Getting Started with FRDM-MCXN947

2.1 Install Your Toolchain

NXP offers complimentary toolchains. Select either MCUXpresso IDE or MCUXpresso for VS Code.

Get MCUXpresso IDE

Get MCUXpresso for VS Code

Learn how to install VS Code for your host PC with the following tutorial.

Want to use a different toolchain?

If you need help choosing, explore the MCUXpresso Suite of Software and Tools.

The MCUXpresso SDK includes support for other tools such as IAR , KEIL  and command-line GCC .

2.2 Jump Start Your Design with the MCUXpresso SDK

The MCUXpresso SDK is complimentary and includes full source code under a permissive open-source license for all hardware abstraction and peripheral driver software. You may install the MCUXpresso SDK directly form the MCUXpresso SDK website . Click on the button below to open this board's SDK builder.

Get MCUXpresso SDK

2.3 MCUXpresso Config Tools

The MCUXpresso Config Tool is an integrated suite of configuration tools that guides users in creating new MCUXpresso SDK projects, and also provides pin and clock tools to generate initialization C code for custom board support, It is fully integrated as a part of MCUXpresso IDE and also as a separate tool if using a different IDE.

Click the Get MCUXpresso Config Tools below to get the Config Tools installer.

Get MCUXpresso Config Tools

2.4 Programming and Provisioning Tools

NXP provides MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning (SEC) for trial run and mass production use. It supports secure programming and device provisioning on NXP's microcontrollers at the production stage. The MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning (SEC) Tool is a GUI-based application provided to simplify generation and provisioning of bootable executables on NXP MCU devices.

The Secure Provisioning SDK (SPSDK) is an open-source development kit with its source code released on Github  and PyPI . This command-line tool is useful when interfacing with a custom or partner programming tool.

SEC Installation

If one or more of the demo applications or driver examples sounds interesting, you're probably wanting to know how you can build and debug yourself. The Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK guide provides easy, step-by-step instructions on how to configure, build and debug demos for all toolchains supported by the SDK.

3.1 Build and Flash Application Using MCUXpresso IDE

The following steps will guide you through the hello_world demo application using MCUXpresso IDE for the Cortex-M33 application. The MCUXpresso IDE installation and the SDK for the MCXN-Series can be found at the section Get Software of this Getting Started guide.

1. Find the Quickstart Panel in the lower left-hand corner.
2. Then click on Import SDK example(s).
3. Click on the FRDM-MCN947 board to select an example that can run on that board, and then click on Next.
4. Use the arrow button to expand the demo_apps category, and then click the checkbox next to hello_world to select that project. To use the UART for printing (instead of the default semihosting), select UART as the SDK Debug Console checkbox under the project options. Then, click on Finish
5. Select the project and build it by either clicking on the “build icon” in the shortcuts provided above or by clicking “Build” in the Quickstart Panel
6. The project should build without presenting any errors or warnings in the console
7. Connect the board to your computer with the type-C USB cable to J17 ‘MCU-LINK’ port
8. Download the application to your board by either clicking on the “debug” icon above or clicking on “Debug” in the Quickstart Panel
9. Select the MCU-Link CMSIS-DAP debug probe
10. Open up a serial terminal to be able to see the application’s output. Select the “Terminal” window and press the “new terminal” icon
11. Choose a “Serial Terminal” and then set the UART settings to 115200 baudrate, 8 bit data size, no parity and 1 stop bit. Press OK
12. Run the application by pressing the “run” icon. See the output printed on the terminal

3.2 Build and Flash Application with Alternative Toolchains

MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) provides an optimized embedded developer experience for code editing and development. Learn how to build and flash an application with VS Code.

Using a different toolchain?

This demo is also available for IAR and KEIL.

4.1 Clone an Example Project from MCUXpresso IDE

The following steps will guide you through the manipulation of the general-purpose outputs. The example sets up a CTimer to generate a PWM signal and change between two LEDs.

1. Find the Quickstart Panel in the lower left-hand corner and click on Import SDK example(s)
2. Click on the FRDM-MCXN947 board to select that you want to import an example that can run on that board, and then click on Next
3. Use the arrow button to expand the driver_examples category, then expand the ctimer examples, click on the check box next to ctimer_match_interrupt_example to select it. To use the UART for printing (instead of the default semihosting), Select UART as the SDK Debug Console checkbox under the project options. Then, click on Finish
4. Click on the “frdmmcxn947_ctimer_match_interrupt_example” project in the Project Explorer View and build, compile, and run the demo as described in the previous section
5. You should see the BLUE and RED LED changing back and forth
6. Terminate the debug session

4.2 Clone an Example Project Using MCUXpresso Config Tool for 3rd Party IDE

The following steps will guide you through the manipulation of the general-purpose outputs. The example sets up a SCTimer to generate a PWM signal and change a LED brightness.

1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tool
2. In the wizard that comes up, select the “Create a new configuration based on an SDK example or hello word project” radio button and click on Next
3. On the next screen, select the location of the MCUXpresso SDK . The SDK package must be unzipped beforehand. Then select the IDE that is being used. Note that only IDEs that were selected in the online SDK builder when the SDK was built will be available and click on clone select example. Then select the project to clone. For this example, we want to use the gpio led output project. You can filter for this by typing “ctimer” in the filter box and then selecting the “ctimer_match_interrupt_example” example project. You can then also specify where to clone the project and the name. Then click on Finish
4. After cloning go to the directory you selected and open the project for your IDE. Import, compile, and run the project as done in previous sections
5. You should see the BLUE and RED LED changing back and forth
6. Terminate the debug session

4.3 Use MCUXpresso IDE Pins Tools

Note: Previously, you had to clone an SDK project like in the previous step.

1. Open the pins tool by selecting “ConfigTools” on the top right hand of the file explorer window and then select “ Open Pins”
2. The pins tool should now display the pin configuration for the ctimer project

4.4 Use the Pins Tools to Modify the LED Routed Pin

1. We’ll use MCUXpresso IDE for the rest of the instructions, but the same steps can be done in MCUXpresso Config tools for third party IDEs. In the Pins view deselect “Show dedicated pins” and “Show no routed pins” checkboxes to see only the routed pins. Routed pins have a check in a green box next to the pin name. The functions selected for each routed pin are highlighted in green
2. In the current configuration, PIO3_2 and PIO3_3 are routed as the outputs of the CTimer. Let’s add a third Ctimer Match output and enable the Green LED
3. Select “Show no routed pins” to see the other options. To enable the third Ctimer Match Output, browse the column for Ctimer and select and output. In this example, we will select, Ctimer4 Match 2 on PIO3_6. Select the item in the Ctimer column to enable
4. Now, let’s route the Green LED. In the search box type “green” so that the routed pin for this LED is shown. Finally, click the box under the GPIO column. The box will highlight in green, and a check will appear next to the pin
5. Next configure the GPIO pin as an output in the “Routing Details” window

6. Now it’s time to implement these changes into the project by exporting the new updated pin_mux.c and pin_mux.h files that are generated by the Pins tool. Click on Update Project in the menu bar
7. The screen that pops up will show the files that are changing and you can click on “diff” to see the difference between the current file and the new file generated by the Pins tool. Click on “OK” to overwrite the new files into your project

Note: The clocks and other files may also be tagged as being updated since the header has been changed


8. Let’s add some additional code to the example. Open simple_match_interrupt.c file and add the following macros for the third ctimer output
9. Add the Green LED functions as well.
10. Some additional code to be implemented will be the third ctimer’s callback, this can be copied from ctimer_match1_callback and modify the content to match2. To be able to visually identify the new ctimer, we will remove one of the previous ctimers as shown
11. The main function will need to include the initialization of both the Green LED and the Ctimer

12. Build and download the project as done in the previous section
13. Run the application. You should now see the Green and Blue LED blinking back and forth
14. Terminate the debug session

Check out each of the following sections, to learn about the ecosystem provided for flexible protyping and development. In the video below, we will introduce you to the FRDM platform, the full-featured EVK and the compatible shields for extended capabilities. In addition we will walk you through our Application Code Hub portal where we provide numerous application examples through NXP's Github.

5.1 FRDM Platform, Full Feature EVK and Shields

For quick prototyping platforms, we offer both the low-cost FRDM platform and the full-featured EVK.

FRDM Development Boards come with standard form factor and headers, easy access to MCU I/Os, on-board MCU-Link debugger and a USB-C cable. Our full featured evaluation kits include extended I/O and interface access, extendibility with WiFi and additional MCU-Link features. There are also many compatible Click Boards and/or Arduino shields. For those that are supported with an Open CMSIS Pack examples may be available on ACH, but if not many of them are easy to use via serial interface like I²C, SPI and UART, for which we provide drivers with examples in the MCUXpresso SDK.

5.2 Application Code Hub

The Application Code Hub further enhances our MCUXpresso Developer Experience by giving developers an interactive dashboard to quickly locate software. Visit the ACH  today to start exploring or discover additional details and benefits of the new interactive Application Code Hub.

Software accessible from Application Code Hub is located in NXP’s GitHub repository  so it can be easily accessed and cloned from that location directly.

5.3 Demo Walkthrough

The following demo walks us through importing a project from ACH using a system based on the FRDM platform with a motor control shield and a low cost LCD. Although your evaluation board may differ from this system, the following steps can be replicated and used for all supported platforms.

Terminal Application

Toolchains

Running a Demo Using IAR Embedded Workbench

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world application. The instructions for compiling and debugging the Cortex M33 core are covered in the instructions below.

Build an Example Application

Please use IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 9.40.1 or above.

1. First, unzip the previously downloaded FRDMMCXN947 SDK package
2. Open the desired example application workspace. Most example application workspace files can be located using the following path:

<install_dir>/boards/<sdk_board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name>/iar

3. Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the “hello_world – debug” target

4. Open the project properties by doing a right-click on the project and selecting Options

5. Now go to the Debugger section and change the debugger driver to CMSIS DAP . Press the OK button

6. To build the application, click the “Make” button, highlighted in red below

7. The build will complete without errors

Note: In case of building errors, make sure that the correct board is selected, right-click in the Project → Options → General Options → Target → Device, Select the NXP MCXN947_core0; this board is supported in IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm version 9.40.1or higher.

Run an Example Application

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable to J17 “MCU-Link USB”

2. Click the "Download and Debug" button to download the application to the target

3. The application is then downloaded to the target and automatically runs to the main() function
4. Run the code by clicking the "Go" button to start the application

5. The hello_world application is now running on the Cortex-M33

Running a Demo Using Keil^® MDK/µVision^®

Install CMSIS Device Pack

After the MDK tools are installed, Cortex^® Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) device packs must be installed to fully support the device from a debug perspective. These packs include things such as memory map information, register definitions and flash programming algorithms. Follow these steps to install the appropriate CMSIS pack. Please use MDK-Arm Microcontroller Development Kit (Keil)^® version 5.33 or above.

1. Open the MDK IDE, which is called µVision. Inside the IDE, select the "Pack Installer" icon

2. In the Pack Installer window, search for “MCXNxxx” to bring up the MCXNxxx family. Click on the MCXNXXX name, and then in the right-hand side you’ll see the NXP: MCXNXXX _DFP pack. Click on the “Install” button next to the pack. This process requires an internet connection to successfully complete
3. After the installation finishes, close the Pack Installer window and return to the µVision IDE

Build the Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the mu_polling application. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace in:

 <install_dir>/boards/ <sdk_board_name>/<example_type>/<application_name</mdk

Select debug configuration

Do right click on the project and select the project options:

Now, go to the Debug option and select J-LINK. Click on Ok button

To build the demo project, select the "Rebuild" button, highlighted in red

The build will complete without errors

MCUXpresso for VS Code

Build and Run an Example with VS Code

Getting Started MCX N Family

Pre-Requisites

This example is written for Windows10, but MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code can also be easily installed on MacOS and Linux.

Follow software installation for MCUXpresso for VS Code extension

Download or receive MCUXpresso SDK for FRDM-MCXN947. (SDK_2_14_0_FRDM-MCXN947.zip)

Hardware Requirements

• FRDM-MCXN947 or another MCX Family evaluation board*
• 1 Type-C USB Cable or micro-USB cable*
• * Different evaluation boards will require slight adjustments to below steps. For particular details refer to the board’s user guide

Preparing the Hardware

This lab targets the NXP MCX N evaluation kit (FRDM or EVK). The kit provides a rich set of connected peripherals to help evaluate the device. It includes an on-board Debug Probe. The debug probe is pre-programmed with CMSIS-DAP firmware for this lab. To display debug messages in the examples, the lab connects to the comm port available through the same debug probe.

Open MCUXpresso for VS Code

1. Open Visual Studio Code, click on MCUXpresso icon [x] on the left panel
2. To move forward with next step click on "Installed Repositories” panel that will appear as shown in below picture

Add NXP MCUXpresso SDK

The NXP extension adds tools to help add software repositories into the Visual Studio Code workspace. The software repository can be provided from three sources:

• Remote git URL
• NXP MCUXpresso SDK archive file
• Existing git folder

This section will import the MCUXpresso SDK for the MCX N microcontroller using the SDK archive file provided as Pre-requisite.

1. Click “Import Repository” button in the INSTALLED REPOSITORIES panel. A button is visible before the first repository is added. In the future, users can click the ‘+’ symbol in the top right of the Installed Repositories section for adding repositories

2. Select the “LOCAL ARCHIVE” option to import the provided MCX N SDK archive file
3. Browse to the location of the MCX N SDK file for the “Archive” entry. (In the Downloads folder)
4. Browse to a folder to be a common “Destination” to store SDKs. (i.e. C:\Users\NXP\VSCODE_Projects ) Enter a name for the new SDK, in this case \SDK_2_14_0_FRDM-MCX N947

5. Click Import. The MCX N SDK is extracted to the local folder and added to your INSTALLED REPOSITORIES panel

Import Example Project

The NXP extension provides a PROJECTS pane to help developers import projects into their workspace. The user has three sources for importing a new project: a Repository; an existing local project; an archived project. This section will import an MCX N example from the SDK just added to the INSTALLED REPOSITORIES panel.

1. Click Import Example from Repository. A button is visible when no projects are in the current workspace. In the future, the symbols in the top right of the Projects section can be used to import additional projects. Click ‘II\’ symbol to add Repository Examples. Click ‘[+]’ symbol to import projects on the PC that were created earlier by the MCUXpresso for VS Code extension. Click the ‘[ ]’ symbol to import a project in an archive file created earlier by the MCUXpresso for VS Code extension

2. Fill out the appropriate information in the “Import Example from Repository” window. Click “Choose a repository” to select from a list of available/installed repositories. Select SDK_2_14_0_FRDM-MCXN947
3. Click “Choose a toolchain” to select from a list of available build tools. The MCUXpresso Installer provides a default option of “gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3”. The tool also looks in other default locations for MCUXpresso IDE installations. These may be listed as alternative options for GNU Arm toolchains. Select the “gxx-arm-non-eabi-10.3” option
4. Click “Choose a board” to view the boards supported in the selected repository. Longer list of boards can be filtered by typing in the available selection area. Select FRDM-MCXN947. After a board is selected, a picture of the board will be displayed to help confirm the correct selection
5. Click “Choose a template” to show a list of available examples in the selected repository. The long list of examples can be filtered by typing in the available selection area. (i.e. type Hello to filter Hello World examples) Select demo_apps/hello_world

6. Click Browse for the “Location” field. Choose a folder location for new projects to be created
7. Click Create. This will add a new “Hello World” example for the MCX N to your Projects panel

Build Project

The build process is configured when the project is created. The user can initiate the build from an icon in the project view. To the right of the project name, the build icon will start the build for that project. You need to return to the MCUXpresso extension perspective by clicking the “X” icon in the left navigation pane. You may still be in the Explorer perspective from prior section.

1. Click the build icon to the right of the hello_world project. This will start the build process. The OUTPUT terminal tab at the bottom of the screen displays the build progress
2. Alternatively, you can right click on the project name to display additional build options. Clicking Rebuild or Clean Build will remove build artifacts from prior builds to allow the project to be built again. Otherwise, clicking Build Selected will result in an output of “no work to do"

The build process should complete with an exit code of 0… Success!

Flash and Debug Project

MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code allows users to program and debug projects for NXP microcontrollers. These steps require that Debug Probe drivers are properly installed and configured. MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code allows the use of popular debug probes from NXP, Segger and PEmicro. MCUXpresso Installer included the option to properly install support for the different debug probes.

The built project output binary is flashed to the target board before launching a debug session. The Debug session provides controls and views to help the developer analyze the operation of the project. The following steps will show how to successfully flash and program the MCX N FRDM evaluation kit.

1. Confirm that the on board debug probe is connected to the PC USB port
2. Click the Refresh arrow in the DEBUG PROBES pane to detect connected Debug Probes

3. Starting a Debug session begins by programming the target device with the built project image. Click the common Play triangle icon to the right of the selected project
Visual Studio Code Debug sessions provide a different “Run and Debug” perspective for the user. This is reflected by the Bug icon in the primary left navigation pane now being highlighted. Key tools are labeled in the following image:
1. Start Debug: Another place to launch debug
2. Debug Controls: Pause; Step Over; Step Into; Step Over; Restart; Stop
3. Variables: Locals and Registers
4. Watch: Add expressions to continue to monitor
5. Breakpoints: Add, Toggle and View targeted code
6. Call Stack: List of active subroutines in the program
7. Status Ribbon: Bottom of screen changes status text and/or color to orange

Debugger Firmware

Tools and Reference

MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning Tool A GUI-based application provided to simply the generation and provisioning of bootable executables on NXP devices.

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

FlexSPI Octal eDMA Transfer Example

In this example, flexspi will send data and operate the external nor flash connected with FLEXSPI. Some simple flash commands will be executed, such as Write Enable, Erase sector, program page with DMA.

Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\driver_examples\flexspi\octal\edma_transfer" 

FlexSPI Octal Polling Transfer Example

In this example, flexspi will send data and operate the external nor flash connected with FLEXSPI. Some simple flash commands will be executed, such as Write Enable, Erase sector, program page with the polling method.

Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\driver_examples\flexspi\octal\polling_transfer" 

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

Power Mode Switch Example

The power mode switch demo application demonstrates the usage of low level power-related drivers to enter/exit different power modes.

Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\demo_apps\power_mode_switch

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

ELS and PKC Examples

The ELS PKC application provides examples, which demonstrate usage of most available algorithms and a cryptolibrary lightweight testing.

 Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\els_pkc_examples\els_hash

 Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\els_pkc_examples\els_symmetric

 Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\els_pkc_examples\els_pkc_asymmetric

 Path: <SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\els_pkc_examples\els_pkc_common"

Tools and References

MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning Tool Secure Provisioning SDK (SPSDK) is an open source development kit with its source code released on GitHub and PyPI. 

SPSDK GitHub   Secure Provisioning SDK (SPSDK) is an open source development kit with its source code released on GitHub and PyPI.

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

A vast variety of powerquad examples are provided for different mathematical algorithms.

Path:

<SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\driver_examples\powerquad 

MCUXpresso SDK Examples

emWin GUI Demo

Demonstrates the graphical widgets of the emWin library.

Path:

<SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\emwin_examples

LVGL Examples

A demo application to show LVGL widgets.

Path:

<SDK_PATH>\boards\frdmmcxn947\lvgl_examples

Tools and References

Graphical User Interfaces for NXP Microcontrollers

Learn more about your GUI options for NXP Microcontrollers.

LVGL is a free and open-source embedded graphic library with features that enable you to create embedded GUIs with intuitive graphical elements, beautiful visual effects and a low memory footprint.

A user-friendly graphical user interface development tool from NXP that enables the rapid development of high quality displays with the open-source LVGL graphics library.

NXP has partnered with SEGGER microcontroller to offer the high performance emWin embedded graphics libraries in binary form for free commercial use with any Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers from NXP.

How to use the different features in AppWizard to create complete, ready-to-run projects based on emWin.

Board Documents

• MCXNx4x_1P02G - Errata
• MCXNx4x_0P02G – Errata
• FRDM-MCXN947 Board - User Manual
• FRDM-MCXN947 Design Files

Software

• Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK - User Guide
• Secure Provisioning Tool - User Guide
• MCUXpresso SDK API - Reference Manual
• MCUXpresso SDK Builder
• MCU-Link FW
• SPSDK Wiki

Support

• Support home

Forums

• MCX Community