STM32 Non intrusive variable display & change tools

[wolf]

Hi all,

i want to share some findings on non intrusive variable display and setting on STM32 and Windows OS:

I'm using/evaluating 2 software solutions right now:
Commons:

Both read the *.out file of your project and let you select the variables you want to display / alter
Both are Windows applications - sorry for the Linux guys. I didn't try wine or alike - I’m not really familiar with that
I'm using XP Pro, no experience with W7 or W8. I'm mostly using IAR EWARM 6.5+


1.) Micrium uc/Probe (http://micrium.com/tools/ucprobe/trial/)
PROs:
* Free trial version on Micrium homepage (Limited to 5 variables)
* Can display and alter variables on the fly
* Commercial version is 99$ or 80€ (really worth it - convince your boss! - no limitations)
* Nice display features - sliders - gauges - bar - dial - number - graphs - and more
* Very nice: from IAR EWARM 6.50 on, it can hook to EWARM and WHATEVER Debug interface is connected! (TCP connection to local host)
IAR EWARM trial versions available for free download. Works w/ 30day and code size limit version!
* It is able to run stand alone with a JLINK adapter, i.e. no IDE/debugging session running
* Multi page setup for different variable groups
* Pretty fast update (depending a bit on computer hardware, RAM..). Much faster than Live Watch in EWARM for example
* Handles Float and Double - without problem. For Double, atomic access is not guaranteed, i think

CONs:
* Uses Nalpeiron Service, seems to slow down start-up
* User interface is not very reactive, but once it’s running its Ok
* Can't resolve access to arrays, i.e. display Sample[2]. Work around with union for small arrays OK, but annoying
I complained about this. They promised to look into for the next release


2.) STMStudio (http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/251373.jsp)
PROs:
* Free download from ST Homepage - just Google it (Doc available and OK)
* Can display and alter variables on the fly
* Several display modes - graph - point - table - bars
* It can do calculations using formulae (Logic, Statistics, Trigono..)
* It does statistics - MIN - MAX - STD Dev.. by the push of a button
* It can resolve arrays and structs on demand

CONs:
* Uses Java, looks a bit nervous when displaying graphs. Needs update to lateat JRE if not installed
* Can't handle Float and Double (yet?)
* Atomic access to variables is explicitly not guaranteed (see doc)
* The settings seem to depend heavily on HW. Setting up the update rate seems to lead to anything


Summary:

Quite strong tools for the price (even if you buy it). Combining both - there is not a lot CONs left.

Have fun!

Wolfgang

[Tectu]

This is very interesting. I thank you very much for your time to write this post.
I still hope that the GFX project will once look that fancy as the µC/Probe does, even if it's not meant for the same purpose


~ Tectu

[talsit]

I never really considered a tool like this! It's really helpful. Thanks for doing the legwork.

Another Con for the STMStudio is that it doesn't work over JLink, though that's hardly surprising.

[talsit]

These tools, they can only really look at global variables, right?
So there's a big case to be made to make your variables global so they can be seen by tools like this.

[Giovanni]

Making your variables global just for inspection is not a very good idea, unless you like non-reentrant code.

Giovanni

[talsit]

I'm not talking about all variables, just important state ones, things that would benefit from run-time inspection.

[Tectu]

I'm not sure if you need such a fancy GUI toolkit to display values, when you just want to display states.


~ Tectu

[juan.benavides]

Wolfgang, the new version of uC/Probe doesn't use the Nalpeiron service anymore. Moreover, it supports arrays and it has a lot more features than a year ago including:
- More communication interfaces: USB, CMSIS-DAP, Cypress PSoC 5LP.
- Supports mapping a global variable to a cell in Excel spreadsheet.
- Data logging.
- MQTT for IoT devices.
- More controls and indicators.

Regards,
Juan.