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Mechanical Engineering The University of Adelaide Australia

Wytec Dragon12 Development Board

Code Examples

This page provides links to a number of useful code examples for on the Wytec Dragon12 development board (freescale MC9S12DP256B/C) and/or the Wytec MiniDragon+ board.

Quick links:

HCS12 Serial Monitor Using Freescale’s HCS12 Serial Monitor on Wytec Dragon-12 boards
Protected programs Installing HCS12 Serial Monitor with protected user programs on the Dragon-12
SerMon on MiniDragon rev. D Installing HCS12 Serial Monitor on the MiniDragon+ (rev. D boards)
SerMon on MiniDragon Installing HCS12 Serial Monitor with protected user programs on the MiniDragon+
BDM-Multilink interface Programming the Flash of the MC9S12 using a P&E BDM-Multilink cable
RTMC9S12-Target A MATLAB/Simulink real-time target for MC9S12DP256 based systems
Laboratory handouts 8 introductory laboratory handouts
Lecture notes 8 introductory laboratory handouts
CodeWarrior Stationery A CodeWarrior stationery for the Dragon-12 with the HCS12 Serial Monitor
Dragon12 examples A collection of CodeWarrior sample projects for the MC9S12DP256 (C-language) – Dragon12 board
MiniDragon examples A collection of CodeWarrior sample projects for the MC9S12DP256 (C-language) – MiniDragon+ board
GNU gcc examples GNU gcc based examples (m6812-elf-gcc)

HCS12 Serial Monitor

This link provides instructions for replacing the on-board monitor program DBug-12 by Motorola’s HCS12 Serial Monitor. The latter is useful when working within the Metrowerks CodeWarrior IDE. The HCS12 Serial Monitor provides full access to CodeWarrior’s source level debugger Hi-Wave. Updated hc12.ini and CW12_PARTID_0033.cfu files to work with the Dragon-12 boards up to Revision E have been included. Two sample projects are provided, test_led and test_led_revE for Revision D and older, and Revision E boards respectively.

Protected programs

This extension of the above project allows the installation of two ROM resident system programs which can be launched via the on-board switch SW7\2 of the Dragon12 board. SystemProgram1 provides a comprehensive self-assessment of the MC9S12DP256B/C – this program uses features of a protective circuit board we have developed to safeguard our Dragon12 boards against the worst student abuse. The protective circuit board features two serially loaded D/A converters which are used to test the A/D converter unit of the microcontroller. The circuit diagrams as well as the PCB layout have been included with the documentation. SystemProgram2 simply displays the board ID on the LCD-display of the Dragon12. Both programs are in the protective area of Flash ROM (extended to 8 kByte); the total size of both programs must be less than 6 kByte. It is possible to extend this to a maximum of 14 kByte.

SerMon on MiniDragon rev. D

This is an adaptation of the above project for the MiniDragon+ revision D board. This board has a dedicated load/run switch.

SerMon on MiniDragon

This is an adaptation of the above project for the MiniDragon+ board. Two ROM resident system programs can be launched via the on-board switches SW1 and SW2 of the MiniDragon+ board. At present, SystemProgram1 simply displays a ‘1’ on the 7-segment display; SystemProgram2 displays a ‘2’. Both programs are in the protective area of Flash ROM (extended to 8 kByte); the total size of both programs must be less than 6 kByte. It is possible to extend this to a maximum of 14 kByte.

P&E BDM-Multilink interface

This short tutorial explains how to re-program the Flash, both protected and unprotected, of the MC9S12 using the P&E BDM-Multilink interface and the HC12 Flash programmer PROG12Z (http://www.pemicro.com).

Laboratory handouts

The following lab handouts have been written for and tested with the Dragon12 boards:

Lecture notes

The following lecture notes complement the above laboratory sessions. The make reference to the Infineon C167 microcontroller. However, all introduced topics can easily be transferred to Freescale MC9S12 based systems (e.g. the Dragon-12). The accompanying programs can be run in simulation mode using the KEIL Integrated Development Environment mVision (3.0); a code-size limited evaluation version of this IDE can be downloaded from the KEIL web site.

CodeWarrior Stationery

The above programs are all based on the following CodeWarrior stationery:

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Stationery for Dragon12, flat memory model

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Stationery for Dragon12, Revision E, flat memory model

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Stationery for MiniDragon+, flat memory model

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Stationery for DragonFly, flat memory model

Dragon12 sample programs

The following sample programs accompany the above lab handouts:

Latest modifications and additions:


19/06/07 A Free Real-Time Operating System, from www.FreeRTOS.org. The API for FreeRTOS is well documented and available from their website. It has been slightly modified from the HC12 demo port available from the FreeRTOS website, and requires a slightly modified version of the serial port monitor, which is supplied in the zip file. This port can be easily adapted to the MiniDragon+, for more information see the README file inside the zip file. This port is provided by Zebb Prime.
28/09/06 Reliable radio communication using Nordic nRF24L01 radio modules (2.4 GHz, nominal data throughput up to 2 MBit/s). A nice little transceiver module can be obtained from SparkFun Electronics: Transceiver MiRF v2 - nRF24L01 Module RP-SMA. The code, provided by Stephen Craig, is extremely robust. Temporary loss of connection is taken care of as well as transmission errors, etc. The top-level functions provide a simple interface, allowing data to be pushed onto the transmission buffer / popped from the reception buffer. The rest is taken care of by the underlying drivers. For more information about this project see the following README file.
09/05/06 PWM revisited, changing channels now works properly (a flag didn't get cleared before), code supplied by Stephen Craig
16/09/05 Fixed channel selection bug in PWM program
12/08/05 Added routines for EEPROM and Flash ROM access (code written by George Wong)
08/08/05 Added sample code for a Sonar Range Finder (Devantech, SRF08 – code written by George Wong)
06/05/05 Fixed Pulse-Width Modulation program (didn’t run properly at faster rates)
03/05/05 Fixed serial communication at low speeds (now works down to 300 bps)
28/03/05 Added sample programs to demonstrate the use of ring buffer based background communication
28/03/05 Added sample programs to demonstrate the use of the PWM unit
28/03/05 Added sample programs to demonstrate multi-channel A/D conversions
28/03/05 Updated all A/D based projects to use the corrected A/D complete conditions (CCF0 for single channel conversions)
17/02/05 IIC bus interface of all projects involving the D/A converters now actually clears the IBIF flag.
17/02/05 Stepper motor driver program (requires hardware driver circuit).
17/02/05 Sample project for the LCD module (code: Prof. Louis Bertrand, Durham University, Canada).
17/02/05 Serial communication routines for SCI1 now include support for signed and unsigned data types.
12/08/04 Serial communication tidied up… both ports now work at all baud rates up to 115 kbps.

Sample Programs:

MiniDragon+ sample programs

The following sample programs work on the MiniDragon+ board:

Latest modifications and additions:

02/10/06 The code of the Underwater Planar Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicle (PVTOL) project (provided by Zebb Prime) has been added to the web page. This project centred around a control rig under construction for the demonstration of advanced non-linear control theory. Among the modules included in the code of this project are routines for wireless communications using RF 418 MHz transmitters, RF 916 MHz receivers as well as a Microstrain 3DM-GX1 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU).
02/10/06 Reliable radio communication using Nordic nRF24L01 radio modules (2.4 GHz, nominal data throughput up to 2 MBit/s). A nice little transceiver module can be obtained from SparkFun Electronics: Transceiver MiRF v2 - nRF24L01 Module RP-SMA. The code, provided by Stephen Craig, is extremely robust. Temporary loss of connection is taken care of as well as transmission errors, etc. The top-level functions provide a simple interface, allowing data to be pushed onto the transmission buffer / popped from the reception buffer. The rest is taken care of by the underlying drivers. For more information about this project see the following README file.
16/05/06 Simple radio communication through SCI1 at rates of up to 1200 bps, code written by Stephen Craig. The code has been tested with a set of inexpensive radio modules (transmitter: Laipac TLP434A, receiver: Laipac RLP434A); these Amplitude Shift Key (ASK) radio modules work in the license exempt band around 433 MHz. The code is fairly generic and should work with other modules as well. Ring buffers are used for efficient background communication.
09/05/06 PWM support functions, code written by Stephen Craig
22/09/05 Sonar Range Finder, calibrated (5 cm – 70 cm, +/- 5%)
22/09/05 Simple ‘Hello World’ program

Sample Programs:

GNU gcc examples



Frank Wornle (frank.wornle@adelaide.edu.au)
School of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Adelaide

October, 2005