which emulator to use for Stellaris M4

I was surprised that noone had a response to this question yet, so I went ahead and purchased the TMDSEMU100V2U-ARM  emulator to program and debug the

prototype I am working on. I will post a follow up on this as I know this will be helpful to someone out there. .  Thank you!!!

Hi Curtis,

we are on the same branch. The eval board EKS-LM4F232 works perfectly with the LM3S3601 ICDI chip but the final design must not contain it. So we have to debug and download via the native JTAG connector.

I do not know what connector you have planned for your custom board. In case of eval board EKS-LM4F232 it is a 2x5 pin header by Samtec, SHF-105-01-S-D-SM and the corresponding cable is Samtec FFSD-05-D-06.00-01-N. Unfortunately nobody answered my desire for an adapter to 14 pin JTAG plug - so I will build one by my own. We have already some Blackhawk USB510 from the last project here.

But this is only the half way. What software is additional needed? Do we need a special BSDL file? What secret else is doing the ICDI chip what Blackhawk is not knowing?

Maybe some of these questions do not appear and everything works well (as via ICDI) but I have some doubts.

I'll keep you updated if my "adapter" is ready.

Hi Stellaris Paul,

why do you think this is a "Verified Answer"?

The JTAG adapter table on http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/JTAG_Connectors shows that a 14to10 pin adapter is N/A. Mouser.com should have an Olimex but there is none.

I'm afraid, this adapter we need here is still not existent. Even Ankur Tomar (or his team) has defined another pin assignment as it was on earlier projects, e.g. CC2531. The one on EKS-LM4F232 is different.

The story remains captivating.

Hi,

let's see what 'google' knows:

http://shop.gateworks.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=97 

Buy it at ebay or at aliexpress
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Jlink-Emulator-V8-All-Arm-JTAG-Adapter-Converter/710252270.html

Hello Juergen,

I initially started this post in hopes of getting great feedback like yours for selection of an emulator to use with this DK-LM4F-DRV8312 eval kit. I have found this sad that TI doesnt quite have the support system in place for customers to know what to select to get this going. I was hoping the ICDI would be available, but that is not an option at all. Perhaps it is still too early for them to make a proper announcement  to market this, however, hopefully our feedback will help others as well since that is the purpose of this blog. Anyhow, since I need to get his project moving forward, I decided to purchase the TMDSEMU100V2U-ARM emulator board and see how this works for me. I will post my results and issues/solutions as they occur. I am now waiting on the stellaris chip itself which has been an issue in trying to obtain.

More info to follow soon!!

Hi,

sorry for answering again, but why do you need an external emulator for working with the kit? The MDL-LM4F211CNCD controlCARD module has an integrated (isolated) ICDI interface (http://www.ti.com/tool/mdl-lm4f211cncd; Users Manual: http://www.ti.com/mcu/docs/litabsmultiplefilelist.tsp?sectionId=96&tabId=1502&literatureNumber=spmu294a&docCategoryId=6&familyId=2939 )

aBUGSworstnightmare

The kit is not the problem. The eval kit works quite well and we have been able to get valuable information from it for creating our own design.

The problem lies in that there is no ICDI chip that we can use for our design, so we need to use an external emulator to debug and program the

stellaris chip. I was just wnating to make sure from other people like you if I was making proper choices in an emulator or if there were other

recommendations/suggestions to go with.

Thank you,

Curtis

I promised to tell my experience on eval board EKS-LM4F232.

My self-made adapter is ready and it works well. (You can also buy an adapter shown above, but all the links you have to provide manually anyhow.) So I decided to take a ribbon cable with header e.g. Samtec FFSD-05-D-06.00-01-N. This cable has already a socket on both ends, so you can cut it in the middle to get two adapters. The 10 filaments of the ribbon has to be connected to a 14 pin header, e.g. Samtec TSM-114-01-F-DV as follows:

14 pin     Signal     ribbon to
header                  target
-------------------------------

  1         TMS           2
  3         TDI           8
  5         +3.3V         1
  7         TDO           6
  9         TCK           4
 11         TCK           4
 13         NC

  2         /RST         10
  4         GND         3,5,9
  6       key remove
  8         GND         3,5,9
 10         GND         3,5,9
 12         GND         3,5,9
 14         NC

Then change the connection in CCS project's properties. In my case I've used an old Blackhawk BH-USB-510. Look'n feel is the same as via ICDI. Unfortunately a .bin file cannot be transferred with LM Flash Programmer via JTAG. So it seems that we have to by another CCS license including emulator only to get the final software onto the chip of the custom board during production later.

But the good news is that we can further work with the simple ICDI for software devolopment on the eval board until design and layout is ready and we will have a first prototype of custom board available. Then a switch to emulator makes no difference.