Lighting A Coldfire With Netburner

The main difference is that the MOD5270 has an Ethernet interface while the MOD5213 does not. This means all communication between the IDE is handled through a slower serial port. JTAG is an option that is supported, but a JTAG emulator is not included with the kit. A special JTAG cable connector is required to handle the pinouts on the module.

Installation and setup is very quick and similar to the MOD5270 with the exception of the Ethernet configuration. The NNDK has a couple of manual command line steps in the installation, but they are minor and are only done once. While it’s possible to use other IDEs like Eclipse with CDT support, setup is much more complex. Stick with Netburner’s standard platform if you can.

Having the µC/OS operating system and Netburner support application pre-installed means that reaching the first development plateau is trivial. Just connect power and the supplied serial cable, run a terminal program (MTTY is included), and you can communicate with the module within minutes. Building and downloading an application from the small set of examples is possible in less than half an hour, including software installation. That takes care of plateau 2.

Creating my own application using the Netburner Wizard could not be easier. Basic serial support is trivial to implement so hitting plateau 3 was almost a no brainer. If you have an application in mind already and are comfortable with C/C++, then turning out something with practical feedback in a day is quite reasonable. It will take more time to evaluate the peripheral complement than working out the compiler and debugging details that often bring the initial work on other platforms to a crawl.

Overall I found Netburner’s solution to be very nice. The software on the module is very powerful and part of the package, so it is just a matter of buying and programming modules for deployment. Development is very practical using only the serial interface for most applications, although the ramp up for JTAG debugging will be significantly greater due to the kind of debugging and development this implies. The job will be significantly easier if you are not messing with µC/OS.

I would not be surprised to see the MOD5213 module showing up in a range of applications from robotics to process control. I am looking forward to moving my little marvel to a new home with wheels.

Read next review: Sticking It To The Developer