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Probe Mculink

Raffaele Rossi

MCU-Link Debug Probe

The MCU-Link Debug Probe is a cheap, fast and highly capable debug probe that can serve as a stand-alone debug and console communicator whn working with Pixhawk boards.

Key features:

  • Just one single USB-C connection for Reset, SWD, SWO, and serial in a very small package!
  • Up to 9.6MBit/s SWO connection. Up to 5 MBaud serial. 1.2V to 5V target voltage. USB2 high-speed 480 Mbps connection.
  • Driven by NXP LinkServer or pyOCD software with wide device support.
  • Much cheaper (<15€) than a Pixhawk Debug Adapter (~20€) with a JLink EDU mini (~55€) or JLink BASE (~400€) while having better hardware specs.

The Pixhawk Debug Adapter provides an easy way to connect a Pixhawk to an MCU-Link (the probe does not come with an adapter for working with Pixhawk flight controllers).

::: info These instructions have been tested on: FMUv6X-RT, FMUv6X, FMUv6c, FMUv5X. :::

Debugging Configuration using NXP LinkServer

The MCU-Link provides for NXP (FMUv6X-RT) chips the LinkServer GDB server:

Download the Linkserver for your operating system and follow the installation instructions.

On Windows LinkServer gets installed to C:\NXP\LinkServer_x.x.x On Linux LinkServer gets installed /usr/local/LinkServer/LinkServer

To flash you can use the LinkServer flash command with target MIMXRT1176xxxxx:MIMXRT1170-EVK-CM7-ONLY for the FMUv6X-RT

sh /usr/local/LinkServer/LinkServer flash MIMXRT1176xxxxx:MIMXRT1170-EVK-CM7-ONLY load build/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default.elf

You can launch the GDB server in a new terminal shell:

sh /usr/local/LinkServer/LinkServer gdbserver MIMXRT1176xxxxx:MIMXRT1170-EVK-CM7-ONLY

Then connect to port 3333 via GDB:

sh arm-none-eabi-gdb build/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default.elf -ex "target extended-remote :3333"

Use GDB to load the binary into the Pixhawk:

sh (gdb) load

Debugging Configuration using pyOCD

The MCU-Link provides the GDB server via pyOCD:

sh python3 -m pip install -U pyocd

You can launch the GDB server in a new terminal shell:

sh pyocd gdb -t mimxrt1170_cm7

The target needs to be one of:

  • FMUv6X-RT: mimxrt1170_cm7
  • FMUv6X: stm32h743xx
  • FMUv6C: stm32h743xx
  • FMUv5X: stm32f767zi

You can then connect to port 3333 via GDB:

sh arm-none-eabi-gdb build/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default/px4_fmu-v6xrt_default.elf -ex "target extended-remote :3333"

Use GDB to load the binary into the Pixhawk:

sh (gdb) load

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