FRDM-KL46Z

FRDM-KL46Z

The FRDM-KL46Z is an ultra-low-cost development platform enabled by the Kinetis L series KL4x MCU family built on the ARM® Cortex™-M0+ processor. Features include easy access to MCU I/O, battery-ready, low-power operation, a standard-based form factor with expansion board options and a built-in debug interface for flash programming and run-control. The FRDM-KL46Z is supported by a range of Freescale and third-party development software.

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. Features

3. Where to buy

4. Firmware

5. Getting Started with mbed

6. PC Configuration

7. Downloading A program

8. Hello World!

9. Where Next

10. Technical Reference

Overview

The FRDM-KL46Z has been designed by Freescale in collaboration with mbed for prototyping all sorts of devices, especially those requiring the size and price point offered by Cortex-M0+ and the power of USB Host and Device. It is packaged as a development board with connectors to break out to strip board and breadboard, and includes a built-in USB FLASH programmer.

It is based on the Freescale KL46Z, with a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ core running at 48MHz. It includes 256KB FLASH, 32KB RAM and lots of interfaces including USB Host, USB Device, SPI, I2C, ADC, DAC, PWM, LCD Controller, Touch Sensor and other I/O interfaces.

The FRDM-KL46Z is fully supported in the mbed platform, so it gets access to the free tools and SDK that provides experienced embedded developers with powerful and productive tools for building proof-of-concepts. The pinout above shows the commonly used interfaces and their locations. Note that all the numbered pins (PT_XX) can also be used as DigitalIn and DigitalOut interfaces.

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Features

• Freescale KL46Z Kinetis KL4 MCU (MKL46Z256VLL4)

o High performance ARM® Cortex™-M0+ Core

o 48MHz, 32KB RAM, 256KB FLASH

o USB (Host/Device)

o SPI (2)

o I2C (2)

o I2S (1)

o UART (3)

o PWM (6)

o ADC (6)

o DAC (1x 6bit, 1x 12bit)

o Touch Sensor

o GPIO (84)

o LCD Controller

• FRDM-KL46Z Onboard Sensors

o MMA8451Q - 3-axis accelerometer

o Capacitive touch sensor

o MAG3110 - Magnetometer

o LCD-S401M16KR - 4-digit, 4x8 segment LCD

o Visible light sensor - ALS-PT19-315C/L177/TR8

• Evalution Form factor

o 81mm x 53mm

o 5V USB or 4.5-9V supply

o Built-in USB drag 'n' drop FLASH programmer

• mbed HDK & SDK enabled

o Drag-n-drop programming

o USB Serial Port

o CMSIS-DAP

o Online development tools

o Easy to use C/C++ SDK

o Lots of published libraries and projects

• Status

o Production

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Where to buy

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Firmware

FirmwareUpdate

A new interface firmware image is necessary to mbed-enable Freescale FRDM boards

• Step by step firmware upgrade instructions

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Getting Started with mbed

1. Connect your microcontroller to a PC

Use the USB lead to connect your mbed to a PC. The status light will come on, indicating it has power. After a few seconds of activity, the PC will recognise the mbed Microcontroller as a standard USB drive.

Windows XP example Mac OS X example

2. Click the MBED.HTM link to get logged in

Go to the new USB Drive, and click MBED.HTM to open it in a web browser.

If you do not have an mbed account, choose "Signup", and create your mbed Account. Otherwise, log in with your normal username and password.

This will give you access to the website, tools, libraries and documentation.

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PC Configuration

Your mbed Microcontroller can appear on your computer as a serial port. On Mac and Linux, this will happen by default. For Windows, you need to install a driver:

Windows

See Windows-serial-configuration for full details about setting up Windows for serial communication with your mbed Microcontroller

From a host PC to communicate with mbed you will need a terminal application. This allows the mbed Microcontroller to print to your PC screen, and for you to send characters back to your mbed.

• Terminals - Using Terminal applications to communicate

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