Micrium uC/Probe for Prop+Wiznet

twc

uC/Probe is a PC program from Micrium designed as a debugging aid for embedded systems. It allows easy creation of a ‘Dashboard’ screen on the PC by choosing (i.e. drag&drop) from a library of visual objects (ex: dial, graph, slider) and then mapping those objects to target MCU application variables.

Besides debugging, uC/Probe is also useful as a general purpose user interface for monitoring and controlling an embedded system. And the fact uC/Probe supports an Ethernet link between the PC and the target MCU means it can work across LAN or WAN. The uC/Probe client PC communicates with a UDP server running on the target MCU to read &write application variables (i.e. target RAM).

Taking advantage of Mike G.’s excellent software I’ve written a UDP server for uC/Probe that runs on Prop+Wiznet setups (ex: Quickstart W5200, Spinneret). The UDP server runs in its own cog so the application just deals with variables in the normal way. The UDP server independently manages the interaction with uC/Probe to link the target application variables with the Dashboard display on the PC. The UDP server uses just 5KB RAM and two cogs to drive the Dashboard leaving plenty of Prop resources for the application.

The attached .zip includes a .pdf with a fuller explanation. If you want to give it a try just head over to www.micrium.com and download the evaluation version of uC/Probe. If anyone is interested I also have versions of the server for WiFi (WizFi/Gainspan) and UART (works with any Prop).

Mike G

twc, that's a darn handy framework.

twc

If you can live with it's limitations (Windows PC, no security) uC/Probe is a really quick&easy way to instrument an app across the LAN/WAN. You can create a Dashboard with some dials, charts, buttons etc. and link it to your Prop app in a few minutes with no PC/web programming. Compared to regular MCUs (ex: I also have it working with Arduino+Wiznet) the Prop version is especially nice as the Dashboard operation (two cogs) is completely transparent (i.e. zero overhead or timing interference) to the application (six cogs). Thanks again for the great software Mike G., made it easy!

twc

Though I'm using uC/Probe for 'IoT' apps it is also useful in its traditional 'Debugger' role as a sidechannel to PST (or instead of PST if your app needs dedicated use of the Prop USB/UART). Here's a simple app example (increments some counters) where you just insert a 'brk' statement and specify which variable to watch...

CON
  _clkmode = xtal1 + pll16x     
  _xinfreq = 5_000_000

VAR
  byte d_num, d_state 'debugger variables

DAT
  var1 long 0 'app variables
  var2 long 1
  var3 long 2
  var4 long 3
  var5 long 4
  var6 long 5

OBJ
  uCProbe : "uCProbe_Server" 'load udp server object
  

PUB main | i
  uCProbe.start   'start the udp server and specify app vars to link
  uCProbe.link(@var1,@var2,@var3,@var4,@var5,@var6,0,0,0,0)
 'application: increment vars 0-9999
  repeat
    repeat
      repeat i from 0 to 5
        var1[i]++ 
      brk(@var6,6)   'BP, watch var6
    until var6==9999        
    repeat i from 0 to 5
      var1[i]:=i+10
      brk(@var1[i],i+1) 'BP, watch var[i+1]
       

PRI brk (dva,dvn) 'debugger
  d_num:=dvn
  uCProbe.v(8,@d_num)
  uCProbe.v(9,dva)
  uCProbe.v(10,@d_state)
  if d_state==254  'continue
     return
  d_state:=0  'paused
  repeat until (d_state<>0)
  pause(500)
  

PRI pause(Duration)  
  waitcnt(((clkfreq / 1_000 * Duration - 3932) #> 381) + cnt)
  return

...when your code hits the 'brk' it will stop and you can change the value of the watched variable (in DEC/HEX/BIN) and then continue with the STEP or RUN buttons...

...the traffic light turns green when you're RUNning, kind of fun :=)