A few weeks ago we featured the McHck project (pronounced McHack), a $5 Cortex M4 based platform which can be directly plugged into one’s computer. Recently, [Simon] announced that he made a firmware allowing a McHck to behave as a SWD adapter and also detailed his flashing rig.
Therefore, those who’d want to build their own McHck would only need to borrow an SWD programmer once to get started. When the first platform has been programmed with the SWD firmware, it can be used to flash and debug applications on the second McHck. Consequently, the microcontroller flashing rig [Simon] designed (shown in the picture above) is based on this. The few core elements are a TQFP48 ZIF programming socket, a push button and two LEDs. Simply push the Kinetis in the programming socket, close it and press the button. Success of the operation is indicated by the two LEDs. [Simon] used the Ragel State Machine Compiler to generate his flashing program and all the code he made can be downloaded from his github.
If you missed the original McHck post now’s your chance to go back and see what it is all about.
That title made me think it would flash itself like one of those useless switch-throwing devices. :(
Polymorphic microcontroller
Found a typo. Not a ZIP socket but a ZIF socket standing for Zero Insertion Force :)
It’s not a typo if ZIP stands for Zero Insertion Phorce. :3
No, it is ZIP because it uses compression.
Thanks Leo :)