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7 years, 7 months ago.
Can i make my own PCB without mbed interface chip?
The .bin files the mbed Microcontroller accepts are standard raw ARM binaries, and can be generated by any compiler you like. You have bare-metal control of the target microcontroller, as the separate interface manages programming over JTAG i.e. we don't use a bootloader or monitor on the target. So you really are just loading on a raw binary. This means you can build your own PCB using the same target microcontroller, and the same program binary will run on that.
Does this mean I can use usb port of target chip directly to compile program without using mbed interface?
2 Answers
7 years, 7 months ago.
Not normally. Generally you would need to use a JTAG or some other form of programmer to get the compiled firmware into the device.
There are exceptions. Some parts have a serial bootloader built in to the main processor, that allows you to upload the firmware over a serial port if the part is either blank or if certain conditions are met on startup. There are also some parts have a USB bootloader built in and so can take an mbed bin directly.
It depends on the part you are using. If it's the LPC1768 then that part has a Serial bootloader built in but not USB, see the manual for details on how to use it.
7 years, 7 months ago.
Seconding what Andy said. We also have DAPLink which is what most dev boards use to program the target processor. You can use DAPLink interface with an external programmer (similar to JTAG) using a debugging probe like SWDAP by adding 10 pin Cortex-M debugging header to the final board.