Designing ARM Devices Using Segger Tools

Segger is well known for its line of hardware debug probes and production programmers. If you have done any serious work with ARM microcontrollers, it is highly likely that somewhere in the development cycle you have employed the services of at least one of Segger’s J-Link hardware products.

Designing ARM gadgets with interlocking hardware and software development tools is advantageous. To that end, Segger recently announced the availability of a complimentary software component called Segger Embedded Studio. It is a full-featured integrated development environment, encapsulating its own pre-built GCC toolchain. The IDE is designed to work seamlessly with Segger’s full line of hardware debug probes, production programmers, real-time operating system, and middleware products.

Segger Embedded Studio is free to evaluate with no limitations, but if you decide to use it in a commercial application, a low-cost licensing option is available.

(Source: Segger)

From Jan. 11 to 15, I will be hosting a weeklong course, Designing ARM Devices Using Segger Tools, as part of Design News’ Continuing Education Center series, sponsored by Digi-Key, on the Segger Embedded Studio. We will leave the starting gate at full speed with a class that will demonstrate the coding and debugging capabilities of the IDE, working in conjunction with a Segger J-Link PRO.

In a similar fashion to the Day 1 discussion, Day 2 of the course will focus on developing firmware for the STMicroelectronics STM32F407VG. We will port the popular open-source FatFs FAT File System Module to an STM32F4-Discovery evaluation board using Segger Embedded Studio as the firmware development environment. The STM32F4-Discovery platform was chosen for its low cost, excellent factory support, and high functionality. This choice of development platforms will allow attendees to easily and inexpensively duplicate the lecture demonstrations.

Segger also offers a brand-new hardware development platform called emPower. The emPower hardware is based on the Freescale Kinetis microcontroller and is supported by Segger Embedded Studio and Segger’s line of RTOS and middleware products. Day 3 of the lecture series will describe the combination of the emPower hardware with Segger’s embOS, emWin, and embOS/IP middleware components. The J-Link component is embedded in the emPower development platform’s hardware.

Day 4 of the lecture series takes us back to our roots and the STM32F407VG microcontroller. The goal of this penultimate class is to demonstrate the ease of installing and running embOS on the STM32F407VG hardware.

We will conclude the course by using Segger Embedded Studio and Nordic’s nRF51 SDK to breathe life into a Nordic-based IoT device. Day 5’s hardware consists of a Nordic nRF51 development kit that is delivered off the shelf with onboard J-Link capability.

In past lectures I have supplied source code to augment the education. The Segger Embedded Studio lecture series is no exception. When applicable, I will supply each day’s project code as a free download to the attendees. So download and install Segger Embedded Studio, order an STM32F4-Discovery (Digi-Key part number 497-11455-ND), and visit Segger’s online store to get the emPower development board.

I’m looking forward to the lecture series and hope to see you there.

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Fred Eady is the owner of EDTP Electronics, which was established in 1988 following the publication of his first magazine article. Since the formation of EDTP Electronics, Fred has written thousands of magazine articles. He has written for all of the major electronic magazines, including Radio Electronics, Electronics Now, Nuts and Volts, Servo, MicroComputer Journal, and Circuit Cellar. To date, he has authored four books and contributed to a fifth. He currently works as a PIC microcontroller consultant and is a Microchip Authorized Design Partner. Fred also authors monthly columns in Nuts and Volts and Servo magazines. His customers include machine shops, specialty startup companies, medical machine manufacturers, coin-operated device businesses, and various other research and development companies. He has a very close working relationship with Microchip Technology, the manufacturer of PIC microcontrollers, and has taught Ethernet and WiFi classes at Microchip's annual Masters Conference.

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