FRDM-MCXL255

Overview

FRDM-MCXL255 is compact and scalable development board for rapid prototyping of MCX L25x MCUs. It offers industry standard headers for easy access to the MCUs I/Os, integrated open-standard serial interfaces, external flash memory and an on-board MCU-Link debugger. MCX L Series features Adaptive Dynamic Voltage Control (ADVC) for optimized power consumption at low frequency operation. Compared to traditional low-power MCUs, a dedicated ultra-low-power (ULP) Sense Domain allows operation of low-power peripherals while keeping the main core in Deep Power Mode. This avoids event triggering and keeps data acquisition to extremely low power levels.

Hardware

  • NXP MCX L255 MCU

  • On-board MCU-Link debugger with CMSIS-DAP

  • Arduino Header, mikroBUS, Pmod, Sensor port

Main domain

  • 96MHz Cortex-M33 (with FPU, MPU, SIMD, Trustzone with 8 SAU regions)

  • 512KB on chip Flash dual-bank on chip Flash

  • 128KB RAM

  • Timers: 3x 32b Timers, Micro Tick Timer, Windowed WDT, OS Event Timer

  • Interfaces: 2x LPUART, 2x LPI2C, 2x LPSPI

  • Security Blocks: PKC Engine, RNG, SHA512, AES-256, Protected Flash Region, 2x Code Watchdog

  • Analog: 16b ADC, Analog Comparator

Always-on Domain

  • 10MHz Cortex-M0+

  • 32KB RAM

  • Interfaces: 1x LPUART, 1x LPI2C

  • Analog: 16b ADC, Analog Comparator, Temperature Sensor

  • Timers: RTC, LP Timers

  • Segment LCD, Keypad

For more information about the MCX-L255 SoC and FRDM-MCXL255 board, see:

Supported Features

The frdm_mcxl255 board supports the hardware features listed below.

on-chip / on-board
Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
2 / 2
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files.
vnd,foo
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.

Targets available

The default configuration enables the first core only. CPU0 is the only target that can run standalone. CPU1 is not supported.

Connections and IOs

The MCX-L255 SoC has 4 gpio controllers and has pinmux registers which can be used to configure the functionality of a pin.

Name

Function

Usage

P2_10

UART

UART RX cpu0

P2_11

UART

UART TX cpu0

P0_7

UART

UART RX cpu1

P0_6

UART

UART TX cpu1

System Clock

The MCX-L255 SoC is configured to use FRO 96M (FIRC) running at 96MHz as a source for the system clock.

Serial Port

The FRDM-MCXL255 SoC has 3 LPUART interfaces. The default console is LPUART0.

Programming and Debugging

The frdm_mcxl255 board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

flash debug

Build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

Configuring a Debug Probe

A debug probe is used for both flashing and debugging the board. This board is configured by default to use the MCU-Link CMSIS-DAP Onboard Debug Probe.

Using LinkServer

Linkserver is the default runner for this board, and supports the factory default MCU-Link firmware. Follow the instructions in MCU-Link CMSIS-DAP Onboard Debug Probe to reprogram the default MCU-Link firmware. This only needs to be done if the default onboard debug circuit firmware was changed. To put the board in ISP mode to program the firmware, short jumper keep SW3 pressed during power-up or reset, then release it.

Configuring a Console

Connect a USB cable from your PC to J16, and use the serial terminal of your choice (minicom, putty, etc.) with the following settings:

  • Speed: 115200

  • Data: 8 bits

  • Parity: None

  • Stop bits: 1

Flashing

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b frdm_mcxl255/mcxl255/cpu0 samples/hello_world
west flash

Open a serial terminal, reset the board (press the RESET button), and you should see the following message in the terminal:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.3.0-2208-gcf34f44c1e18 ***
Hello World! frdm_mcxl255/mcxl255/cpu0

Debugging

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b frdm_mcxl255/mcxl255/cpu0 samples/hello_world
west debug

Open a serial terminal, step through the application in your debugger, and you should see the following message in the terminal:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.3.0-2208-gcf34f44c1e18 ***
Hello World! frdm_mcxl255/mcxl255/cpu0