Stellaris Programming (Hardware) - A Step by Step Guide

Abstract

This guide will take you through the steps to program your own Stellaris board. Each step builds on the last. This way, you can verify each piece of your toolchain using a setup that is known good.

Plug in Kit. See it run.

• EKS-LM3S8962

I like this kit because it has two boards. The first board (with the LM3S8962) will eventually be our In-Circuit Debug Interface (ICDI). The second board (with the LM3S2110) will stand in as our target board until you substitute it with the Stellaris board you have designed.

• Connect the LM3S8962 board to your computer using the USB cable. All we need is power, so you could also just plug this USB cable into a USB charger like what you would use for your phone.
• Observe the pre-loaded default program run.
• Now you have confirmed the kit hardware works.

Download StellarisWare.

• StellarisWare

Here's your firmware starting point. This gives you a generous head start to testing and developing with Stellaris parts.

• Install StellarisWare to the default location.

Program kit using LM Flash programmer.

• LM Flash Programmer

LM Flash Programmer is an easy way to try out StellarisWare examples without the overhead of an indegrated development environment of Code Composser Studio. This is ideal for quick demonstrations.

• Install LM Flash Programmer
• Run the blinky program for EKS-LM3S8962 from C:\StellarisWare\boards\ek-lm3s8962\blinky\ccs\Debug\blinky.bin
• Now you have confirmed that programming the kit works.

Program kit using Code Composer Studio.

• Code Composer Studio
• From the resource explorer import the blinky project used in the previous step
• Launch the debugger and run the program.
• Now you have confirmed that compiling and programming using CCS works.

Use kit to program another kit.

• See LM Flash Programmer help from the start menu
• Connect the 20 pin cable from the LM3S8962 board to the LM3S2110 board.
• Modify blinky.c to run on the LM3S2110 board. This involves two steps. Change the include to be lm3s2110.h then change the port and pin that toggles the LED throughout the code.
• Launch the debugger and run the program.
• Now you have confirmed that you can use a Stellaris kit as an ICDI, for another target board.

Modify StellarisWare to work on your board.

• Modify blinky for your target board. For example change the include to be lm4f231h5qr.h if you use the LM4F231H5QR device on your board.

Connect the kit to your board.

• Take a look at the schematic for the LM3S8962 board. This is in the User's Guide for the EKS-LM3S8962. Observe how the 20 pin connector on the LM3S8962 board is setup compared to the 20 pin connector on the LM3S2110 board (target board). Make the connections to your board from the LM3s8962 as though your board was the LM3S2110 board.

Use kit to program your board.

• Launh the debugger and run the program.
• Now you have programmed your Stellaris board.