: LPC11U14 Xpresso Board, Chipkit MAX32 [PIC32MX]
What were the biggest problems encountered?:
Detailed Review:
First of all I am very thankful to the Element14 and NXP for selecting me for this Roadtest.
When I first saw the board only words that came in my mind was awesome and impressive. The board included much of peripherals that will get us going right away without need of any extra components or devices. The board design was also nice and compact.
This board includes Ethernet port, 2 USB (micro-B ports), SD Card Interface, I2S interface, NXP's SPIFI interface for Flash memory.
Although it includes all those peripherals, the hobbyists who might want to connect external chips i.e. SPIFI Flash Memory and other devices might be disappointed since the pin-out header doesn't include some interfaces.
The dual-core concept especially with different architecture is quite interesting since it is useful for carrying out operations requiring Signal Processing and peripheral handling singly or in parallel.
The support documents and forums for this platform were available easily on the internet. Some are listed below:
http://www.lpcware.com/forums/microprocessors-forums/lpc43xx
http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers/cortex_m4/lpc4300
The videos listed in Youtube Channel of LPCZone are also very informative and useful.
As well the libraries for this microcontroller is available from both ARM and NXP. List of most used available libraries are:
The use of CMSIS library made it very easy to create applications and use peripherals of the chip and nxpUSBlib made it easy to implement different USB classes using either on-chip USB drivers or the software layer.
I used Keil-MDK for writing applications and also there was availability of all libraries for Keil as well.
Another IDE you might wanna checkout is LPCXpresso [http://lpcxpresso.code-red-tech.com] dedicated completely to LPC microcontrollers.
Evaluating the Board:
As for the evaluation part I used this board for getting file list from USB Mass Storage connected to USB0 port in host mode. I used nxpUSBlib for USB host driver and a simple fat file system parser for getting list of files on VCOM via USB1.
Plus, I also utilized same program for listing files from the SD card inserted to Card slot.
Then I integrated them into one and made a simple disk imager which makes exact copy of a Pen Drive inserted to SD card or vice-versa.
And as listed by NXP in the roadtest:
I accomplished it by using pre-included Low Pass FIR Filter and then I modified so that I fed audio samples from PC via VCOM and Cortex-M4 returned the outputs after processing. Processing means removing low frequency components and amplifying the remaining components.
In continuation to above program I used Cortex-M4 to calculate Frequency Components using FFT and output frequency components available in the signal provided.
For verification I compared outputs with Matlab output for same signal and it was fine and fast as well.
Some problems I encountered and solutions:
> Enable "Use memory layout from Target Dialog" in "Linker" tab of "Target Options" [not mentioned in Keil user guide]
> When programming to SPIFI 32MB I got error that "Insufficient RAM for Flash Algorithms."
> To solve it references used:
http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/ulink2/ulink2_errors.htm
http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/ulink2/ULINK2_su_flashdownloadcfg.htm
Increase "RAM for Algorithm" size
Summary:
This Xplorer board based on LPC4330 is really as good as it sounds i.e. it lets us e(Xplore) the features of LPC-4330 easily.
This board is great for faster prototyping of end devices due to its small size and availability of peripherals and devices on board.
But for hobbyists it may not be as much as they would have expected in respect of tinker ability.
For those who are getting started in this platform I would recommend LPCZone videos and the forum for lpc43xx in lpcware.com [http://www.lpcware.com/forums/microprocessors-forums/lpc43xx] where you can get lots of sample applications and help when you get stuck.
Currently I am busy with my studies so I will not be doing anything more on this board but after getting time I will do something interesting with it and post here in the forum.
