Getting Started with the FRDM-K32L2B3 Freedom Development Board

Import the MCUXpresso SDK

1. Open the MCUXpresso IDE
2. Switch to the Installed SDKs view within the MCUXpresso IDE window

3. Drag and drop the FRDM SDK (zipped) file into the "Installed SDKs" view
4. You will get the following pop-up. Click on "OK" to continue the import:

5. The installed SDK will appear in the Installed SDKs view as shown below:

Build an Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the hello_world example.

1. Find the Quickstart Panel in the lower left-hand corner

2. Then click on Import SDK examples(s)

3. Click on the frdmk32L2b board to select that you want to import 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. Now, build the project by clicking on the project name and then in the Quickstart Panel click on Build or press "Ctrl + B"

6. You can see the status of the build in the Console tab

Run an Example Application

1. Now that the project has been compiled, you can now flash it to the board and run it
2. Make sure the FRDM-K32L2B3 board is plugged in and click on "Debug" in the Quickstart Panel

3. MCUXpresso IDE will probe for connected boards and should find the MBED CMSIS-DAP debug probe that is part of the integrated OpenSDA circuit on the K32L2B3. Click on OK to continue

4. The firmware will be downloaded to the board, and the debugger started

5. Open a terminal program and connect to the COM port the board enumerated as. Configure the terminal with these settings:
   • 115,200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
6. Start the application by clicking the "Resume" button:

7. The hello_world application is now running, and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

8. Use the controls in the menu bar to pause, step into, and step over instructions and then stop the debugging session by click on the Terminate icon:

Build an Example Application

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

1. First, unzip the previously downloaded SDK
2. If not already done, 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

   Using the hello_world demo as an example, the path is:

   <install_dir>/boards/frdmk32l2b/demo_apps/hello_world/iar

3. Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the "hello_world - Debug" target

4. To build the application, click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below

5. The build will complete without errors

Run an Example Application

The FRDM-K32L2B3 board comes loaded with the mbed/CMSIS-DAP debug interface from the factory. If you have changed the debug OpenSDA application on your board, visit OpenSDA for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or Tera Term) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:
   • 115,200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
3. Click the "Download and Debug" button to download the application to the target

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

6. The hello_world application is now running, and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

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.

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

2. In the Pack Installer window, search for "K32L2B3" to bring up the K32L2B3 family. Click on the K32L2B3 name, and then in the right-hand side you'll see the NXP::FRDM-K32L2B_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 hello_world application. These steps may change slightly for other example applications as some of these applications may have additional layers of folders in their path.

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

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

   The workspace file is named <application_name>.uvmpw, so for this specific example, the actual path is:

   <install_dir>/boards/frdmk32l2b3/demo_apps/hello_world/mdk/hello_world.uvmpw

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

3. The build will complete without errors

Run an Example Application

The FRDM-K32L2B board comes loaded with the mbed/CMSIS-DAP debug interface from the factory. If you have changed the debug OpenSDA application on your board, visit OpenSDA for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector
2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or Tera Term) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:
   • 115,200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
3. After the application is properly built, click the "Download" button to download the application to the target

4. Click on "Start/Stop Debug Session" to open the debug view

5. Run the code by clicking the "Run" button to start the application

6. The hello_world application is now running, and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

Build an Example Application

The following steps will guide you through opening the GPIO led output. This example takes turns to shine the led.

1. Find the Quickstart Panel in the lower left-hand corner

2. Then click on Import SDK examples(s)

3. Click on the frdmk32l2b board to select that you want to import an example that can run on that board, and then click on Next

4. Use the arrow button to expand the "driver_examples" category, then expand the "GPIO" examples, click on the checkbox next to "gpio_led_output" 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"

5. Click on the "frdmk32l2b_gpio_led_output" project in the Project Explorer view and build, compile and run the demo as described previously

6. You should see the LEDs blinking on the board
7. Terminate the debug session

The following steps will guide you through opening the GPIO led output. This example takes turns to shine the led.

1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tools
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 that you had unzipped earlier. 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
4. 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 "GPIO" in the filter box and then selecting the "gpio_led_output" example project. You can then also specify where to clone the project and the name. Then click on Finish

5. 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
6. You should see the LEDs blinking on the board
7. Terminate the debug session

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

Open Pins Tool in MCUXpresso IDE

1. Open the pins tool by right clicking on the "frdmk32l2b_gpio_led_output" project, and selecting "MCUXpresso Config Tools" and then "Open Pins"

2. The Pins Tool should now display the pin configuration for the PWM project

Open Pins Tool in MCUXpresso Config Tools

1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tool
2. In the wizard that comes up, select the "Open existing configuration" radio button, then select the project that you had clone and click on Next

3. Open the Pins Tool by selecting Tools → Pins from the toolbar

4. The pins tool should now display the pin configuration for the PWM project

Use the Pins Tool to modify the GPIO 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 the "Show not routed pins" checkbox to see only the routed pins, you also going to see the pins that are routed by default. 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, PTE31 is routed as a GPIO toggle the red LED. For this example, we'll use PTD5 instead to drive the green LED
3. Disable, PTE31 as a GPIO by clicking the PTE31 field under the GPIO column. The pin will then be disabled (pin will no longer have check in box) and thus disappear from the list

4. Now, route PTD5 as a GPIO. First, select the "Show not routed pins" so that all the pins are displayed again. Then, search PTD5 in the Pins view. Finally, click the box under the GPIO column PTD5. The box will highlight in green, and a check will appear next to the pin

5. 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

6. 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

7. Now inside the IDE, open the gpio_led_output.c file

8. Change two #defines to tell the GPIO project to use the new PTD5 pin. Change from the red LED to the green

9. Build and download the project as done in the previous section
10. Run the application. You will now see the green LED blink!
11. Terminate the debug session

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

Open Clocks Tool in MCUXpresso IDE

1. Open the Clocks Tool by right clicking on the "frdmk32l2b_gpio_led_output" project and selecting "MCUXpresso Config Tools" and then "Open Clocks"

2. The Clocks Tool should now display the pin configuration for the project

Open Clocks Tool in MCUXpresso Config Tools

1. Open the MCUXpresso Config Tools
2. In the wizard that comes up, select the "Open existing configuration" radio button, then select the project that you had clone and click on Next

3. Open the Clocks Tool by selecting Tools → Clocks from the toolbar

4. The Clocks Tool should now display the clock configuration for the PWM project

Use the Clocks Tool to modify the System Clock

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. Switch to the Clocks Diagram view by clicking the tab in the upper left corner

2. Make sure that you are in the functional group called "BOARD_BootClockRun"

3. Change the core clock frequency by clicking in the "Core Clock" field and typing "12". You'll see all the other clock values automatically change as well to adjust to this slower speed. It will look like this when done:

4. Now it's time to implement these changes into the project by exporting the new updated clock_mux.c and clock_mux.h files that are generated by the Clocks Tool. Click on Update Project in the menu bar

5. 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 Clocks Tool. Click on "OK" to overwrite the new files into your project

Note: The Clocks files may also be tagged as being updated since the header has been changed.


6. Build and download the project as done in the previous section
7. Run the application. The green LED should now be blinking at a much slower rate!
8. Terminate the debug session