New toy: LPC11U68 (Cortex-M0, 256KB of Flash, 36 KB RAM)

This is a very interesting device. Low-power Cortex-M0 but with plenty of program and RAM memory. Unfortunately, I didn't instantly find a dev board that I liked, so I built my own.

Its running but ... external oscillator PLL lock fails. Maybe its just that the oscillator is poorly placed (long legs etc).

On internal RC runs 100% like it should (yes, MBED blinky example works, led is blinking in pin PIO1_13). Unfortunately, that means that USBPLL can't be used (the accuracy of the IRC is not enough = USBPLL lock fails).

Any advice on debugging PLL lock problems and external oscillator considerations are welcome.

 

Finding an mbed-compatible development board for LPC1347

I started my search for a suitable development board by checking out the platforms on the mbed site. The reason why I started this way was that I have been a little bit involved in the mbed-community. mbed is, in my opinion, the only real alternative to Arduino. Great community, lots of helpful and knowledgeable people in the forums. Although less by sheer volume of users in the ecosystem, the level of sophistication of the on-line compiler and collaboration tools of the mbed ecosystem are way above and beyond the Arduino.

The mbed has a huge variety of platforms

Lo and behold, there was just the ticket: the DipCortex M3 by SolderSplashLabs UK.  However, the link to the SolderSplashLabs page is dead. Perhaps, so too is the company ?

Having had some previous experience with mbed development, I know you can find a board that is similar, and then adjust the code to suit your board. Off to Ebay, then !

Getting started with NXP LPC1347 (ARM Cortex-M3)

After working on AVR ATmegas for a while, I decided to get back to ARM's.
This blog is intended to be a journal of all the things I encounter on the way.

Out with ATmega (Arduino), in with ARM

I have nothing against Arduino. This picture depicts my general feeling on the state of my hobby at the moment.

Playing around with Arduinos and the ATmega328 (32 kB Flash, 2kB RAM) in particular I got frustrated by the need to have a USB to Serial converter in my projects (i.e. the chip that enables you to connect your Arduino to your PC). I also constantly ran out of program space. Going to "bigger" ATmegas was not an option - ATmega2560 is hugely expensive in my opinion and still doesn't have USB built in.

I set my sights on the LPC1347 because it had the right mix of features for me:

• drag n' drop programming (built-in USB bootloader)
• 64 kB of on-chip Flash
• 12 kB of SRAM
• runs at 72 Mhz
• is 32 bits
• can be programmed on the mbed platform