Adalink ARM CPU Tool

Tool to automate flashing ARM CPUs with new program code using a Segger J-link or STMicro STLink V2 device.

Currently supported cores:

atsamd21g18
lpc824
lpc1343
nrf51822
nrf52832
nrf52840
stm32f2

Installation

There are three options for installing and using adalink:

Use a pre-built standalone binary distribution. See the releases tab for the current release for each platform (Windows, OSX). You don't need Python installed for this option to work, but you will need JLink and/or OpenOCD tools installed. You will also need to manually add the downloaded adalink executable to your system path so the command is available from any terminal.
Download the source and run it directly with Python. This is a good option if the binary distribution doesn't work and you don't want to install the code globally. You will also need JLink and/or OpenOCD tools installed. Jump to the Running Without Installation section to learn more about this option.
Install from source using the setup.py script. This is useful if you're developing or modifying adalink code. You will need JLink and/or OpenOCD tools installed. Jump to the Install from Source section to learn more about this option.

Once you've installed or downloaded a release of adalink see the Usage section for information on how to use it.

Running Without Installation

To run the tool without having to install it simply clone the repository, navigate to the repository's folder in a terminal (i.e. the directory with the setup.py file) and run:

python -m adalink.main

This will invoke the program as if you ran the adalink command. All the command line parameters, etc. are the same and specified after the -m adalink.main part of the command.

Note that you will still need JLink and/or OpenOCD executables in your path--see the Install JLink and Install OpenOCD sections above.

In addition you might need to manually install the click module. Using pip run sudo pip install click (omit sudo on Windows) to install this module, then try running adalink as describe above.

Install from Source

On Linux and MacOS run:

sudo python setup.py develop

On Windows run:

python setup.py develop

Note that currently the setuptools 'develop' mode is used because of an issue/bug under investigation.

Install J-Link Tools

To use the Segger J-Link programmer you must install Segger's J-Link tools. Note that there is currently no version of Segger's tools which will work on a Raspberry Pi--check out the STLink V2 programmer if using the Pi.

Once the tools are installed you must make sure they are in your system path. On Windows the tools are by default installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\JLink_V496h so add that to your path. On Linux and MacOSX the path is the location of download.

To check if JLink's tools are in your path, on Linux/MacOSX try running JLinkExe or on Windows try running JLink in a command Window. If you receive a command not found error then carefully check you have the JLink tools installed and in your system path.

Install OpenOCD

To use the STLink V2 programmer you must install OpenOCD version 0.9.0. Below are the easiest options for installing OpenOCD on your platform:

Debian, Ubuntu, and Raspbian (Raspberry Pi)

Run the included install_openocd_debian.sh script to download, compile, and install OpenOCD 0.9.0 automatically. After cloning this repository navigate to it in a terminal and run:

chmod +x install_openocd_debian.sh
./install_openocd_debian.sh

The script will download, compile, and install OpenOCD. When if finishes you should see a message such as:

=====================================
Successfully installed OpenOCD 0.9.0!
=====================================

Note that on a Raspberry Pi that installation will take around 30 minutes to an hour as the code is compiled.

Mac OSX

On Mac OSX the easiest way to install OpenOCD 0.9.0 is with the homebrew software installation tool. After installing homebrew open a terminal and execute:

brew install openocd

If you already have homebrew installed make sure it has up to date formulas for building software by first running:

brew update

Then run the brew install command above to install openocd. This will ensure you get the latest 0.9.0 version of OpenOCD.

Windows

On Windows the easiest way to install OpenOCD is with an unofficial pre-built binary package. Download the OpenOCD 0.9.0 package from here, open the archive (using 7zip). Then add the extracted openocd-0.9.0\bin or \bin-x64 (if on a 64-bit operating system) path to your system path.

When using the STLink V2 programmer with OpenOCD on Windows you will also need to use Zadig tool to force Windows to use a libusb driver for the STLink device. Follow the basic usage here, but look for an STLink device and install the libusbK driver for the device. This driver installation only needs to be done once for the STLink device.

Uninstall

If you installed adalink using its setup.py you can uninstall it using the pip package manager. Note that if you are running adalink from a stand-alone binary or directly from its source then you just need to delete the files to remove it.

You can install pip by downloading and executing the get-pip.py script here.

Then run the following to uninstall adalink:

sudo pip uninstall adalink

Note on Windows the sudo part of the command should be omitted.

Usage

Once installed run the following command to see the usage information:

adalink --help

There are two command line parameters which are required when using adalink. The first is a positional argument that specifies the CPU core to program. You can see a full list of supported cores by running the --help command above.

The second required parameter is the --programmer option which chooses the programming hardware to use to communicate with the chip. Once you've chosen a CPU core you can see the supported programmers for it by running the --help option again, for example to see the supported programmers for the nRF51822 run:

adalink nrf51822 --help

The --programmer option shows both the jlink and stlink options are available:

-p, --programmer [jlink|stlink]
                                Programmer type.  [required]

You can also see other options for the core which represent available actions to perform, such as listing information or programming a hex file:

-w, --wipe                      Wipe flash memory before programming.
-i, --info                      Display information about the core.
-h, --program-hex PATH          Program the specified .hex file. Can be
                                specified multiple times.
-b, --program-bin PATH ADDRESS  Program the specified .bin file at the
                                provided address. Address can be specified
                                in hex, like 0x00FF.  Can be specified
                                multiple times.

To perform one of the actions invoke adalink with the core parameter, programmer option, and the desired action option. For example to wipe a nRF51822 board and program it using a JLink with a bootloader, soft device, app, and app signature hex file you can run:

adalink nrf51822 --programmer jlink --wipe --program-hex bootloader.hex --program-hex soft_device.hex --program-hex app.hex --program-hex app_signature.hex

You can also issue the --info command to try to retrieve basic info about the connected nRF51822 device, which can be done with the following command (again assuming the JLink programmer):

adalink nrf51822 --programmer jlink --info

Which should give you a response like the following (depending on the device connected to the J-Link):

Hardware ID : QFACA10 (32KB)
SD Version  : S110 8.0.0
Device Addr : C1:99:FC:D9:8A:D1
Device ID   : ****************

Note: Make sure the JLink device and board are connected and powered before running the command!

Common Problems

Windows Path Errors

If you get an error on Windows trying to run adalink (ex. adalink nRF51822 --info), you likely need to add the Python Scripts folder (ex C:\PythonXX\Scripts) to your system path so that Windows knows where to find the adalink.exe file generated by setup.py.

The exact path is displayed in the output when running setup.py, for example:

Installing adalink-script.py script to C:\Python27\Scripts
Installing adalink.exe script to C:\Python27\Scripts

If it isn't already present, you may also need to add the J-Link binary folder to your system path so that adalink can run JLink.exe, which is used to communicate with the J-Link via generated script files.

Depending on the version of the J-Link drivers you installed, the folder to add to your system path should resemble the following:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\JLink_V494f

Can't find CPU core when using STLink programmer on Windows

If you receive an error that adalink can't find the desired CPU core when using an STLink programmer on Windows you might not have the programmer setup with libusb correctly. Follow the steps in the OpenOCD Windows install section above to use Zadig tool to install a libusb driver for the STLink device.

Extending AdaLink

adalink is built with a modular structure in mind and can be extended to support new CPUs and programmer types without much effort.

Adding new CPU cores

Look in the adalink/core.py file to see the abstract base class that each core needs to inherit from and implement. Each core implementation should be inside the adalink/cores folder and the core should be imported explicitly inside the adalink/cores/init.py file.

Each core needs to at a minimum implement these functions:

list_programmers - This function should return a list of strings that define the available programmers for the core.
create_programmer - This function will be called with the chosen programmer type (a string provided by list_programmers) and expects a programmer instance to be created and returned. For example if a user chooses the jlink programmer option then create_programmer is called with 'jlink' as the parameter and the function should return a programmer instance that uses the JLink to program the core.
info - This function is called if the user runs the --info option. The selected programmer instance is passed to the function and it can be used to read parts of the core memory and display them. It is entirely up to each core to choose what information it reads and displays with the info function. The default info implementation will do nothing.

The logic to program and wipe the memory of a core is defined by the core's programmers. There are generic JLink and STLink programmer implementations available and they can be subclassed by a core to provide a custom programmer that performs core-specific commands to program or wipe a core. See the nRF51822 core for an example of building a STLink-specific core to program and wipe the nRF51822.

Adding new Programmers

Look in the adalink/programmers/base.py file to see the abstract base class that a programmer needs to implement. You can also see the provided concrete programmer implementations in the adalink/programmers directory, like jlink.py and stlink.py.

Each programmer needs to implement the following functions:

is_connected - This returns True if the programmers is connected to a CPU and False if not connected.
program - This function takes a list of hex file paths and will program them to the CPU.
wipe - This function will wipe the flash memory of the CPU.
readmem32, readmem16, readmem8 - This function takes an address and returns the 32, 16, or 8 bit value at that address.

To add support for a programmer to a core make sure the core's list_programmers function returns a string that identifies the programmer, and the core's create_programmer function builds an instance of that programmer when requested.

Producing Binary releases

To build a standalone binary release for Windows, OSX, etc. you can use the PyInstaller tool. This tool will package up the adalink source into an executable that can run without python or other dependencies being installed.

To produce the binary first install PyInstaller (typically using pip). Then download this source repository for adalink, open a terminal, navigate to the root of the source and run:

pyinstaller --onefile adalink.py

This will point PyInstaller at simple adalink bootstrap script which helps it find all the dependencies and package up a standalone executable. When PyInstaller finishes it will output the executable in the dist directory.

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